[stevebrot]

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How do you obtain kits from Jon Goodman? I found his instructions here: Favorite Classics / Jon Goodman's Seal Replacement Instructions

but I couldn't find where he might sell the seal kits. He is apparently "interslice" on eBay, but that shows nothing listed at the moment.

This looks like it might be convenient -- due to the pre-cut strips -- but is it a quality foam for this application?

15 Adhesive Felt Strips for Camera Light Seals Universal Kit Width 2 10mm | eBay

Jon is one of the truly good guys in the network of Internet camera people. His materials are first rate. The kits are inexpensive (~$10 USD including shipping) and the seal foams are precision cut for the intended camera and very easy to work with. The enclosed instructions are exhaustive and his special bamboo tool, surprisingly helpful.

He quit eBay a few years ago because of the changes to their seller terms and some other stuff. Since that time he has kept busy with word-of-mouth referrals doing business by e-mail only. He may be contacted at jgood21967(at)aol(dot)com


Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 09-25-2016 at 09:30 PM.

[Ontarian50]

You understand wrong. They started their camera business in 1937, production stopped for the war and resumed in 1950 (Ricohflex III). Most Sears K-mount SLRs were Ricoh designs. (Sears did have one Chinon made K-mount SLR). Sears and K-mart (Focal 1000 TLX) sold the Singlex TLS under their own brand names too.

Yes, the early Ricoh Singlex cameras and the Sears and K-Mart versions were the same camera models. But, they were made by Mamiya, not by Ricoh. Ricoh certainly made their own TLRs and such, but did they ever manufacture, in house, their own 35mm SLRs?

Later K-mount Ricohs certainly wore Cosina-sourced lenses (and the 55mm 1.2 was no slouch). The question is, later Ricohs like the KR series, and the last models like the XR-7, XR-P, and such, were they not made for them by Cosina? I do recall reading that many, many years ago in some publication I've long forgotten.

Since, they are unique cameras in their own right, were they designed by Ricoh and built for them by Cosina? Unlike the Nikon FM-10, Olympus OM-2000, Yashica FX-3 Super, which are all really the same basic camera with minor changes to suit the customer.

Oh, and has anyone ever, ever seen a Ricoh XR-S in person? After handling thousands of vintage cameras over the years, that's one I've only ever seen in ads.

[boriscleto]

Yes, the early Ricoh Singlex cameras and the Sears and K-Mart versions were the same camera models. But, they were made by Mamiya, not by Ricoh. Ricoh certainly made their own TLRs and such, but did they ever manufacture, in house, their own 35mm SLRs?

Later K-mount Ricohs certainly wore Cosina-sourced lenses (and the 55mm 1.2 was no slouch). The question is, later Ricohs like the KR series, and the last models like the XR-7, XR-P, and such, were they not made for them by Cosina? I do recall reading that many, many years ago in some publication I've long forgotten.

Since, they are unique cameras in their own right, were they designed by Ricoh and built for them by Cosina? Unlike the Nikon FM-10, Olympus OM-2000, Yashica FX-3 Super, which are all really the same basic camera with minor changes to suit the customer.

Oh, and has anyone ever, ever seen a Ricoh XR-S in person? After handling thousands of vintage cameras over the years, that's one I've only ever seen in ads.

Sears sold SLRs from Asahi, Chinon, Mamiya and Ricoh.

Sears | Camerapedia | Fandom powered by Wikia

I can not find any source that claims Ricoh SLRs were manufactured by any other company but Ricoh in Japan.

As for the XR-S I bid on one once on Shopgoodwill.com. In the end I was outbid because I wasn't going to go over $75...

[Ontarian50]

Camerapedia says this about the Ricoh Singlex .....
"Mamiya sold the camera design to Ricoh, who produced it as the Ricoh Singlex, complete with Nikon F mount. The Ricoh Singlex was produced in the same Mamiya factory as the Nikkorex F. The external clip-on CdS meter sold by Ricoh is specific. The same with Rikenon F-Mount lenses that are totally diferents than the Nikkor lenses. The standard lens for the Singlex is the Rikenon 1:1.4 f=55mm."

In the early '60s, Nikon realized that with slow sales of the flagship F, they needed a consumer camera to use their lens lineup. They turned to Mamiya to make the Nikkorex line. There weren't many models, and only the Nikkorex F had the removable lens. Reliability and ruggedness wasn't great. Nikon eventually went on to develop and manufacture the Nikkormat. Apparently, Mamiya shopped the design to Ricoh, who wanted in on the growing SLR market.

[boriscleto]

Camerapedia says this about the Ricoh Singlex .....
"Mamiya sold the camera design to Ricoh, who produced it as the Ricoh Singlex, complete with Nikon F mount. The Ricoh Singlex was produced in the same Mamiya factory as the Nikkorex F. The external clip-on CdS meter sold by Ricoh is specific. The same with Rikenon F-Mount lenses that are totally diferents than the Nikkor lenses. The standard lens for the Singlex is the Rikenon 1:1.4 f=55mm."

