C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Ricoh XR-1, introduced in 1978, is a manual-exposure 35mm SLR built around the Pentax K bayonet mount. It is Ricoh's first camera in the XR series, a line the company developed after adopting the K mount as its standard interchangeable-lens system. The XR-1 makes no pretense of automation: shutter speed and aperture are set entirely by hand, and the camera's only electronic contribution is a metered-light indicator inside the viewfinder. The vertical metal Seiko shutter provides a top speed of 1/1000s, appropriate for the amateur market the camera targeted.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
Ricoh's 1978 K-mount entry: a fully manual SLR with a vertical metal Seiko shutter and no automatic exposure.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm (24x36mm) |
| Mount | Pentax K bayonet |
| Shutter | Vertical-travel metal blade (Seiko), 1s - 1/1000s |
| Flash sync | 1/100s |
| Meter | TTL center-weighted |
| Exposure modes | Manual only |
| ISO range | 25 - 1600 (manual dial) |
| Viewfinder | SLR pentaprism |
| Focus aids | Split-prism / microprism / matte |
| Battery | 2x LR44 / SR44 |
Ricoh had used the M42 screw mount for its earlier SLR line, including the Singlex and Singlex TLS. When Pentax introduced the K bayonet mount in 1975 and opened it to third-party manufacturers, Ricoh adopted it for the new XR series beginning with the XR-1 in 1978. The K mount offered faster lens changes, a larger practical market of compatible glass, and a clear line of differentiation from M42 bodies.
The XR-1 established the template for the XR family: compact aluminum construction, metal-blade shutter, and K-mount compatibility. Successive models in the line -- the XR-2, XR-7, and later XR-X and XR-P -- added aperture-priority and program modes. The XR-1 itself remained purely manual and was aimed at the introductory end of the market, where simplicity and low cost were more important than convenience features.
The XR-1 is significant primarily as the starting point of Ricoh's K-mount SLR lineage. Its adoption of the Pentax K mount meant that buyers could share lenses between Ricoh and Pentax bodies, and with the broader ecosystem of K-mount glass from Tokina, Sigma, and Tamron. This interoperability gave budget SLR buyers options that pure proprietary mounts of the era did not.
The vertical metal Seiko shutter was a step up from the cloth horizontal shutters common in lower-cost cameras of the period, offering improved durability and flash synchronization consistency. For photography teachers and students in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the XR-1's all-manual operation made it a defensible teaching tool at a price point below Pentax and Nikon equivalents.
The XR-1 accepts any lens with the Pentax K bayonet mount. This includes:
Accessory support is minimal: a standard hot shoe accepts electronic flash units, and the standard PC sync socket provides additional flash connectivity.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Ricoh XR-1
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