This is a field report of my first ever free camera. I found the Ricoh online in our local marketplace listed by someone who wanted to give it away. I am glad he gave it away because I would have probably not paid for it and missed out on a cute and potent camera.
Once I had the camera and checked that it worked (and it did, even the light meter) I loaded a roll of Foma 100 in it and shot the whole roll in a couple of hours around the local harbor. Despite being a free camera (at least for me), it produces results of very high contrast and sharpness. Like a modern film camera, and very much like the various Minolta rangefinders I have owned. I used a deep yellow filter to get a bit more contrast, but the sharpness and the depth of some of these photos are quite impressive. Look at the one of the sailboat!
Sometimes small cameras can surprise you. When I saw this camera, not knowing much about what it was, I saw for myself something like Olympus Trip 35. I have owned several Olympuses. I think the results from this Ricoh so far are far superior. In addition, the Ricoh offers a fully manual mode, which the Olympus does not. I think the Ricoh is aesthetically nicer that the Olympus, which is wildly popular online.
