Ricoh KR-5: Glamorgan Canal

Finally got around to using the Ricoh KR-5 I’ve had stowed away in a drawer for the best part of a year, and I’ve got to say I’m impressed with the results. This thing cost me £8 on ebay, the body feel’s quite light for an SLR of it’s time, there’s metal in it somewhere but it sure does look and feel mostly plastic. To be honest the reason’s for this are probably because it’s a very basic model, likely entry level, I’d suggest that as there are not many speed settings, the fastest being 1/500 and the slowest being 1/8th. It does have a self timer which works fine and a light-meter which doesn’t. The lens it came with is a Riconar 55mm 1:2.2, so not the fastest of 40-50 ish mm primes you tend to have as standard on camera’s of these type, and it feels very cheap, it practically weighs nothing and like the camera body is very plastic feeling. So perhaps that’s why I’m impressed, it’s cheap and cheerful but seems to do the job nicely if that’s what you’re looking for. Below is a selection of photo’s taken on a roll of Agfa Vista Plus 200, all are at F8 and 1/125th sec.

 

   My personal favourite in this selection is this last one with the fours duck’s lined up on the log, I just like the repetition of them in a row along with their reflections.