Sears KS 500
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| KS 500 listed in the Spring/Summer 1980 Sears catalog scanned by Voxphoto (Image rights) |
Immediately following on from the KS 1000, US retailer Sears offered the KS 500 in its 1979 Spring/Summer catalog[1] at a price of USD $239.50 (about $800 in 2021 dollars). This was the second K-mount camera offered by Sears and once again is a rebadging of a Ricoh model—specifically the KR-5 (no suffix).
The initial roughly 13% price savings versus the "1000" seems to have helped sales; but there were quite a few features sacrificed to get there. Available shutter speeds are limited to 1/8 to 1/500 second plus B (with flash sync at 1/60th), there is no depth-of-field preview, and no "ME" (multi-exposure) switch. Neither shutter speeds nor aperture are displayed in the viewfinder. (In place of the KS 1000's aperture "peepsight" on the front of the pentaprism, there is a plain blanking plate.)
The film advance lever of the KS 500 must be pulled outward to unlock the shutter release and activate match-needle exposure meter readings, with power provided by two silver-oxide button cells (type 357 or SR44 are suitable).
The KS 500 had a comparatively long run in Sears' lineup (until mid-1982) as their entry-level SLR option, with the camera's price dropping over time.[2] The autoexposure Sears KS-1 eventually superseded it as Sears' cheapest K-mount option.
Notes
- ↑ A scan of page 581 shows it alongside the KS 1000 as well as a rebadged Mamiya SLR; from Musetechnical's "Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks."
- ↑ It was below USD $150 by the Fall/Winter 1980 catalog, pg. 1312, and in Spring/Summer 1982, pg. 725; scans courtesy Musetechnical's "Christmas Catalogs & Holiday Wishbooks."
Links
- An online owner's manual for the Ricoh KR-5, from Mike Butkus' OrphanCameras.com
