Ricoh Auto 66
The Ricoh Auto 66 is both a usual and unusual twin lens reflex camera. Released in either 1959 or 1960 (depending on who you ask) and produced until 1964, the Auto 66 has a pretty standard array of features. It sports an 8cm (80mm) f3.5 Riken taking lens set below a matching 8cm f3.5 viewing lens. Focus is done via dual levers to either side of the face of the camera that are moved in a "rocker" style to achieve focus in the reasonably bright (especially for its era) focusing screen. Film loading is standard as well, with the film start mark lining up to an index mark inside the camera and from there the camera advances and automatically stops at each frame.
What sets the Auto 66 apart is its inclusion in the very small and exclusive club of auto-exposure TLR cameras. Til this specimen crossed our paths we had been familiar only with the Rolleimagic cameras, which similarly use integrated light meters to automate exposure. In this sense the Ricoh Auto 66 is almost trying to be a point-and-shoot TLR. It seems likely that this model was targeted toward amateur users who wanted to get into medium format photography but either lack the expertise or time to meter and calculate exposures on their own. Then again, it is also possible this was meant for professionals who needed the added speed of a TLR that set its own exposure. Regardless of intent, the Ricoh Auto 66 has a built-in selenium cell light meter coupled to an exposure dial at the base of the camera. Using a match needle system, the dial is set to a specific EV ranging between EV8.6-EV17 setting shutter and aperture simultaneously. Within this system the camera is capable of shutters speeds ranging from 1/30 to 1/250. EV8.6 equates to 1/30 at f3.5 with EV17 equaling 1/250 at f22. While the Ricoh Auto 66 does not have individual shutter speed settings selectable, the exposure dial does have both a Bulb and Flash Sync setting (1/30th). On either of these settings aperture can be set manually via a second dial on the right side of the camera's bottom face.
For those familiar with the original Rolleimagic, they likely know that when the camera's meter dies the camera itself is practically useless since it relied on the meter to set shutter speeds and aperture. One nice thing about the Ricoh Auto 66 is while the selenium cell light meter provides useful information to help set correct exposure the user can still basically set their own exposure manually by setting the exposure dial to the EV marking of their choice, or using the camera in either the Bulb or Flash modes.
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