Among the plethora of fully automatic compact 35mm cameras from the end of the last century, the Ricoh R1 stands out for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s very small, even for a compact camera. Secondly, it has two focal lengths, the standard 30mm, itself quite wide for this kind of camera, and then a 24mm super-wide option, which by default engages a panoramic film plane mask.
Dating from around 1995, this camera was also marketed as the Rollei Prego Micron in the USA. Mine came from eBay over a decade ago. I bought it having read about the wideangle lens, and the simple non-permanent modification that could be made to give full frame images instead of panoramic, albeit with some vignetting in the corners. I’d enjoyed using the very…
