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WernerJB
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2006 - 03:05 pm: | 
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Hi everybody, this is my first encounter with a Ricoh 35 L. Does anybody know of traps like left-hand threads or other pitfalls ? |
WernerJB
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 09:07 am: |
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Cured it from all its diseases, no pitfalls at all, but I find cameras from the 60's a bit more complicated than those later 70's and 80's models: a lot more levers, discs and coupling rings.
Fixed the defective shutter: one of the bades had somehow come off, blocking everything. Re-installed a broken pin to keep the shutter and exposure coupling disks in their place, repaired the fxcked-up winding mechanism, undented the body and cleaned and adjusted the RF. It is a fine camera, even the selenium meter still works perfectly. And it has no rotting light seals at all, but is so cleverly designed that stray light has no chance. (The downside of that is the huge body, you can't have everything.)
One question is still open: it has a "Ricoh S-Kominar F:2 f=4,8 cm". I thought Kominar was a Mamiya brand name ?! (I have a Mamiya Super Deluxe with a 2/48 Kominar).
Can anybody please help clarify the matter ? |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 07:34 pm: |
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I do not know how Mamiya became involved in the Kominar brand name, but in TLR boom of the 50s/60s I am sure that Kominar were a manufacturer of optics in their own right. For example Walz produced their Envoy 35 range finder with a 7 element f1.9 Kominar - a very good lens, also various TLR with Kominar optics.
As with other Japanese optical companies of this period, perhaps they eventually amalgamated with their main customer (Mamiya), but still provided optics to other camera manufacturers initially.
As it seems that most of their other customers were mainly TLR makers, who went bust/were taken over as the demand for TLR cameras fell. This demise was fuelled by the rise in popularity of the 35mm SLR. So Mamiya probably bought them out in the late 60s, thus owning the brand name. |
WernerJB
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 06:27 am: |
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Thanks, Glenn, for your input. Provided you are right, the "S" in the name of the lens could mean "Sekor", a name used for Mamiya's lenses. Later Super Deluxe 35mm cameras carried glued-on name plates on which the original name (engraved capital block letters) had been replaced by Mamiya/Sekor (this gave those cameras a somewhat shabby appearance).
Maybe somebody else knows of more details ? |
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