In the early '60s, Nikon realized that with slow sales of the flagship F, they needed a consumer camera to use their lens lineup. They turned to Mamiya to make the Nikkorex line. There weren't many models, and only the Nikkorex F had the removable lens. Reliability and ruggedness wasn't great. Nikon eventually went on to develop and manufacture the Nikkormat. Apparently, Mamiya shopped the design to Ricoh, who wanted in on the growing SLR market.

That's the Singlex. The Singlex TLS was a Ricoh design from 1967...

The Ricoh Singlex TLS was introduced by Ricoh in 1967. The Ricoh Singlex TLS was also sold for Sears as T.L.S in USA, for Kmart as Focal TLX and Interflex 7.L.5 in France. The rarest version is black

[Ontarian50]

That's the Singlex. The Singlex TLS was a Ricoh design from 1967...

Yes, but I'd bet it was still manufactured for them by Mamiya.

[boriscleto]

Yes, but I'd bet it was still manufactured for them by Mamiya.

Were Nikon SLRs manufactured by Mamiya as well? Because Nikon sold the Singlex too.

The F-mount Singlex was a one off oddball for Ricoh, like the 126c-Flex. Though the 126c was made by Ricoh.

Ricoh's first SLR was a fixed lens SLR called the 35 Flex. It is similar to the Mamiya Auto-Lux 35, but it is not a Mamiya. Canon sold the Mamiya as the Canonex.

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Last edited by boriscleto; 09-29-2016 at 12:23 PM.

[Ontarian50]

Were Nikon SLRs manufactured by Mamiya as well? Because Nikon sold the Singlex too.

The F-mount Singlex was a one off oddball for Ricoh, like the 126c-Flex. Though the 126c was made by Ricoh.

Yes, as I said earlier, Mamiya made the Nikkorex F for Nikon (and the other 35mm Nikkorexes).

It seems Ricoh took it over, badged it as a Singlex and it was their one and only F mount model. Later models went with the M42 mount, probably because it made more sense to market a consumer camera with that mount, and be compatible with the "universal" mount used by Pentax, Praktica, Mamiya, and others at that time. More compatibility with your peers, and probably less costly to make than the F mount.

[boriscleto]

Yes, as I said earlier, Mamiya made the Nikkorex F for Nikon (and the other 35mm Nikkorexes).

It seems Ricoh took it over, badged it as a Singlex and it was their one and only F mount model. Later models went with the M42 mount, probably because it made more sense to market a consumer camera with that mount, and be compatible with the "universal" mount used by Pentax, Praktica, Mamiya, and others at that time. More compatibility with your peers, and probably less costly to make than the F mount.

Mamiya went with M42 as well. But the Mamiya/Sekor M42 cameras are different than the M42 Ricoh cameras. Ricoh produced six different M42 cameras from 1967 to 1976. The last, the Automatic TLS EE, featured shutter-priority auto exposure when used with Rikenon-EE type lenses. I don't think it was sold anywhere but Japan...They went K-mount with the XR-1 & XR-2 in 1977. Mamiya never made a K-mount camera, they had their own proprietary bayonet mount. Several different ones in fact...

[Ontarian50]

Mamiya went with M42 as well. But the Mamiya/Sekor M42 cameras are different than the M42 Ricoh cameras. Ricoh produced six different M42 cameras from 1967 to 1976. The last, the Automatic TLS EE, featured shutter-priority auto exposure when used with Rikenon-EE type lenses. I don't think it was sold anywhere but Japan...They went K-mount with the XR-1 & XR-2 in 1977. Mamiya never made a K-mount camera, they had their own proprietary bayonet mount. Several different ones in fact...

Agreed, Mamiya floated their own bayonets, with disastrous results (those XE series cameras really were dreadful). But as Cosina has proved with their little mechanical chassis, they could provide just about any mount the customer required, from Nikon F to M39 (on the rangefinders, which still have many of the same internal drivetrain/shutter bits).

But I do think we'll find that the later M42 Ricohs weren't made for them by Mamiya, but Cosina. There's quite the family resemblance there.

[boriscleto]

I've spent most of the afternoon practicing my Google-fu.

I can find no references to Ricoh cameras made by anyone but Ricoh other than the Singlex, other than unsubstantiated claims in forums here and there Online resources don't seem to know if the Singlex was made in the same factory as the Mamiya and Nikkorex F or made in a Ricoh factory with tooling purchased from Mamiya.

I did find a mention of a Sigma branded SLR made by Ricoh, which would be the Sigma SA-1, in a PopPhoto review of the SA-300, Sigma's first SA mount SLR.

