SCOTFORTHLAD
Slow learner,but keen!
Recently Ive been using a fine little MX purchased from the renowned Mr.Hendrickson over in the US.Need I say more.
In days gone by I used to use Screw mount Takumars on my Practica and Chinon SLR's with lovely results.I have a non- Pentax Manufactured Screw Mount to K Mount Adaptor,and should really try it out on the MX sometime.
Brian.
Just a blatant example of self publicity,but my MX is currently advertised for sale in the CLASSIFIEDS Section
T
tedwhite
Guest
Heresy, sir. First you tell us you love it, and now you've got it for sale. Have you no shame?
hans voralberg
Veteran
Actually Brian put it up for sale once, withdrew it, not sure why he put it up again now
T
tedwhite
Guest
Midlife crisis?
titrisol
Bottom Feeder
midlife in january?
Crisis in January? Would take that to pry an MX out of my hands, as my black one only recently got back from CLA by Hendrickson, with a top-cover transplant too. It needed more work than expected, so I've had rough luck with acquired MX's... the silver one had sat wet at some time before I got it, enough to ruin the circuitboard, baseplate, and even the lens mount.
Anyway, January is a crisis month around here, with lots of expenses coming due, from annual insurance renewals to quarterly tax payment. One might reasonably raise some cash for January!
Anyway, January is a crisis month around here, with lots of expenses coming due, from annual insurance renewals to quarterly tax payment. One might reasonably raise some cash for January!
titrisol
Bottom Feeder
Most of the Pentax lenses are greatm the 50s are second to none, and the 135 and 200 are wonderful.
Now I just got a 28/2.8 SMC-M.
While quite a few people say it is not an excellent lens I find it sharp, and contrasty.
Of course the proof is in the ***-ding but that will take a few more days until I finish the roll in a ME Super.
Now I just got a 28/2.8 SMC-M.
While quite a few people say it is not an excellent lens I find it sharp, and contrasty.
Of course the proof is in the ***-ding but that will take a few more days until I finish the roll in a ME Super.
T
tedwhite
Guest
Been testing the meter on my "new" MX. It consistently reads 1-1 1/2 stops off. For example, I will take a reading with the MX. 1/500th @f:11. However, metering the same subject with my Bessa R, Pentax K20D, and Spotmatic SP gives a reading of 1/500th @ f:5.6 or between f:5.6 and f:8.
At least it's consistent. I guess it's off to Eric.
At least it's consistent. I guess it's off to Eric.
celluloidprop
Well-known
My friend's dad gave me his Spotmatic F and SMC 50mm f/4 Macro tonight - he used it for 30 years to make slides for his classes but Powerpoint edged it out, to my benefit.
This is a great camera - very smooth, with just the right heft. I can't wait to get a 28/50 setup from KEH.
This is a great camera - very smooth, with just the right heft. I can't wait to get a 28/50 setup from KEH.
River Dog
Always looking
I love the look and feel of the MX. I have a nearly mint black one that is a keeper.
BardParker
Established
Kudos to Eric Hendrickson
Kudos to Eric Hendrickson
Eric Hendrickson just refurbished a K1000 that I bought for my daughter who is an art major in college. She wanted a fully mechanical camera. Looks and works like new. He completely cleaned, replaced light seals, recalibrated the meter, adjusted shutter speeds, etc. Fast courteous service, and very responsive by email. Highly recommend! IMHO, he is the premier Pentax service person in the US.
www.pentaxs.com
Kudos to Eric Hendrickson
Eric Hendrickson just refurbished a K1000 that I bought for my daughter who is an art major in college. She wanted a fully mechanical camera. Looks and works like new. He completely cleaned, replaced light seals, recalibrated the meter, adjusted shutter speeds, etc. Fast courteous service, and very responsive by email. Highly recommend! IMHO, he is the premier Pentax service person in the US.
www.pentaxs.com
ChrisPlatt
Thread Killer
Another recommendation here for Eric Hendrickson.
