I know, the title is very misleading. But this weekend I got a Ricoh 500G from my friend Ronald. Thank you man. I know that you are a Ricoh man in your heart despite using the Sigma DP1. It is a small rangefinder camera from the seventies with a nice and small f/2.8 40mm fixed focal length lens. Don’t mistake this with their current Caplio 500G. A nicer Sigma DP2 in my opinion with a similar focal length.
But I should also thank Ronald’s friend Khio for keeping this camera in such a mint condition.
In the meantime more rumors appear about the soon to be announced Olympus m4/3 camera. The possible name could be E-P1 where the P could be a reference to their PEN series cameras from the past. The official announcement day will be June 15.
All photographs by Wouter Brandsma
Wouter Brandsma 
Ha lovely title! Enjoy it, watching it, working with it. The soon to be announced olympus might be great, and indeed now that i’ve touched your ricoh, I wish Sigma and Ricoh would join forces to make great cameras for photographers.
Yeah, Ricoh could make up for everything Sigma fails at 😀 In the meantime I am getting pretty exited by the Olympus camera.
Soon I will get some film and try the 500G.
That’s a sharp looking camera! And you are absolutely correct; it appears to be in mint condition.
Strange… Ricoh is not and hasn’t been a big name here in the States for camera equipment. Or maybe it simply wasn’t a big name where I lived while growing up in the 70’s.
I personally don’t know, but they are improving their availability in the States. They produced some really fine cameras and they are a major player in Japan.
Congrats!!!
What an Exquisite Cam….Lovely
Happy Shooting-
Best-H
It is such a nice camera Helen. Quiet and small. Thank you 😀
and of Course I forgot to Mention…..
FILM LIVES !
Cool!
I was scanning some old negatives the other day, and was amazed by the sharpness of the ones I took on my old Olympus 35D and SP. I had a kind of fad of collecting (and using!) old olympus rangefinders back in the early ninties/late eighties (when they were already fairly retro, but cheap). Those 40mm lenses were terrific, I think in part because of no need to be retrofocus designs. I imagine the rikenon will be just as great!
I agree David. These seventies rangefinder cameras were really good. Are you going to post some of those old scanned negatives on Smugmug? Love your photographs of the town of Newton by the way!
Cheers,
Wouter
Thanks, Wouter!
Newtown is sort of roughly where I live; it has become quite fashionable, but many of the Victorian terrace houses that characterise the area look derelict still. About half of the ones that look derelict have had incredibly expensive renovations inside, but the owners like the derelict look outside! The other half really are derelict.
As for the rangefinder scans, ask and you shall receive.
http://dbm305.smugmug.com/gallery/8428038_EtoF5#553734844_gr8v7
Portraits from the late eighties (some rangefinder, some OM)
cheers
d
Thanks for sharing David. Wonderful work.
Great News !
Very happy to see better & better Life Record ！
It really looks like a fun camera mookio.
Heey Wouter,
Veel plezier met deze camera 🙂 Het lensje is op 2.8 bestwel verassend scherp als je je focus echt goed hebt liggen!