Introduction

[Kim Coxon]

Hi,
Just a short note to introduce myself. I started taking photos in the 60's using the usual Brownies, instamatics etc. My real interest started when my father gave me his Ensign Selfix 820. When I went to University in the early 70's, I discovered the use of the darlroom and managed to Purchase a secondhand Konica Auto S2 which gave me a great deal of pleasure. At the end of the 70's my wife bought me a Pentax SLR as a wedding present and shortly after the Konica died with a broken lens mount. Since then I was always a Pentophile but about a year ago I rediscovered the delights of Rangefinders and now have a small collection (Some of which will need some work on them). There are a selection of Canonets from the Canonet S to the QL17 GIII, several Olympus and, joy of joys, another Konica Auto S2.

My purpose in joining the site is to learn more about the use of these lovely cameras and perhaps gain some help in restoring some of them. About a year ago, I started a website with the intention of making available good quality copies of some of the Pentax manuals. I have now extended this to cover those rangefinder manuals that I have and also to explain some of the restoration work I have done. Hopefully this will help others. If anyone is interested the site is at www.pentax-manuals.com

Regards
Kim

 

[rover]

Welcome Kim

 

[FrankS]

Welcome Kim! Do you still have your dad's Ensign Selfix 820? I happen to have that same camera myself. Did yours have the Ross Expres 105mm f3.8 lens?

 

[Kim Coxon]

Hi,
I have still got it and use it. It has the 105mm F4.5 Ensar anastigmat lens and Epsilon shutter.

Kim

 

[Honu-Hugger]

Welcome, Kim. Very nice of you to provide the manual service. I hope you enjoy the forum!

 

[Doug]

Hi Kim, and welcome to RFF! I too like Pentaxes... my first one was an H3 in 1964, and I now have a round dozen of various vintages and film formats. They're nice to use, but then so are the RF cameras!

 

[Roman]

Welcome from another RF user who uses Pentax SLRs (MZ5n, MZ-M - my first SLR, SuperA, MX and K2).

Roman

 

[peter_n]

Welcome to the forum Kim 🙂 from another (ex) Pentax user who is still crying over selling that system and in particular those unbelievable Takumar lenses. 🙁

 

[dmr]

Welcome, Kim. I'm a Pentax fan too. My current "real camera" is an older K1000 which I will never give up. 🙂 I used to have a Spotmatic, and my only real complaint was that it was hard to change lenses.

I'm trying to get back into rangefinder photography, currently kinda shopping around for one. I used to have an older Mamiya Super Deluxe which I am kicking myself for selling. 🙁

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Welcome to the forum, Kim! I'm not the Pentax user in my house, but my wife, who, when taking photographs, uses a K-1000 and a more recent model, the ZX-M. That one fell in my hands recently, when my Nikon died in a trip (forgot to replace batteries). It's a joy to use!

I also had a Konica Auto S2. Sold it, together with my very small collection of Japanese RFs to get into Leica stuff.

Welcome again!

 

[Jon Goodman]

Hi, Kim.
Welcome to the group. I've seen you on other forums, and I hope you enjoy this one. I have a couple of Spotmatics I'm working on currently.
Jon

 

[Kim Coxon]

Hi, Kim.
Welcome to the group. I've seen you on other forums, and I hope you enjoy this one. I have a couple of Spotmatics I'm working on currently.
Jon

Hi Jon,
Many thanks. You are part of the reason I am here. If you hadn't sold me a seal kit, I wouldn't have collected so many RFs! Is there any forum that you are not a member of?

Regards
Kim

 

[rbiemer]

Welcome aboard! Nice site you have. I especially enjoyed the air to air shots!
Rob

 

[Jon Goodman]

Hi Jon,
Many thanks. You are part of the reason I am here. If you hadn't sold me a seal kit, I wouldn't have collected so many RFs! Is there any forum that you are not a member of?

Regards
Kim

Kim, you've made my day! Truthfully, one of the primary hopes of the light seal project was that it would create and/or spur interest in camera repair & maintenance--which I believe is quickly turning into a cottage industry before our very eyes. As the project has grown, several people have told me the seal kit caused them to want to buy more cameras. I'd like to say I originally had that vision, but that would be stretching it a bit. Still, I'm very happy if it worked that way. Any forums I'm not a member of...actually, I just discovered this one in February of this year. A member who had bought a kit mentioned it to me. I also just found out about Amateur Photographer. A person who bought a kit told me I'd been mentioned in one of the AP issues. So, yes, I think there probably are others I haven't joined yet. I do like this one, though. Fine group of folks.
Jon