Ricoh's Singlex — mechanical match-needle SLR, M42 mount, 1/1000 shutter, 1965.
The Ricoh Singlex is a 35mm film SLR made by Ricoh and introduced in 1965. Early Singlex cameras used the M42 screw mount, aligning them with the large family of universal screw-mount lenses of the period. It was a well-built enthusiast body of the mid-1960s.
It is a single-lens reflex for 35mm film using the M42 screw thread. The Singlex uses a metal focal-plane shutter with a top speed of 1/1000 second plus Bulb, and through-the-lens CdS metering in a match-needle arrangement, so the photographer sets exposure manually to align the needle. The shutter is mechanically timed and fires without a battery, with the cell powering only the meter.
The Singlex suits general, student, street and landscape photographers who want a solid mechanical SLR with access to the wide M42 lens pool. It handles as a heavy, dependable camera and its manual metering encourages a considered approach. Its strengths are build and lens compatibility; its limits are the weight and the basic match-needle metering.
When buying used, check the foam light seals and mirror-damper foam, which perish on cameras of this age. Test the mechanical shutter across all speeds for capping or slow-speed lag, confirm advance and rewind, and check the meter needle responds. The meter was designed for 1.35V mercury cells (PX625/625 type), so recalculate exposure with modern 1.5V cells; the mechanical shutter still fires with a flat battery. M42 lenses screw on directly and adapt to many modern systems.