Decent plastic-bodied SLR with manual controls?

[newst]

You have to go with a ...

I got one of these as a rear cap on an Ebay lens purchase.

Super light, it feels like a kid's toy camera.

No special features beyond the standard Konica auto aperture control, which you can turn off by setting the lens aperture yourself. Everything else is manual.

It doesn't require illegal mercury batteries or expensive modern replacements.

It just works, and Konica Hexanon lenses are excellent, while still reasonably priced.

It just works, and works, and works.

 

[Scrambler]

Huss, that kind of "compatibility" has history. My pre- and post-war Exaktas are sufficiently different to make lens exchange very difficult. Both lenses are Zeiss. And I've a 1970s LTM Soviet lens that won't mount on a Leica. And that's without considering early Japanese Leica copies, before they realised the thread was 26 turns per inch, not 1mm.

 

[maigo]

Pentax P3N or P30T

Chris

PENTAX P30T is DX only so not 100pc manual.
Otherwise it is a good match for OP.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Forest_rain]

Thanks! That one looks great! I'm on the hunt for a Minolta X-370s, being newer, but that one looks good. I'm partial to Minolta, but perhaps I should branch out - the "sibling" company of Konica Minolta might be interesting to try. Hexanon lenses also seem cheap and plentiful. Looks nice. I'll have a look into it.

I got one of these as a rear cap on an Ebay lens purchase.

Super light, it feels like a kid's toy camera.

No special features beyond the standard Konica auto aperture control, which you can turn off by setting the lens aperture yourself. Everything else is manual.

It doesn't require illegal mercury batteries or expensive modern replacements.

It just works, and Konica Hexanon lenses are excellent, while still reasonably priced.

It just works, and works, and works.

 

[charjohncarter]

PENTAX P30T is DX only so not 100pc manual.
Otherwise it is a good match for OP.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right, I have a small knife and scotch tape and this chart when I use them for B&W on my Pentax P3n:

https://www.oocities.org/yosemite/2131/dx-code.html

 

[Forest_rain]

LOL! Thats great. Zenits just look so...unusual. I was looking at a Zenit 122, wondering if it would give me "interesting" photos with some character perhaps. However given the poor reputation of Zenits, I decided to stay away...They look really cool though, to be honest, but 1/500th of a second is pretty low.


Also the 212k seems pretty "rare" nowadays, and has to be ordered from Ukraine, doesn't sound like a good wager with the shipping these days.

Arguably the greatest plastic bodied manual exposure Russian SLR that is available in Pentax K mount ever made..

Ladies and Germs, my stunning Zenit 212K:



What is especially impressive about this camera is the VF that shows only 65% on the actual image. I kid you not. It's always a delight to wait in anticipation to see what else actually snuck into your scene. Zenit lists this as a 'feature' in their owner's manual.

The lenses are really decent. I bought this for the lens, thinking I could use it on one of my Pentaxs. It was cheaper buying the lens with the camera than the lens by itself..
Warning - while Pentax K lenses fit on the Zenit, the Zenit K mount lens can get stuck when attached to a Pentax. So, so much for that..

 

[Huss]

LOL! Thats great. Zenits just look so...unusual. I was looking at a Zenit 122, wondering if it would give me "interesting" photos with some character perhaps. However given the poor reputation of Zenits, I decided to stay away...They look really cool though, to be honest, but 1/500th of a second is pretty low.


Also the 212k seems pretty "rare" nowadays, and has to be ordered from Ukraine, doesn't sound like a good wager with the shipping these days.

The lens is really nice. The camera is really miserable. It really is. It's amazing that a delightful gem like a Pentax ME costs the same.

 

[Fraser]

I know its not got manual controls but last night I won a Canon EOS 850 for the grand sum of £1.04, I felt sorry for it these early Canon Eos cameras just don't sell for much at all but I'm pretty sure just like Canon Fd bodies the prices will start to rise.

 

[David Hughes]

LOL! Thats great. Zenits just look so...unusual. I was looking at a Zenit 122, wondering if it would give me "interesting" photos with some character perhaps. However given the poor reputation of Zenits, I decided to stay away...They look really cool though, to be honest, but 1/500th of a second is pretty low...

Hi,

Funny thing but to me and probably a lot of other people a Zenit looks like a lot of SLR's from that period.

As for their reputation, they were being sold cheaply for political reasons that no one could blame on the makers or buyers. But being cheap when new they are dirt cheap when second-hand and so people don't bother to repair them when needed but simply replace them. But at least they can be repaired.

As for the design or the works, which is the important bit, the Zenits were made originally by adapting Zorki cameras with a mirror box etc. Zorki cameras then were based on the FED; meaning a slightly improved FED.

Those FEDs are, of course, a good copy of the Leica II. In my book that makes the Zenit an offshoot of the Barnack Leicas; so how bad is that?

Put a late Zenit, like the 212's beside a 1930's Leica and you'll probably notice the positioning of the controls is the same and open the back and it's just a familiar inside; if you could take the back off of a 1930's Leica II.


Regards, David


PS I don't think the last version of the Zenit with the jelly mould body were sold outside the old USSR. I've never seen one with an English instruction manual only Russian ones.

