XR Rikenon Zoom 35-70mm F3.5

I was intrigued enough by this Ricoh lens to buy a lot of camera stuff that mostly proved to be disappointing -

who sells screw mount lenses with a K mount camera? And they had fungus anyway. But the Ricoh XR7 that came with

it is an interesting film body, like a ME Super but with a few extra features. And this lens has proven to be

quite fun, despite missing its rear plate and thus its aperture coupling. I though it might prove to be the

elusive "perfect walk around lens", not sure I am there yet, but it is definitely one I will hang on to. The

constant aperture makes it more effective in low light than most of my lenses in the 60-70mm range, and it does

have a "macro" feature (1:4?) albeit at 35mm. I am not sure about the coating, direct sunlight seems to drop

contrast significantly, I will probably need to find a hood, and of course it is all manual (with "stop-down

metering" or whatever is worse). It is solidly built, and so big enough that it isn't ideal for a "walk-around",

although I haven't been out walking with it yet. But I would recommend grabbing one of these if it ever crosses

your path. At a reasonable price, of course. :-)

 

I have heard very good things about the Ricoh line of lenses. Does anyone ever use them on their Pentax cameras?

I am aware of the pin issue, luckily this lens didn't have one.

 

Stuck home and indoors with a sick kid. Here are some samples.<div></div>

And<div></div>

And finally<div></div>

Oh and an uninspired attempt at "macro".<div></div>

Don't know much about the Ricoh lenses, but no doubt having above-average speed and nice manual focussing at 70mm is nice compared to a slow 55mm f/5.6 kit lens (at the long end of the zoom). I have used a Pentax A 35-70 f/4 for similar purposes.

I have a Rikenon P 35-70 3.5-4.5 that I love. I use it mostly on my Program Plus, shooting black & white film in aperture priority mode. 35-70 is a perfect street length.

 

I actually haven't tried it on my *ist DL, so I don't know if it holds up as a colour/digital lens. It's quite serviceable for B&W, but it does lose contrast in open sunlight. Can't beat SMC for that...

 

I love the look and handling of the lens. It's a perfect match to the lines and materials of the Program Plus. All sleek early 80's black colour and sharp lines.

Careful with the pin if it has one, David. But I will say I quite like this lens on digital. It is missing its rear plate, so I think I am getting some internal reflections in addition to just flare, as in some shots the contrast plummets far beyond what I would expect even for a single or uncoated lens. But barring those, it makes some great shots.

 

I was inspired to order an F 35-70mm 3.5-4.5 zoom, just so I wouldn't have to input the focal length each time to use SR. We'll see how that works out when it gets here. In any case, here are a few more sample shots! Thanks for looking.<div></div>

Another<div></div>

Okay, I am done<div></div>

Fair warning Nick. The first thing I did was to remove the Ricoh pin, before I put it on ANY camera.

 

I've done that operation on at least three lenses now. It only takes a few seconds, and you've got a serviceable K-

mount with no worries!

 

Nice shots -- I like the colour rendition very much. Now I'm inspired to try it in colour. Hmmm... I just loaded a roll of

UC100...