Ricoh Suave

Ricoh GR1

Thanks to a reader, I'm getting to see what all the fuss was about with the GR1. Tiny, flyweight magnesium body, instant-on, fast wide-angle glass, manually-adjustable exposure; it's popular with street photography hipsters for a reason. Waiting on a test roll to come back from The Darkroom.

It's the only camera I've ever used that "prewinds". When you insert a new roll of film, the camera motors it all onto the takeup spool. Then as you take each shot, it goes back into the canister. So at the end of a roll of film, instead of a long bit of motor whirr as it rewinds, there's only a little "vwipp" as it reels in the leader. As a bonus, should the back get opened in mid-roll, the pictures you've taken are already safely inside the film canister.

(Local Walgreens and Amazon sell 24-exposure rolls of 200 and 400 ISO Fuji in 4-packs . I've been using the 200 just to see if a camera runs okay or not.)