[ibkc]

So a few years ago, I moved house, and in the process of moving a lot of things happened. For reasons I won't bore you with, we had to hastily pack many things and then a lot of stuff was never properly unpacked. Now I'm just getting around to sorting through my cameras, and I cannot seem to find my dear Ricoh KR-5 Super, which was given to me by a good friend. I have the Rikenon lens which came with it because I was using it with my Pentax digital. Maybe I did something with the little Ricoh and don't remember? In any case, I needed a replacement Pentax film SLR that wasn't going to set me back many moneys.

That well-known buy/sell/trade establishment in the southeastern United States had this SF10 model listed in Excellent condition on their website for just US$15, so after checking out a couple of internet reviews, I picked it up despite being a little leery of old electronic cameras. Having dealt with this dealer many times over the years, I trust them a lot, which had a lot to do with my decision.

The camera arrived and true to my past experiences with this dealer, it was in better than "excellent" condition -- as if someone had been given it as a birthday present and then never used it, shoved it in a closet until deciding to sell it many years later. Looking at it and firing it up was like being transported back thirty years when things like cameras and stereos were all black and minimalistic.

The thing is a brick compared to the cute little Ricoh that it replaces, but I have lugged around all sorts of film cameras including medium format SLRs, so it hardly matters in the scheme of things.

Autofocus is super-fast (although I likely won't be using AF lens very often) and the TTL metering was accurate (I was checking against a handheld light meter). I loaded up Lomography color 800 since I often find myself indoors in lower light situations. I am very excited to have a basic film SLR again, even if it is a little on the huge side. My only other "real" 35mm camera at this time is a late 60's-era Yashica rangefinder, very fun but without interchangeable lenses.

[Sluggo]

Great that you got one in such nice shape! I've never shot with any of the SF cameras. They certainly do look solid, compared to the ZX bodies I've used.

[VoiceOfReason]

My SF10 has such fast AF it seems like the camera body is going to torque over in your hand!

[ibkc]

My SF10 has such fast AF it seems like the camera body is going to torque over in your hand!

I know right? The one I have autofocuses faster than any DSLR I've owned so far, although I've only had low-end DSLRs. Also the fact that I am so used to manual focusing could have something to do with my perception. I'm certainly not complaining because it's a great feature to have when you need it and I've never owned a film camera that has it. I used a Minolta SRT-101 in college in the late 1980's and all the way up until I got my first-ever digital camera.