Mine has a sticky focus, which is an inconvenience for now, but if I were to use it more often it would definitely get a re-lube first. That, and the loose screws in the winding mechanism need to be locked with some enamel polish, after of course I source some replacements for the ones that got away.
But it’s a beautiful, well built camera with a good lens and shutter. The auxiliary lens set looks great, and performs okay (I’ve seen much worse), but the leather cases are losing their green felt flocking, so I’ll need to find some other carrier for them. Since I hadn’t thought to bring a lens cleaning kit with me, I couldn’t get the flocking off the lenses, and that may have affected their performance.
Test was performed with Ilford FP-4 Plus 125, and for the first three frames a Ricoh yellow filter was attached to the lens. If you look at the whole album, I denote which ones had the filter, and any corrections made to exposure or framing.
One of my pursuits, the old “front porch” gas station
Redwood Gas Station by P F McFarland, on Flickr
Using the auxiliaries
Wide-Normal-Tele by P F McFarland, on Flickr
A back lighting shot
Methodist Steeple by P F McFarland, on Flickr
Still life in metal
In The Pile by P F McFarland, on Flickr
When the clouds won’t cooperate, I take their photo
Waiting For The Light by P F McFarland, on Flickr
Art
Symbolic by P F McFarland, on Flickr
The camera
Ricoh 500 ver 2 by P F McFarland, on Flickr
See all the photos with narration at https://flic.kr/s/aHskuWiw1g
PF
