Ricoh KR-5 Super II camera

I started this forum for any collecting hobby and it turned into my camera collecting and using forum. I use it mostly to keep a record of my photo adventures. Nobody but me seems to have photo adventures that visit here....but however. I have so many cameras now that I forget which is which and which ones work and which ones don't. If you have cameras and adventures you would be welcome to post here.

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Niner
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Ricoh KR-5 Super II camera

Post by Niner » Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:23 pm

Another ebay you pays your money and you takes your chances camera. Well... total with shipping $18.00. I figured that at worst case I could use the lens that came with it as it is standard Pentax bayonet mount. And ... a friend gifted me three manual Pentax bayonet mount lenses recently I wanted to try out on a different camera from other bayonet mount Pentax cameras that I own.

The camera itself was introduced in 1993 by Ricoh and made by Cosina. Despite the fancy name it was pretty basic and pretty much another mechanical shutter no auto priority program camera. There were a couple of "super" features. The top speed was 1/2000th of a second instead of the general run of manual camera top speeds of 1000 and the meter was LED with plus and minus red lights and a green dot for good to go...and not the K1000 arm that bounced around between over and under with shutter or aperture adjustment. There is the pull the advancing lever away from the camera thing before the meter will turn on to protect the batteries.....a feature I really hate. And... it has a shutter timer if you want to get in the photo. And the best thing of all....it was all black...which was then and has remained a style feature that seems to be desired.

Took it out to the park before a grocery store run. Problems started when the meter lights proved to have a short in the power supply. Sometimes it would work with light pressure on the shutter and sometimes not. Think it may be correctable with some pencil end rubber to contacts or some more working the shutter. After I was done shooting it seemed to work every time.

Then I had another problem not the camera's fault. I mixed up a new batch D76 developer and I didn't wait long enough for it to get to more or less room temperature. I just guessed 7.5 minutes instead of the usual 8 minutes. Must have been warmer solution than I was thinking because I over developed the roll by probably 30 seconds. But...I got some decent shots. The last two I'll show here have that fuzzy grainy look because the negative was too dark to get the correct detail.

The bottom line is....what I paid for it is about what it's worth.
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Niner
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Posts: 11519
Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2003 1:00 pm
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Re: Ricoh KR-5 Super II camera

Post by Niner » Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:48 pm

I went back and looked at what I posted. I think I like the fuzzy goose picture with the crappy over development dark negative. Wonder what it would look like at about poster size? :bigsmile:
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