5 Frames with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400 – By Mihai Sictir

By Mihai Sictir

I’m Mihai, I’m a multidisciplinary artist who’s studying right now at Coventry University in Coventry, UK. I started to take pictures in 2017 and started to study last year. My first camera was a digital one but I rapidly switched from digital to film after mastering the manual mode on my digital camera.

I bought this Ricoh XR-2s off Facebook market from an old guy who was selling it for 30£, I have many point and shoot cameras, one precious Leica R-E and a Praktica BC1 Electronic. This Ricoh was a bargain which I had to buy, the guy gave me two lenses and many accessories with this camera.

At first I did not realise that I would like this camera so much but to my surprise this camera has something special, it’s not heavy at all, the body weights only 560g and even with a Ricoh XR Rikenon 50mm lens attached to it is still feeling very light which makes it very pleasant to keep around the neck.

I loaded this camera in October 2020 with a Kentmere 400 35mm film with a goal to shoot some parts of Coventry for my first semester project. After I developed and scanned the roll by myself in the university lab I fell in love with this particular roll, the grain is so smooth and the shots are not filled with that much contrast. These particular aspects made me consider Kentmere one of my favourite rolls ever. I have shot on various black and white and colour film as well, but this roll just felt different.

Usually I take portraits but at the moment when I shot these I wanted to explore architectural photography as well and I started to walk around the city to find some interesting shapes to shoot, these images were shot with my 50mm Ricoh Lens in a 3 hours walk around the city.

These are 5 shots I took in October 2020 during the lockdown, 4 of them are unpublished and one of them can be found in my uni project on my website.

I would totally recommend this camera to a beginner who wants to step into film photography, it’s really great for starting out in film if you can get a ricoh lens as well, this camera has a K mount which I find great because there are a lot of lenses that work with it.

Ice Cream
Ice cream – Taken with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400
Building Edges
Building Edges – Taken with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400
Mannequin
Mannequin – Taken with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400
Stairs
Stairs – Taken with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400
Building Edges II
Building Edges II – Taken with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400

More of my work can be found on my website here
And on my Instagram here

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Comments

John Furlong on 5 Frames with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400 – By Mihai Sictir

Comment posted: 21/02/2021

I'm just about to start dev'ing a batch of Kentmere 400 - haven't used it before and I'm very impressed with lack of grain in all the mid-tones in your images. What developer did you use?
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Mihai Sictir replied:

Comment posted: 21/02/2021

Hello, I used XTOL developer and I scanned it with Hasselblad scanners.

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Zoltan replied:

Comment posted: 21/02/2021

Thank you for this write-up. I’m hoping someday you’ll treat us to a review of the Leica R-E too.

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Mihai Sictir replied:

Comment posted: 21/02/2021

As soon as I get a good lens for it, I will!

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John Furlong on 5 Frames with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400 – By Mihai Sictir

Comment posted: 21/02/2021

Thanks Mihai, I was going to use IlfoTec DDX (as recommended on the box) I might just spilt the batch and go 50:50 XTOL and DDX.
Hasselblad scanners - eh! Lucky you ;0)
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Alex Vye on 5 Frames with Ricoh XR-2s and Kentmere 400 – By Mihai Sictir

Comment posted: 22/02/2021

Nice article. I like the shot of the helical staircases.
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Mihai Sictir replied:

Comment posted: 22/02/2021

Thank you!

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