He has serviced ten or more Pentax bodies for me.
Excellent service, fast and very reasonably priced.
Chris
He has serviced ten or more Pentax bodies for me.
Excellent service, fast and very reasonably priced.
Chris
T
tedwhite
Guest
Every Pentax body I own (4) has been serviced by Eric. Very fair pricing and top notch work.
I have one brassy black SP and three white SP's. Over the decades I have paired down my lens inventory to those I actually use: 28/3.5, 35/3.5, 50/1.4, 50/4.0 Macro, 105.2,8, and a lovely 300/4. All Super Takumars. And all work just fine on my K20D.
I had an MX but my aging eyes caused a problem reading the little meter dots, but I really enjoyed the smaller size.
I have one brassy black SP and three white SP's. Over the decades I have paired down my lens inventory to those I actually use: 28/3.5, 35/3.5, 50/1.4, 50/4.0 Macro, 105.2,8, and a lovely 300/4. All Super Takumars. And all work just fine on my K20D.
I had an MX but my aging eyes caused a problem reading the little meter dots, but I really enjoyed the smaller size.
Ronny
Well-known
Pentax MX = Much better than Oly.
3 MX today - Sold all Oly
3 MX today - Sold all Oly
jwnash1
Well-known
First camera I ever bought was a Spotmatic with f1.4 Takumar in 1966. Currently, I own a MX with f1.4 SMC Takumar and a K10D. Between the two I own 8 Pentax lens ranging from 24mm to 400mm. Over the years, various rangefinder systems have come and gone, being traded off after a period of time to try something new. Right now I have Canon rangefinders. They will probably one day go the route of the Kiev, Contax IIa and IIIa, Nikon S and Fed I have had but I cannot picture myself ever giving up my Pentaxes.
al1966
Feed Your Head
I have a fairly pristine looking SP500, a Programe A and an MV. I use the first two and only bought the MV to get the 50mm on it as it has a broken rewind. I love the feel of the SP500 though I use it with a Helios 58mm lens.
mfunnell
Shaken, so blurred
Well, I don't "love" Pentax - but I'm prepared to find out if I might come to do so. Having read a bunch of stuff by Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer and elsewhere singing the praises of Pentax lenses, especially the 50/1.4 and 50/1.7 I decided to give Pentax a try. I picked up a refurbished and meter-adjusted K1000, an SMC Pentax-M 50/1.7, an SMC Pentax 50/1.4 and an SMC Pentax-M 28/2.8, somehow acquiring an MX body and a 2nd 50/1.7 along the way - all for not much more than $200. I've put a roll of Tri-X through each of the bodies (with a 50/1.7) and all seems to be in good order. A sample photo (from the K1000):
Now I need to use them for something real.
In addition, I've picked up (literally today; the package isn't even open yet) a K200D which I hope to use with those MF lenses (it comes with a Sigma AF kit lens) to give me an equivalent field of view of around 42mm-ish (with the 28) and 75mm (with the 50s), which are two fields of view I like. I might or might not get a more MF-appropriate focus screen for the K200D - it just depends on whether I like it or not and how I cope with MF lenses with the standard screen. I'm hoping this will make a nice compact little digital manual focus outfit (no, it won't replace my Canon gear; just supplement it.) I got this cheaply enough that the original owner has paid most of the depreciation, so if I don't like and decide to sell I won't take much of a loss. (The MF lenses and film cameras stay.)
If I'm not feeling the love for Pentax in a couple or three weeks it won't be for lack of trying.
...Mike
Now I need to use them for something real.