 

[Out to Lunch]

they were being sold cheaply for political reasons

....and yet no one bought them. In 1994, I was in a department store in Tbilisi, Georgia in which almost all the shelves were bare, but they had plenty of Zenit cameras. They were wrapped in oil paper and sold in gray carton boxes. I bought two of them for a pittance and, later gave them away. I don't think they came with a manual.

 

[Archlich]

I had long believed that the Pentax ZX-5/MZ-5/MZ-3 is the camera that “nailed” the control layout. Just that its performance somewhat lags behind contemporary competitors.

 

[Scrambler]

I thought I'd check the weights on my cameras that fit the requirements, or look like they might.

The Ricoh KR-5sv (Cosina built) weighed 439g, 634g with a Pentax 50/1.7 full manual lens.
The Bessa R (built using the same chassis) weighed 437g.
Pentax P30t weighed 489g.

70s and 80s metal and "metal" slrs were about 620g. These are body only weights.

Leica IIIa with Summar 50/2 weighed 631g (427g for the camera alone.)

For the same weight you can also get an Ensign 6x6 folder.

The lightweight winner was the Olympus XA, at 216g, about the weight of an SLR 50mm lens.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

PENTAX P30T is DX only so not 100pc manual.
Otherwise it is a good match for OP.

The DX-only film speed setting feature of the P3N/P30T is an issue overblown by many.
Anyone who actually owns and uses one of these cameras knows it is not a problem 99% of the time - i.e. in normal use.

Chris

 

[ronnies]

I had long believed that the Pentax ZX-5/MZ-5/MZ-3 is the camera that “nailed” the control layout. Just that its performance somewhat lags behind contemporary competitors.

Funny, I have a lot of cameras much older than those which use the same control layout. 🙂

Ronnie

 

[Archlich]

Funny, I have a lot of cameras much older than those which use the same control layout. 🙂

Ronnie

I should have made it clearer: (one of) the "autofocus" camera that nailed it.

Most didn't retain this when the buttons began to proliferate.

 

[mconnealy]

I like my Hikari 2002 which I reviewed on my blog last year:

Thursday, April 18, 2019
Dumpster Diving for Cameras

Figuratively speaking. Actually, I found this Hikari 2002 in a thrift store with a five-dollar price tag.
The top and bottom covers were plastic, but the camera had a solid feel, and it was compact and relatively light weight. The protruding grip makes one-hand shooting easy. The film advance and the zoom lens were smooth in operation. The shutter worked at all speeds. The Hikari is a great camera.
Let me explain.

At home with the camera I inserted some new batteries and the meter came to life and seemed to be working properly; exposure is set manually, and a green LED glows when you've got it right. I was pleased to discover when I looked up the camera on line that it accepts Pentax K-mount lenses. It also features a shutter speed range from 1 sec. to 1/2000, a self timer, a double-exposure selector and a depth of focus preview button (which was lacking in the Pentax K-1000). The Hikari was marketed under several names including the Vivitar V3800N, the Promaster 2500PK Super and the Phoenix DC303N. I shot a quick roll of Kentmere 100 to test the camera, and it performed flawlessly...

 

[David Hughes]

....and yet no one bought them. In 1994, I was in a department store in Tbilisi, Georgia in which almost all the shelves were bare, but they had plenty of Zenit cameras. They were wrapped in oil paper and sold in gray carton boxes. I bought two of them for a pittance and, later gave them away. I don't think they came with a manual.

But they were on sale from the early 1950's and a lot of people bought them from then onwards. 1994 was after the collapse of the USSR system and many photographers there were using far more modern stuff.

That said, in its heyday the cameras were popular as a cheap way into SLR photography.

Looking at their sales in 1994 is like looking at new film camera sales now.


Regards, David

 

[p.giannakis]

But they were on sale from the early 1950's and a lot of people bought them from then onwards. 1994 was after the collapse of the USSR system and many photographers there were using far more modern stuff.

That said, in its heyday the cameras were popular as a cheap way into SLR photography.

Looking at their sales in 1994 is like looking at new film camera sales now.

Regards, David

I remember the open-markets in my country back in the 80's - usually every Sunday. They were flooded with Russian emigrands of Greek origin that they were bringing items from the USSR and other countries of the Eastern Europe. It was full of Zenits, if you were willing to spend a bit more you could get a Practika.

Most of the people i knew started with a Zenit.

 

[Forest_rain]

I remember the open-markets in my country back in the 80's - usually every Sunday. They were flooded with Russian emigrands of Greek origin that they were bringing items from the USSR and other countries of the Eastern Europe. It was full of Zenits, if you were willing to spend a bit more you could get a Practika.

Most of the people i knew started with a Zenit.

That sounds amazing! I had no idea there were Greek people in the USSR...were they considered "Romani" people? (Forgive me, I don't know the politically correct term here).


I hope you took picture of such markets, it sounds very festive and full of character, I'd love to see pictures of such a market.

 

[Out to Lunch]

But they were on sale from the early 1950's and a lot of people bought them from then onwards.

David is right, of course. During the fifties until the collapse of the Soviet Union and it's satellite dominions during the early nineties, people bought Zenit cameras and lenses.

Because they could not buy any other cameras.

The moment the borders opened, everyone tried to offload their Soviet gear. I have worked and lived in a former Soviet Republic for a number of years and the local flea market was inundated with these cameras. There were no takers.