The Ricoh Auto 66 Works With a Dead Meter

I've been reluctant to get involved with auto exposure TLR's since a bad experience with a Rollei Magic. But this Ricoh Auto 66 looked to be in great condition and was, according to the seller, in working order. It came with its original black leather case and plastic lens cap and was indeed practically mint. It's only semi automatic, you have to turn the setting knob until the exposure meter needles match.

 

Sadly the meter proved to be dead, and I found various opinions that it wasn't usable in that condition, for example here:

 

Ricoh Auto 66

 

It took me a while to realise that it could indeed still be used, by measuring the exposure value with a hand held meter and entering it manually. There are two control knobs under he lens board. The normal setting knob is operated by the left hand and controls the exposure. It is marked with a values from 8.6 to 17. I believe it sets both aperture shutter in a continuous programme from 1/30 at F/35 (EV8.6) to 1/250 at F/22 (EV 17). I can only guess at the intermediate settings but I suspect that EV13 is 1/125 at F/8. The manual isn't exactly helpful about all this, Ricoh clearly intended it as a point and shoot camera with little scope for manual intervention.

 

The setting knob in addition to EV's has positions for flash at 1/30,and B, engaged after moving a small button between the knobs. When turned to either of these, the aperture is set on the right hand knob, which otherwise has no function.

 

 

Despite its rather futurist style the Auto 66 is pretty conventional, with a large knob for film advance, and a separate shutter cocking lever at the side of the lens. It has Ricoh's twin lever focusing with a window showing the distance, and a reasonably bright Fresnel with the usual magnifier and sports finder.

 

The pictures are from Leicester's Western Park.Thanks for looking as always.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice job, John. Ricoh, like Yashica, made TLR's that offered a lot of performance and features for the price. Thanks for sharing.

Nice, as committed as I am to 35mm, the 6cm format is so nice, especially in B&W. Well done.

Excellent results, John. Ricoh/Rikenon lenses are certainly good performers, in my experience. That's a really interesting camera, and I'll have to admit that I like it's rather steampunk appearance. Thanks for the post.

Like Rick said..excellent results. I'm very envious. I would love to get that tone on my stuff...

I know what you mean ..about regretting buying a "automatic" thingy that has a dead meter and is otherwise a door stop. Although you have figured out the secret EV codes... the effort involved .... well.. practice makes perfect. Excellent rendering for sure!

Thanks to all for the comments. When I scanned the Shanghai film on my Epson 4870, I made the mistake of accepting the auto exposure set by the scanner, resulting in very high contrasts (although it was that sort of day). I rescanned the first one only - of the tree and staircase - setting the levels manually, and got a much nicer range of tones. I've cropped it and printed it at A3, ready for a landscape competition. I don't suppose the judge will take into account the extra effort needed over and above a modern digital picture though.