Took My Ricoh 500 to a Car Show

 

About a month ago I had the opportunity to attend the Edge Motorfest car show that was put on by the Edge Motor Museum here in Memphis TN. I don't usually wait a month to have film processed, but inadvertently opening the back of the camera mid-rewind has a tendency to take the wind out of your sails for processing the film. Luckily, I was closer to the beginning of the roll than I thought when I opened the camera and only lost the first 6 frames.

 

From previous posts by other CMC members, it seems that there are quite a few of us that also enjoy classic cars, so I thought I'd share a few pictures from the day. I was a bit rushed during my time there as I had my two daughters with me who were, shall we say, less enamored with the whole affair than I was. As a result these are pretty much just snapshots. I definitely plan to revisit the museum at a later date and take more time with my compositions.

 

All the exterior shots were taken handheld at f11, 1/125th with the exception of a few engine bay shots where I opened up a stop and a few images from inside the museum which were taken at f2.8, 1/60th if I remember correctly. Film was Ektar 100, processed by the local lab and scanned on an Epson V600. Minimal processing was applied, mostly involving placing a black point on something black and saving to jpeg. I left the unsharp mask setting active in the Epson software, but no other sharpening was applied.

 

Probably my favorite from the show, a '71 Hemi 'Cuda.

 

A closeup of the hemi engine and the "Shaker" air cleaner.

 

A modern LS engine in the engine bay of the Nova in the first image. I left this image pretty much untouched to highlight the flare I was getting from the chrome in some of the shots. Not sure if this is characteristic of these cameras or if I was less than diligent when cleaning the elements of the lens after getting the leaf shutter going a few months ago. The lens hood that came with the camera did a fine job blocking flare from things outside of the frame.

 

'70 Plymouth GTX (I think)

 

There were a few motorcycles. Not sure of the year on this Indian.

 

Not all the cars at the show were shiny.

 

It's not a Dodge Monaco, but this Ford Galaxie cruiser reminds me of the Blues Brothers just the same.

 

'55 Chevy Bel Air, probably my favorite of the tri-five Chevys

 

A supercharged engine in another '55 Chevy

 

Staying with the Chevys, this one a '57 hardtop. I think that's a '69 El Camino behind it.

 

Tri-powered Pontiac GTO

 

A Chrysler Cordoba and a 40's Ford

 

I don't know why, but I have a thing for MG's. There were a couple of E-type Jags at the show as well, but those pics were among the ones exposed when I opened the camera.

 

'67 Corvette with a 427, my dream car as a kid

 

One of these things is not like the others.

 

A couple of shots from inside the museum and I think I'll wrap this post. This is a Muntz Jet, a car I had never heard of before.

 

The museum is pretty small. This is the main display area. The '53 corvette is on a turntable.

 

That's it folks. I created a Ricoh 500 gallery in my profile that has a few more images that I didn't include here, should anyone be so incline to see more.

Great camera and some fine photography. I really like the Ricohs of this era; to my eye they are handsome cameras, and undeniably very well built. I like the "trigger" film advance, too, though it takes a few frames before I feel comfortable with it. The "Five One Nine" with the Rikenon 50/1.9 lens is probably my favourite. Thanks for sharing the pics, and I have to admire your courage in taking daughters to a car museum!

What better way to shoot classic cars than with a classic camera. :) Fine results from the Ricoh and nice job scanning the Ektar.

Good pix + the Ricoh 500/519 have been favorites of mine for over 60 years...I've had over 7 of them, still have one working and two for parts, sold the 519 though - somebody offered oo good a price to pass up. The 500 went thru, as est as I remember, 3 model changes during its relatively short production run. There's also a 300, with a top shutter speed of, you guessed it, 1/300. The triggermatic winding action was advertised in the 1950s as being as fast as a movie camera, FWIW.

Family.

 

still more Ricoh models

Thanks for the replies everyone. I’m interested in opinions of those that have used this camera on how you feel about the focusing levers. I’m sure I could get used to them with more usage, but they were the only thing on the camera that didn’t fall naturally to hand. Otherwise the camera was very enjoyable to use.

I love the focusing levers...they make focusing quite fast. I've taken a hint from Ricoh's design and used split adhesive focus tabs on some of my other short throw SLR lenses and a couple of LTM ones too. Makes focusing not only quick, but allows very quick back and forth minor focus adjustments.. This is a copy of the final version which I recovered, and it got a lot of attention at a local farming festival.

Edited November 7, 2021 by SCL

The focus levers are not my personal favorite, but you can adjust yourself to them. The cameras are much better than people think they are when they haven't tried them.

 

e.g., Ricoh 500 (version 2)

Good camera. Had one years ago, the Leicavit type advance was a brilliant feature once you got used to it!

Great photos - love classic cars, and motorcycles. I would love to ride that Motorcycle with that matching sidecar.

Just saw a 519 f/s on the big auction site for $150 USD.

I have the Sears version of the Ricoh 500, the 35RF, bought a few years ago for some pittance or less. Since people may not realize just what it really is, it's worth keeping an eye out for this version.

Nice photos! I love cars and basically all things Moto, and enjoy seeing what other folks' perspectives at car shows and places where cars and bikes are on display