Ricoh Auto 35 (1960)

A fixed-focus, selenium-metered compact that started a twenty-year Ricoh line - and got copied behind the Iron Curtain.

Overview

The Ricoh Auto 35 is a 35mm fixed-lens viewfinder camera, made in Japan by Ricoh and introduced in 1960. According to cameracollector.net, the line "began in 1960 with the Ricoh Auto 35 and lasted for about twenty years till it was succeeded with Ricoh's fully automatic point-and-shoot models." So the Auto 35 is where Ricoh's compact line starts, and the ancestor of everything that follows in the brand's snapshot lineage.

The Auto 35 has a specific, period-correct idea of automation. The lens is a 40mm f/2.8 - a Riken Ricoh 40mm 1:2.8, three elements, per austerityphoto.co.uk, and "a fixed focus 40mm f2.8 lens" in the words of one YouTube review. Focus is fixed, spanning roughly five feet to infinity, so the photographer's job is framing, not focusing. Exposure is automatic, driven by a selenium light meter feeding what austerityphoto.co.uk describes as "a selenium driven auto exposure system using a trapped needle mechanism." Ricoh's own manual puts it in the marketing language of the day: "According to the amount of light entering the CIRCULAR LIGHT WINDOW, the built-in electronic brain automatically computes and adjusts the camera for correct exposure in a split-second."

It is a small, self-contained machine for color film. The Manualzz documentation states plainly that "It is designed for color photography." Camerapedia notes "The camera design was very original for a Japanese camera," which is rare praise in a category where most compacts of the era looked alike.

Key Features

40mm f/2.8 Riken Ricoh Lens, Three Elements

The lens is the camera's central fact. Forty millimeters sits just wide of normal on 35mm. It is close enough to how the eye sees that imprecise framing is forgiven, and wide enough to be useful indoors and on the street. The f/2.8 maximum aperture is modest by later standards but generous for a fixed-focus compact of 1960, and it is the reason the camera can shoot in less than full sun. The three-element construction is simple, which means fewer surfaces to clean and fewer things to go wrong. Junktion NZ lists it simply as "a 40mm f/2.8 lens," and one vintage listing describes a "Clean 4cm Riken lens" - the same glass, in centimeters, as was common in period advertising.

Fixed Focus from Five Feet to Infinity

There is no focus ring to turn. Junktion NZ describes "a fixed-focus system ranging from 5 feet to infinity," and the Manualzz documentation repeats the claim almost verbatim: "fixed focus for sharp images from 5 feet to infinity." This was a deliberate design decision, not a shortcut. With the lens set at its hyperfocal distance, everything from five feet outward lands in acceptable focus. The cost is that anything closer than five feet is out of the question - no close-ups, no macro, no tight portraits. For a camera meant to be handed to anyone and pointed at anything, that trade is the right one.

Selenium Meter and Trapped-Needle Auto Exposure

Junktion NZ describes "automatic exposure powered by a selenium light meter," and austerityphoto.co.uk goes further into the mechanism, calling it "a selenium driven auto exposure system using a trapped needle mechanism." A trapped-needle system lets the meter's needle swing freely until the shutter release is pressed. At that moment the needle is clamped, and the aperture is set to match wherever it landed. It is a mechanical solution that predates electronic auto exposure by years. A vintage listing adds one useful detail: "Featuring auto aperture exposure via selenium cell lightmeter surrounding lens. Manual aperture override for flash." So the selenium cell rings the lens, and the photographer can override the automatic aperture when shooting flash.

Trigger-Matic Film Advance

Manualzz describes film advance as "trigger-matic action for rapid film winding." It is the branded, spring-loaded winding that Ricoh built its reputation on in this era, and which cameracollector.net groups under "Ricoh spring-loaded models." A vintage listing describes it as "Base mounted film advance," which puts the winding control at the bottom of the body. The camera can be fired and re-cocked quickly, without lifting a thumb to a top-plate lever.

Film Speed Dial with Five Settings

Film speed is set by a numbered dial rather than an ISO scale. austerityphoto.co.uk explains the scheme: "The film speed is set by these numbers (e.g. 200ISO is 6). Oddly there is no 1. Each setting fixes the shutter speed. In General use you set the camera to one of 5 settings to match your film speed." That last point is easy to miss. On the Auto 35, the film-speed setting does not just calibrate the meter - it also selects the shutter speed. Five settings, five shutter speeds, matched to the film you've loaded. The system assumes the photographer will pick a film and stick with it.

Historical Context

The Auto 35 arrived in 1960 as the first entry in what cameracollector.net calls a line that would run "for about twenty years." It was not alone for long. Cameracollector.net lists the family as "Ricoh Auto 35 and the Ricoh Auto 35-V, both viewfinders described here, complemented with the Japan-only rangefinder Auto 35-L, AKA Richomatic 35 in other markets. The three models are similar and presented within a year, in 1960-61." The Auto 35-V, per the same source, "was the last in this group. It is based on the Auto 35, with several updates, making it a more reasonable, say friendly, camera." The Auto 35-L took a different path, adding a rangefinder and selling outside Japan under the Ricohmatic 35 name.

The camera's influence reached past Ricoh's own catalogue. Camerapedia records that "The sovietic company KMZ made a copy of the Ricoh Auto 35, named Zorki 11" - a Japanese compact cloned behind the Iron Curtain. Junktion NZ says Ricoh's compacts of this period were "known for their stylish 1960s Japanese design and user-friendly features," and austerityphoto.co.uk notes that Ricoh "remains one of Japan's few camera producing companies," still operating under its own name for compacts and under Pentax for DSLRs.

Collectibility & Value

The Auto 35 is not a rare camera, but it is a historically significant one, and prices reflect the gap between those two facts. A dated listing from vintageclassiccamera.com priced an example at £39.00, described as a "Superb example of this quirky 35mm from Ricoh... excellent working order" and marked "Last item available." That is roughly the ceiling for a clean, working copy; rougher examples trade for less.

Expect condition issues. The Auto 35 is now well over sixty years old, and its two most failure-prone systems, the shutter and the selenium meter, are the ones that age badly. An eBay listing sold as-is catalogued the typical faults bluntly: "shutter blades sticky, film counter defective, meter active but does not appear to properly control diaphragm, glass has some dust and debris." The same seller's title flagged the problems up front - "DUST," "BAD SHUTTER," "METERING SYSTEM AS IS" - which is honest, and worth reading carefully. Sticky shutter blades are the most common complaint and the most consequential, since a shutter that hangs open will overexpose every frame. A selenium meter that has lost sensitivity is harder to diagnose. The cell degrades silently and the trapped-needle mechanism will still move - it will simply move to the wrong place.

Examples turn up "with the original case and strap" (Junktion NZ), and one eBay listing notes a "written-in case bottom" - a period owner's habit of noting settings or film stock inside the case. Original cases in good condition are worth having, because they protect the camera's most vulnerable surface and are increasingly hard to find intact.

The Auto 35 is the first Ricoh compact of its line, it was original enough to be copied by KMZ, and it does one thing - automatic exposure with a fixed-focus lens - purely mechanically. Buy one that works, keep it away from damp, and shoot it in good light.