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I have a standard C-4 and like it quite lot.

Your photos are very nice!

I thought you’d say Ricoh. There were several so-called second tier models around and K-mount and M42 were super-common among them. These cameras were major contributors to the heavily ad laden camera magazines. At the time half to two-thirds of a magazine was advertising. Sears stuff when I come across it is usually excellent and several top-quality brands supplied Sears. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the camera is super-good but-budget priced. Great that Sears never cheaped out and sourced serious kit to put their name on.

I’m seeing a lot of K-Super IIs and they don’t have the shutter speed dial with numbers, this model would be better, right? Are the Supers a less advanced model? They seem to be cheaper. Thanks for your help!

9:59 I knew it! I've been looking at these off and on, even though I don't need another camera. It's good to hear your recommendation.

A Ricoh XR-10 was my first ever film SLR I love this camera to death it’s my little workhorse

It would be dismissive to criticise this camera. In the 1980s if your excuse the English soccer league terms. There were premier league camera and championship camera makers. Whilst Ricoh along with chinon and Cosina manufactured k mount s.l.r,s. Some of which were extremely capable such as the XR-7. My favourite camera emanating from this period is the Mamiya NC1000s a shutter priority single lens reflex camera using mamiyas on cs mount. Nonetheless a good camera which I still use today.

In 1980, I was interviewed for a job at Travelers Canada. The VP of Group Insurance came to lunch, and asked all the usual questions. He also noted that my hobby was photography. My camera was a Yashica FR 2. When he asked why that camera, I said that the camera could take Zeiss lenses, and that the body was secondary to the lens on the camera. That statement had me working at Travelers insurance for 5 years, and 2 promotions. The VP was also the President of the Canadian Vintage Camera Club.

Ha, by the ISO dial and the film advance lever I could see it's a Pentax, because their new Pentax 17 has those aswell. (Ricoh owns Pentax)

So much fun! And drama! Thank you!

Fundamentally, it matters not what you shoot with in terms of brand. Amongst others, I have an old Zenit - it takes incredible photographs - but even with the most expensive, , technologically advanced equipment, there cannot be any guarantee of a well-taken photograph - that distinction lies purely with the person behind the lens. I (also) prefer weightier bodied cameras, hence my proclivity for old Nikons. I enjoyed the anticipatory brand reveal tho' - thank you !

It has a lot of features that were on my Ricoh XR2S -- about 1980 model, so I was waiting for a Ricoh reveal. My wife had researched SLRs before we bought it, and a number of people with experience of SLRs suggested Ricoh was a better choice than Nikon or Canon in terms of features, quality and price.

You have a very low opinion of your audience. You must be a kindergarten teacher.

I could be wrong, but I think Magnum photographer Martin Parr used one of these quite often.

Excellent choice! I also bought a like-new Sears KS2 with that lens on it. In the bag were several rolls of Fuji film, a 135 2.8 lens in unused condition, just like the camera. Down inside one of the bag pockets, I found a 55mm f2.8 Nikkor macro lens! The kicker? Bought the whole kit for $25! (Good thing most of my other cameras were Nikons.)

Consider reducing the number of times you use the word "camera" by about 90-95%. We know it's a camera.

My very first SLR was a SIGMA SA-1, which is a rebadged XR-7. I couldn't have been luckier in choosing that camera to learn on. I still use it to this day, though over time the frame spacing has gotten a little bit inconsistent.

Nearly 30 instances of the word "camera"in the first 2 minutes...🤦🏼‍♂️

Sears early branded cameras were sold as Tower brands. They sold many different cameras by the Tower name, and there are serious Tower camera collecters out there.

I knew from the first second it was a Ricoh, just not which one. My first camera when I was 12 was a KR5. I bought another one a few years ago with the 1.7 lens. That lens is as sharp as anything I have ever used.

I have several Ricoh cameras and prefer them to the pentaxs the XR-10 is my go to camera right now and considering I own around 100 different slrs that says alot😊

Ok, you got me. I was betting on a Konica judging by the type font on the lens, however in the 80's Ricoh made excellent cameras for very reasonable prices. I even bought my mother a Ricoh camera when her old 1940's Kodak failed. I assume most Pentax lines would fit but I'm not sure who else used the "K" mount.

It's a Ricoh KS-2 / XR-7 BTW.

360p? I can't even read the dials.

This is very interesting to me. I was vaguely contemplating getting an ME Super as an aperture priority partner to the Pentax MX I'd been using nearly three decades. As you went through the features I started to think, "please let this be a K-mount." The shutterspeed controls are way preferable to the ME Super (and in fact better than the MX since I imagine you can change them with just your index finger like on a Minolta). I'm not American but I imagine the Ricoh version is likely available in my country. So I'll be looking out for it. Just a pity it doesn't have a 1/200th with that metal shutter but otherwise it's pretty much my whole wishlist.

you lost me when you won't reveal the brand of the camera early on.

Nice video . A break from your usual stuff for sure but it’s not a bad thing . I have quite a few very old and very “oddball “ cameras as you call them but I also often want the extra fine adjustments and versatility that you get with a regular SLR so no surprise I collect those too . Have have the Ricoh version of this one which I actually bought because of the Shutter speeds, exposure lock and the K mount as I have a lot of K mount lenses. My version cost €37 and it is fantastic

Sears/Ricoh cameras are probably the best bang for the buck I know of in the film SLR manual focus world. Of course Pentax are great as well, but a Ricoh/Sears can get you into the Pentax K mount with most of the bells and whistles you'd ever need for a fraction of the price. My personal favorites are the Ricoh A100 Super (same as KR-10 Super) for electronic shutter or if you'd rather something mechanical.... there is the superb KR-5 Super II. With either of these and a handful of K mount lenses and you are off to the races for the fraction of what an AE-1, K1000, or FE/FM that are oft recommended to beginners.

