Ricoh 35 Flex
Ricoh 35 Flex (Selenium) image by David Broglin (Image rights) |
Ricoh 35 Flex (CdS) image by AWCam (Image rights) |
The Ricoh 35 Flex was an SLR fixed lens leaf shutter camera marketed by Ricoh in 1963. It was actually the first SLR made by this company.
It is equipped with a fixed Ricoh 4-element 2.8/50 lens and a Seikosha between-the-lens leaf shutter.
A selenium lightmeter gives the correct exposure and a fully automatic mode is available. In this case, it is not necessary to set the speed or aperture, the lightmeter controls these values; in manual control, the user can adjust aperture and shutter speed using sliders underneath the lens, with the values visible in a window on top of the lens barrel.
In c.1964, the selenium meter was replaced by a CdS meter, a model now referred to as the Ricoh 35 Flex CdS.
The 35 Flex was also sold by Sears as the Sears SL-9 (both selenium and CdS versions) and by Foto-Quelle as the REVUE REFLEX CDS.
Links
- Ricoh 35 Flex manual on Mike Butkus' site
- Photos of the Sears versions on Mike Butkus' site
- Sears SL-9 variant photo on Flickr by Xjx1998