Ricoh XR X 3PF

Nice camera with a lot of features for the price. Why did Ricoh stop making cameras?

Lots of features for the price. Auto wind and rewind, auto DX, built in pop-up flash, etc.

Some K-mount lens will not allow all features. Short battery life. Plastic body not as strong as XR-7.

Ricoh XR-7

None needed

This is the last full featured camera Ricoh made in the US before the company stopped making SLR cameras. Before considering it, I looked over a review in the July 1995 issue of Popular Photography. When I purchased the camera, I was impressed at the fact that it has so many features, some lacking in more expensive autofocus cameras of the same class, such as auto DX, PC synch terminal, multiple exposure capability, auto bracketing, built in TTL flash with flash compensation, top shutter speed of 1/3000 sec, AE Lock, spot metering, center-weighted metering, DOF Preview, conventional auto modes (shutter, aperature priority & Program-shiftable), and option to prevent film from being rewound into cartridge. It''s too bad Ricoh stopped making this camera in the US. You''d be hard pressed to find another manual focused camera with as many features as this one has.

Accepts Pentax K mount lenses; light weight, but durable plastic body; accepts four AA batteries; spot metering; AE lock; multiple exposure capability (unlimited # of frames); built in flash w/flash compensation; synch terminal for studio flash; DOF preview even with lens set on A; lots of LCD info on external panel

A setting on Pentax lenses not operatable; Ricoh XR lenses with "P" setting hard to find for shutter priority and program modes; LCD viewfinder display sometimes hard to see in daylight.

Pentax LX, MX, MG, Super Program, ME super, Ricoh XR7, KR-5III

None needed so far.