you know, whenever im walking the streets, whether it be in my home town or another country, there are a few things that are absolute requisites when looking for candid shots.....weight, size, speed and unobtrusiveness, period!

by that i mean a camera which is small and light enough to carry in your front shirt pocket, one that is quick, both to draw from your pocket and to shoot with, and one that when in use, will hardly draw any attention to itself.

like you, ive used many cameras for street shots...some have clucky shutters that could wake a sleeping elephant....some are so shiny that you could use them to send an SOS signal to an airplane from a deserted island...you know the story...

but the one i want to talk about today is one that fits all the right categories.....its the ricoh gr1.

the ricoh gr1 comes in several different guises, the one i use is the gr1s.

the designers at ricoh certainly went to town on this one....it has everything that demanding users cry out for....autoexposure, autofocus, motorized wind and rewind, and an electronic flash with daylight fill-flash capability.

but lets talk about the bodywork first of all. as we all know, cameras that are used constantly, need to be capable of handling this daily usage. in this case, ricoh came up with  die-cast magnesium for its body...this makes it very light indeed, but also very tough, not mentioning that magnesium is one hell of an expensive metal in the first place!

that magnesium body is then covered witha tough rubbery compound, that makes it easy to handle and grip, as well as acting as a demi-disguise, as in the black version like mine, its hardly visible when in use.

then we come to the heart of any camera, film or digital...the lens!

in this case, ricoh followed the very same guidelines and funding availability as did the olympus 35sp designers....basically, design and build an extremely high quality lens system, regardless of cost!

so ricoh went for a stupendous lens that very few high class cameras had seen then or now....it sports a 28mm f2.8, 7 element, 4 group system with pure glass, not plastic elements. as i mention, there are very few lenses in the world today as good as this!

and youll be pleased to hear that the ricoh has been designed to be used confidentally by anyone, newcomer or professional.

one of its beauties is the SNAP setting...what this does is to lock the lens at its hyperfocal distance, that magical setting on any lens at which 99% of your shots will be perfectly sharp and clear, without focussing! of course, this setting happens to be ideal for street shooting and one that i have always used.

another wonderful thing is the way the camera loads your film....when you place your film in it and close the lid, it actually winds out all the film, and then sets itself up for your first shot...what that means is if for any reason you decide to open the camera back while the film is still loaded, you will not lose any of your valuable shots, as they will already be in the cassette....neat and clever, indeed, eh?

so....in a nutshell, what you have here is a very, very desirable miniature camera indeed, and one that is getting very rare to obtain in good used condition.

want one? have mine then....im downsizing my collection and need to create some space (not to mention buying the wife a present to placate here after all these years of nagging me about my film hobby..!!).

heres what im giving away with it:

3 filters, including one very useful polarising filter, the original box and carry case plus original lens hood.

UK Price: £346.95 plus £4.99 shipping

USA/Canada price: US$537.85 plus $25 shipping

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