In addition, I've picked up (literally today; the package isn't even open yet) a K200D which I hope to use with those MF lenses (it comes with a Sigma AF kit lens) to give me an equivalent field of view of around 42mm-ish (with the 28) and 75mm (with the 50s), which are two fields of view I like. I might or might not get a more MF-appropriate focus screen for the K200D - it just depends on whether I like it or not and how I cope with MF lenses with the standard screen. I'm hoping this will make a nice compact little digital manual focus outfit (no, it won't replace my Canon gear; just supplement it.) I got this cheaply enough that the original owner has paid most of the depreciation, so if I don't like and decide to sell I won't take much of a loss. (The MF lenses and film cameras stay.)
If I'm not feeling the love for Pentax in a couple or three weeks it won't be for lack of trying.
...Mike
Joe Vitessa
Well-known
I've been enjoying one of the bodies that Chris had Eric service years ago--a beautiful black ME. I've recently acquired some OM gear -- a OM-2n a 28mm f2, 35mm 2.8 and a 50mm 1.8 and frankly, that humble ME with a 50mm 1.4 Tak operates much more smoothly. And the Pentax lenses seem superior so far as well. Sorry, Oly.
mfunnell
Shaken, so blurred
Following up from my earlier post, I've had a go at using my newly-acquired Pentax K200D with old manual-focus lenses.
Now that I'm familiar with what's needed, I'm starting to get some decent results. Initially I had to work out a few things:
Using old lenses (I have one original SMC Pentax and two SMC Pentax-M lenses) requires operation in manual mode with stop-down metering. While I haven't tested it myself, I think that lenses with an "A" setting on the aperture ring may allow operation in some of the auto modes, but I don't have any.
Fortunately, the K200D is fairly well set up for this. There's a custom function you set to allow shutter release with old lenses (Custom Function 23 "Using Aperture Ring" has to be set to "Permitted"). Once that's done, and the mode dial is set to M, things proceed pretty smoothly. When you turn the camera on with the lens in place, you are prompted to set the focal length of the lens (and, yes, it does remember the value set the previous time). That changes the focal length recorded in EXIF data and also, at least to my eye, seems to alter the metering (and in a good way, too, when you set it correctly).
Stop-down metering is performed by pressing the "green button" on the hand-grip, just behind the shutter release. That closes the diaphram, meters, and sets the shutter speed according to the metering result. Which is nicer than most implementations of stop-down metering I've seen, where you have to manually stop down, read the metered result then set the shutter speed manually. This does all three things with the press of one button.
This can be done quickly and smoothly with the camera at eye-level if you use a kind of "claw grip" with your index finger on the green button and middle finger on the shutter release. Index finger to set exposure, middle finger to release shutter, one after the other. However, my experience is that the metering is very protective against blown highlights - perhaps too much some times, leading to underexposure. When I have the time I've taken to checking the metered value and slowing the shutter by a half-to-full stop if that seems appropriate.
What did take me a while to get used to was manual focus. Not the process itself, as it turns out, but the level of care that has to be taken. My first attempt at firing off a few test frames on a walk at lunch-time left me with lots of shots where nothing in particular seemed to be in focus. I was using a 28mm lens and, I guess, thinking that reasonably close was probably good enough - and it just wasn't. I suspect that the APS-C size viewfinder, a focus screen optimised for autofocus and the less-forgiving-than-film nature of digital sensors.
With that disappointment under my belt, I practiced with the appropriate brick walls and focus check charts and suchlike to try to get a better feeling for things. I also suspected (but haven't yet verified) that the relatively wide aperture on my 50 (f1.4 vs f2.8) and higher magnification might help with focus, so I tried a few days later with better success:
With a little more practice (and learning to use the AF focusing aids as well as just eyeballing the focus screen) I thought I'd gained some consistency, so went for a walk in a nearby suburb where I thought there'd be some colour and movement:
(More from the set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfunnell/sets/72157629500914581/ )
All in all I'm pretty pleased, now that I've knocked some of the bugs out of my approach. The K200D is otherwise a nice little camera. It's small (by eye, roughly 2/3rds the size of my 5D in all dimensions), feels well-built, has weather seals, runs off AA batteries (easy to find in an emergency) and, I think a plus with old lenses, has in-body anti-shake. The camera itself wasn't expensive 2nd hand, and it provides a good digital platform for old Pentax manual-focus lenses which seem to be high quality yet plentiful and reasonably cheap.
