Nichiryo Nicnon

The Ricoh Auto Half was a well made, convenient to use, half-frame camera. It was used as the base for a wide variety of cameras. In 1971, Nichiryo came out with a new approach to using the camera. This was a pair of binoculars with a Ricoh Auto Half E attached to one of the binocular lenses. The main features of the camera were the same as the Auto Half E, but some changes needed to be made. First, the speeds were increased to 1/60 - 1/250. In addition, the selenium meter and lens were removed. Instead, the optic was the 165mm (f3.5) focusing, four elements in three groups, binocular lens. This is equivalent to a 250mm telephoto on a full-frame 35mm camera. A beam splitter in one of the binoculars diverts the image to the camera. Close-focusing to 60 feet. Apertures could be set from f3.5 to 11. It was also sold as the Ricoh Teleca 240 and the Nichiryo Teflex.