Another interesting claim I came across is that the F-mount lenses Ricoh and Mamiya sold for the Singlex will not work on any other Nikon than the Nikkorex.

[Ontarian50]

Yes, I agree it's very difficult to pin any company down on where they source their products.

Often, companies boast of "developing", "designing", "introducing" a camera or lens, or whatever, hoping we all assume that translates to "invented" or "manufactured".

You're never going to get Nikon to admit to having had a few budget lenses made for them by Tamron or Sigma - or that their FM10 and lens comes from Cosina.

That American company, Vivitar, came up with some killer lens designs back in the day, but never made a single one themselves - why bother building a factory when you can get them built under contract in Japan by a variety of suppliers?

As I say, I read it somewhere years and years ago, after Ricoh got out of the SLR market, that they never actually manufactured their 35mm SLRs in house. What we need is some former Ricoh employee to come forward and clear it up for us. But Japanese companies are very tight-lipped about such stuff, and never let us see behind the curtain - even today.

[stevebrot]

Yes, the early Ricoh Singlex cameras and the Sears and K-Mart versions were the same camera models. But, they were made by Mamiya, not by Ricoh.

Urban legend...

Ricoh purchased the production facility and tooling for the Mamiya-made Nikkorex F as the Mamiya/Nikon deal wound down. Ricoh used that factory to make the original F-mount Singlex. There was a Sears version, also in F-mount, but no Kmart version that I am aware of.*

The later Singlex TLS and corresponding Sears models had only one element in common with the F-mount Singlex, that being the Copal "square" vertical-travel metal shutter. Your assertion regarding Mamiya is novel, but not supported by available documentation. The Cosina connection has been proposed many times, but fails the tests of both timing and comparison. The Singlex TLS predates the earliest Cosina Hi-Lite SLR (marketed in the U.S. as Argus/Cosina STL 1000) by several years. The first version of the Hi-Lite was made by Petri while second, Cosina-made, version looks similar to the Singlex TLS. On comparison of the two, the front location of the shutter-speed dial is the most obvious common point. The front dial is a direct result of the Copal shutter mechanism and orientation. Placing the dial on the front allows for a direct linkage. The earlier Nikkorex F and F-mount Singlex used a pulley arrangement to allow a top-mounted dial that persisted in the Nikkormat line for the lifetime of that camera.

I purchased my first Singlex TLS in 1971. The Argus/Cosina STL 1000 was new on the market at the time and I considered both before I made my purchase. The cameras are quite different in the hand with the Cosina having somewhat inferior build compared to the Ricoh. Comparison shows that the two cameras are built on a different chassis and share no obvious trim or body pressings.

Granted, things are pretty confusing, particularly when you figure Sears into the mix. There are many camera makers that had product branded as Sears or Tower. In the late 60s and early 70s that included Ricoh, Mamiya, and Cosina. Matt Denton (Matt's Classic Cameras) does not help things much with his discussions of the patchwork history of the Cosina Hi-Lite and Argus/Cosina STL 1000. He has a page for the Argus STL 1000 and a second page for the Argus/Cosina STL 1000. It is the second page that has the more detailed and consistent history for all three Argus and Cosina brandings (LINK). Most famously, it is the first page that makes the claim that the Argus STL 1000 and Sears TLS are both rebranded Cosina Hi-Lite (LINK). On his Sears TLS page (LINK), he states that Ricoh licensed the design to Cosina who modified it to produce the Hi-Lite.

Translation? The Cosina-made Hi-Lite and Argus/Cosina STL 1000 were derived from the Singlex TLS which was made by Ricoh and was derived from tooling for the original F-mount Singlex which was made by Ricoh using tooling purchased from Mamiya who had used it to manufacture the original Nikkorex (Nikkormat) F for Nikon.

Are we confused yet?


Steve

* The first Kmart opened about the same time (1962), but I am unaware of any house-brand photo gear from that period.

[stevebrot]

Another interesting claim I came across is that the F-mount lenses Ricoh and Mamiya sold for the Singlex will not work on any other Nikon than the Nikkorex.

This is true. It has been a few years since I played with the Singlex at a local shop, but I seem to remember that Nikkors would mount to the Singlex, but the F-mount Rikenon (55/1.4???) would not mount back to a Nikon body.


Steve

[stevebrot]

Oh, and has anyone ever, ever seen a Ricoh XR-S in person? After handling thousands of vintage cameras over the years, that's one I've only ever seen in ads.

I have! I have! Though that was new in a shop. I bought the XR7 instead. IIRC, the S was quite a bit more expensive and batteries were cheap, so why go solar?

I also have a vague memory of seeing one in the wild a few years ago. The solar cells were inoperative on that camera, but the owner said it worked quite happily on regular batteries alone.


Steve