It does make a nice digital platform for using some nice old Pentax lenses in digital/colour, to complement my use of the same lenses with B&W film.
...Mike
Now that I'm familiar with what's needed, I'm starting to get some decent results. Initially I had to work out a few things:
Using old lenses (I have one original SMC Pentax and two SMC Pentax-M lenses) requires operation in manual mode with stop-down metering. While I haven't tested it myself, I think that lenses with an "A" setting on the aperture ring may allow operation in some of the auto modes, but I don't have any.
Fortunately, the K200D is fairly well set up for this. There's a custom function you set to allow shutter release with old lenses (Custom Function 23 "Using Aperture Ring" has to be set to "Permitted"). Once that's done, and the mode dial is set to M, things proceed pretty smoothly. When you turn the camera on with the lens in place, you are prompted to set the focal length of the lens (and, yes, it does remember the value set the previous time). That changes the focal length recorded in EXIF data and also, at least to my eye, seems to alter the metering (and in a good way, too, when you set it correctly).
Stop-down metering is performed by pressing the "green button" on the hand-grip, just behind the shutter release. That closes the diaphram, meters, and sets the shutter speed according to the metering result. Which is nicer than most implementations of stop-down metering I've seen, where you have to manually stop down, read the metered result then set the shutter speed manually. This does all three things with the press of one button.
This can be done quickly and smoothly with the camera at eye-level if you use a kind of "claw grip" with your index finger on the green button and middle finger on the shutter release. Index finger to set exposure, middle finger to release shutter, one after the other. However, my experience is that the metering is very protective against blown highlights - perhaps too much some times, leading to underexposure. When I have the time I've taken to checking the metered value and slowing the shutter by a half-to-full stop if that seems appropriate.
What did take me a while to get used to was manual focus. Not the process itself, as it turns out, but the level of care that has to be taken. My first attempt at firing off a few test frames on a walk at lunch-time left me with lots of shots where nothing in particular seemed to be in focus. I was using a 28mm lens and, I guess, thinking that reasonably close was probably good enough - and it just wasn't. I suspect that the APS-C size viewfinder, a focus screen optimised for autofocus and the less-forgiving-than-film nature of digital sensors.
With that disappointment under my belt, I practiced with the appropriate brick walls and focus check charts and suchlike to try to get a better feeling for things. I also suspected (but haven't yet verified) that the relatively wide aperture on my 50 (f1.4 vs f2.8) and higher magnification might help with focus, so I tried a few days later with better success:
With a little more practice (and learning to use the AF focusing aids as well as just eyeballing the focus screen) I thought I'd gained some consistency, so went for a walk in a nearby suburb where I thought there'd be some colour and movement:
(More from the set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfunnell/sets/72157629500914581/ )
All in all I'm pretty pleased, now that I've knocked some of the bugs out of my approach. The K200D is otherwise a nice little camera. It's small (by eye, roughly 2/3rds the size of my 5D in all dimensions), feels well-built, has weather seals, runs off AA batteries (easy to find in an emergency) and, I think a plus with old lenses, has in-body anti-shake. The camera itself wasn't expensive 2nd hand, and it provides a good digital platform for old Pentax manual-focus lenses which seem to be high quality yet plentiful and reasonably cheap.
It does make a nice digital platform for using some nice old Pentax lenses in digital/colour, to complement my use of the same lenses with B&W film.
...Mike
p.giannakis
Pan Giannakis
I came across a nice Pentax P-30T with the 50 f/2 once and I passed on it as it seemed too electronic for me. A few yards later, I bought a Canon EOS 300V. No Idea why.....