It’s over

Hey, you remember me talking about my Ricoh GR1s and how I loved it and all that? If you read the „review“ you might also remember that I wanted to get the flash fixed. Since when I published that article, the camera survived a drop on concrete from a considerable height that left the winding mechanic sounding like shit. After going through 3 films, hearing these painfull noises after every shot, I finally considered getting it fixed at Ostkreuz. The very friendly and understanding professional told me upfront, that I am 15 years too late. Here’s the conclusion of my 1 minute call:

The Ricoh GR series is basically dead. There are no more parts available to fix my problems (flash circuit board and plastic gears).
If you know someone who can reverse engineer and print circuit boards or gears, you might be able to breathe new life into these cameras.

So here is an Update to my review: The Ricoh GR series are super awesome, but don’t buy them. They will break and if they do you can’t fix them. As sad as it sounds, this is the reality film lovers will have to face.


Random collections vol. 1

I always wanted to do some Severin Koller style blogposts. That means, an unthemed, unsorted but half-chronological collection of pictures I took between now and then. Here’s the first batch from god knows when. Lets just start with (very) early 2015 and go from there. Enjoy!

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On the Ferry to Denmark. Loved the Frank Ocean vibe.

Continue reading „Random collections vol. 1“


The Ricoh GR1s

This is my Ricoh GR. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

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Selfie Time at a Café in Kopenhagen (Kodak Gold? Can’t remember)

After more than a year of love, hate, regret, despair and utter admiration, I feel like I am finally able to describe my relationship with my Ricoh GR1s. After being an absolute fanboy of the digital Ricoh GR series AND being a sucker for the constant documentation of my life – Severin Koller-style – I, or say my wallet finally snapped, and I started the serious hunt for a Ricoh GR1. Back at the end of 2014 I didn’t really care which Ricoh I would get. The choice to go for the GR1’s came out of a mix of the (partially regretful) demand to not rob my bank account entirely and pure luck of actually finding a camera IN Germany for a reasonable price. In hindsight a GR1v would have been much more to my liking (due to the incredibly useful feature to override the ISO), but even now the jump in price is just too hard to justify. I also could have gone for the nearly indestructible Contax T series. And I should have. But those delicious 28mm were too good to pass. Trust me when I say: I’m so, so happy with my choice.

Continue reading „The Ricoh GR1s“