Ricoh FF9 Compact Point & Shoot Review.

No the FF9 isn't massive nor do I have a tiny head.
It's being oggled by a 2 year old.

A full frame compact camera for £25.

I've always got my eye out for a decent little 35mm AF point and shoot for a walk about casual shooter and I pulled the trigger on this bit of kit on the worlds favourite auction site.  £10 and in full working order.  It didn't have a battery but my local friendly camera storer kindly supplied one at twice the going rate - I like to call that the price of convenience  - you gotta keep business local.  So locked and loaded with battery and Fuji Superia 400 its landed cost was £25.

A full frame auto focus pocket camera for £25.  Sounds good to me.   I've read good things about Ricoh compact 35mm cameras so hopes were hight for this thing.

Ricoh FF9.  What is it?

The FF9 is an all plastic fully automatic point and shoot auto focus camera launched by Ricoh in the 1990s for the mass market consumer.  You basically just load film point and shoot.  It uses DX coding to set ISO.   It does have a few features for the user to select.  It has a nice weight to it but it is ultimately a cheapo plastic camera.  I was keen to see what kind of image this thing could churn out as there is very little information on these things on line.

Ricoh FF9 & Superia 400.  Desaturated in lightroom.

Optics

It has a max aperture of  f3.5 and a focal length of 35mm.  Not the fastest lens in its class (Olympus mju II is blessed with an f2.8 lens) and pretty standard for consumer compact cameras.  The lens cover is opened by a switch to the side of the lens that is easily operated with one finger.  Opening the lens cover powers up the camera.  The lens sits flush inside the camera body and does not extend outwards.

The viewfinder is large and bright.  My camera has a very slight blue hue to the viewfinder image.  It is a breeze to compose and shoot quickly with this camera.  The viewfinder doesn't display any information such as focus lock or flash.  These are indicated by lights on the cameras back plate.  The focus light is visible in the edge of your vision when using the view finder.

The shutter runs from 1/4 second and tops out at 1/400.

Ricoh FF9

Auto Focus

The focus system works on an IR beam system and is super fast in operation. A half press of the shutter locks focus.  A flashing green light means the camera couldn't obtain focus and solid green means focus has locked. Being an IR beam system the camera will focus is the dark.  The camera can't lock focus at distances under about 1m.  So if you shoot across a dinner table at someone it's odds on the FF9 will miss focus.

The 1m focus limit caught me out a lot on my first roll of film.



Functions

The Ricoh FF9 has a handful of functions for the user to select.  These are.

• Landscape mode - Locks focus to infinity
• Double exposure mode - lets you do double exposures
• TV mode - lets you photgraph a TV screen
• Night photography - Sets ISO to 100 shutter to 1/4 and aperture to f3.5
• Self timer
• Continuous shooting  mode - lets you blaze through your film at about 0.5 frames a second.
• Back light mode - forces flash to fire if background is brighter than the subject

Handling

The Ricoh FF9 fits nicely in the hand and is chunky but small enough to fit into a pocket.  All function buttons are recessed so they are not accidentally pressed when in a bag or pocket and the camera powers up instantly when the lens cover is flicked open.

Film transport and winding is all electronic. The camera obviously isn't going to be silent in operation with motorised winding but the sound isn't too bad as most people don't recognise the sound as being a camera firing a frame off. It's more of a low whirr than the kind of attention grabbing crack slap you get from an old 35mm SLR 

The shutter release feels vague and spongy.  Though it is right where you want it to be and easy to find if shooting quickly.  You soon get used to the feel.

The IR beam focus is a dream to use when shooting quickly on the street.  You don't have to think about it and soon forget about it - this is the mark of a good system.  It focuses quicker than my Sony Alpha DSLR.

Performance

I've run a roll of Fuji Superia 400 though it to check it works.  It does.  As with most of my first rolls I didn't really put much effort into the shooting of these initial frames - I just rattled them off one afternoon whilst wrangling a 3 year old and a dog around the park.

First impressions (going by the prints made by the 1hr photo lab) are that the lens performance is just so so.  Not bad but not in the 'hidden gem of a camera' league.  The Olympus mju II test roll blew the FF9 away optically.  Though I did shoot that with a little more purpose as the mju II handles like a dog and has to be shot slowly.

When I stuck a test roll through the Oly mju II I was blown away by the quality of the 1hr lab prints.  Though I have a hunch that the FF9 prints were a bit screwed and fuzzy from the 1hr lab.

I don't have the negs from the Ricoh FF9 digitised yet but I'm hoping I can pull a bit of quality out of them - and there are hints of quailty hidden in there I think.

The FF9 probably deserves another test roll shot through it but this time with a bit of purpose and keeping an eye out for the close focus issue.



Conclusion

Nice handling, blazing auto focus, hints of quality in the optics but the Jury is still out on this one...

I'm 50/50 if it gets donated to the toy box right now....