The Ricoh 500G is a wonderful compact camera with a nice lens. I’ve owned 3 of them and I still keep one in my car so that I always have a camera ready to travel with me. Because of it’s dainty size the controls are a little compact, but still manageable and easier to negotiate then the Olympus 35RC. The viewfinder is slightly dark and smallish because of the size of the camera however the rangefinder very accurate. It’s fully mechanical so it works without a battery but you loose the light meter. I believe it has an auto aperture feature, but I’m not a hundred percent since mine doesn’t have a battery in it. I’m sure you could look that up. The camera has been around since the late 50′s and the Sears RF is the same camera. Later on they updated it with a newer model. The camera fits great in most coat pockets or in one of those dorky belt camera backs for compact cameras. I normally keep it in my center counsel. They used to be pretty cheap but people are starting to seek them out and that’s driven the price up. I don’t think it’s a better camera then the Olympus 35RC but I would put them in the same league.