There was a second tier of film camera makers over the years, populated by Chinon, Cosina, Ricoh, Mamiya and others. Mamiya made equipment under their name until the 1960s, when then shifted to making cameras for rebranbd by others. After a decade, they shifted into using their own brand and moving to medium format cameras. Ricoh made lower quality, had a few rebranding deal with others (Ansco) during the 1960s, then lower featured cameras on their own into the 1970s. Then they shifted to a mix of selling higher quality units like this one while rebranding the same goods for sale by others. Chinon always made middle class, non-innovative cameras for rebranding, later selling a few of their models under their own name. As here, some of these cameras can present an incredible bargain, but you need to watch out for antiquated TTL metering systems, use of batteries no longer available, and long abandoned lens mounts (unless you plan to build a system based on selected, high quality lenses in that mount, the M42 screw thread mount being the best example). These cameras can take a photo which is just as good as a camera branded Nikon or Canon. The difference is the photographer, not the camera.

Good info. I have several KR5 series Ricohs. They were very inexpensive and still very nice to use.

Wow! You stirred up a memory. The instant you held it up, I recognized it. When I was 13, I saw it in the Sears photographic equipment catalog. I sooooo wanted an SLR then but even this camera was out of reach. Anyway, really neat that you decided to review it. Also love the pictures, especially the first three. Have a great day and keep the videos coming!

Either you got very lucky, or the asking price on EBay tripled or more since this video came out.

The Rolleiflex SL35SE (or E, I can't remember which) had a 16 second speed on the dial which is why I loved it so much, made night photography a breeze. Now using the Ricoh XRX which I originally had many years ago and managed to pick up on EBay.

I guessed. Ricoh, but not the XR7

Impractical yet I want one. Unaware TLR were made That Tiny. Very Cool pre action Cam. Idea ahead of its time waiting for Technology To catch up.

So, do you want a rangefinder or a SLR? Yes! Joles aside, I guess that you can focus better with the rangefinder in some conditions

for this great camera it's a real shame that they don't reconstruct films for these

Thanks very much for this thorough exploration/explanation. I just picked up one of these this week at a local thrift shop, and marveled to myself in the aisle: "A TLR? *And* a rangefinder?" I encountered some of the same confusion you mentioned, trying to assess whether the shutter was operational -- that sprung pin was fiddly indeed, without a roll of film in the camera to trigger its retraction. But I'm glad I got it -- more so having seen this video -- and am now extra excited to finish shooting this first roll of film and see the results. I went with (also very expired) Kodak Tri-X.

When using flashbulbs for film camera, how to set the aperture and shutter speed?

Thanks for the very interesting video!

Of course the Swiss would come up with a camera this complex and beautiful

Love this camera to bits! If anyone happens to know someone that can repair a Koni Omega and their lenses would be greatly appreciated!

This is great presentation about these very underestimated cameras. I own a few of them with all available lenses (which give superb results). It's worth to mention that Rapid Omega M was sold in Japan under name Konica Press 2.

Good Afternoon, Thank you for this video! I have a NO.A-122 and always wanted to retire from photography to do photography. Not retired yet but needed a spark. So I am placing my 122 into action. I decided to go a different route than the 122 film... I found roll adapters - 3d printed btw. and am going to put 120 through it. First I'm going to put a roll of 35 through just to see if shutter and focus are functioning as they should. Thank you for the details in your video, I am surprised that even in the bright snow you are using f45 at 8s. WOW... I have to run the gamut and take notes on time and conditions. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Alyssa Bolsey (Jacques' great-granddaughter) made a terrific short film about the man-"Beyond The Bolex". Worth checking out.

is light can distrupt matter ? i just saw the upper part glitching

Freaky! I heard the sound of the flashbulb firing in my head. If you know, you know 😂

Hello, I bought recently the Half 17 rapid camera. However, the camera only has one of the rapid cardtriges. I have been trying to find some supplier or where to get one, but i could not find anything. Do you have any advice or reference where i could get one online? Thanks a lot. Great work

I have several cases of Press 25 flash bulbs which I bought cheap along with a case of M3 bulbs and 15 boxes of AG1 bulbs. I am 80 years old and still have my Brownie Hawkeye camera from 1951 which I shot hundreds of Press 25 with. I still use press 25 bulbs with my Rolleiflex and 4x5 Crown Graphic cameras. In the late 1960s I was shooting weddings on the 4x5 with flashbulb and still use that combo today for shooting sports group photos at two schools I shoot for. The kids love when I shoot flashbulbs. Even some of their parents never saw them. One of my favorite ways of shooting is using the Honeywell Tilt-a-mite angled back at 45 degrees. Half the flash lights the front of the groups and the other half bounces off the ceiling creating a fantastic soft almost shadowless light in the room. Modern photograhers can keep their digital cameras. I hate digital. Love film. The digital camera turned bums into photographers and photographers into bums. I LOVE THE SMELL OF FLASHBULBS IN THE MORNING.

I found one of these at a garage sale and bought it! Where can I get this film?! Thank you for sharing