Ricoh R1

Ricoh R1 Overview

The Ricoh R1 is a fairly high-end compact 35mm point and shoot camera that was also rebadged and sold under license as the somewhat poorly named Rollei Prego Micron. The R1 won the 1995 Camera Grand Prix Special Prize.

As the wording around the lens barrel suggests, the R1 has two lens options: a 30mm f/3.5 macro and a 24mm f/8 for panoramic shots. Unfortunately, there isn’t quite enough room for two actual lenses inside the slim body. Instead, toggling the switch on the back of the camera to “P” brings down shutters that physically crop the frame and setting it to “WIDE P” engages a mechanism that inserts more lens elements that “convert” the 30mm into the 24mm. Many R1 users jam the shutters for uncropped access to the 24mm which has heavy vignetting and soft corners. The camera’s automatic shutter has a range of two to 1/500 seconds and can take film from ISO 50 to 3200.

I was so excited when I found this Ricoh buried in a plastic tub at a thrift store and was even more excited when I saw that it only cost $3. Although made mostly of plastic, the aluminum front plate gives the slender Ricoh a surprisingly solid feel. This is unfortunate because my R1 doesn’t actually work. I popped in a spare CR2 battery when I got home and discovered that the lens just didn’t want to come out, thus rendering the entire camera inoperable. What a bummer.