No love for Pentax?!

[johannielscom]

Nope, no love for Pentax. Sorry.

It's all about the Chinon Memotron CE II with me. Nothing Pentax (or Nikon or Olympus) ever made in the 1970s could beat the Memotron CE II.

Full stop.

 

[Michael Markey]

Nope, no love for Pentax. Sorry.

It's all about the Chinon Memotron CE II with me. Nothing Pentax (or Nikon or Olympus) ever made in the 1970s could beat the Memotron CE II.

Full stop.

I have a Chinon CX but thats not the same thing is it.

 

[spystyle]

I just love the Pentax K1000 - I feel like it has everything you need and nothing you don't. It can't get in the way. The needle meter and bright viewfinder are a pleasure to use.

I'd like to see a digital K1000 🙂

I'd also like to see a mini-K1000 that is smaller but still has the same big viewfinder.

I wonder what other cameras are like the K1000 ?

Jeremy D'entremont of www.lighthouse.cc used a K1000 for over 20 years, then finally went to an EOS digital.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nelights/

Long live the K1000 🙂

 

[hans voralberg]

No love for Pentax?
WHAT do you mean? The most beautiful, handy SLR camera ever build -- Except, of course, you prefer Nikon F, Exakta Varex or similar stuff double it's weight!
They set a standard for the world how a SLR should look and handle like. In my home country the whole industry failed because they were to slow in accepting that. 30 years after that, fair sportsmen should accept that this were true BEAUTIFUL cameras.

cheers!

Which Pentax is this, it looks fabulous!

 

[Doug]

Sonnar2, that's a beautiful camera, setting the look for all subsequent pre-Spotmatic models. I see an "S" on the top deck near the serial number. And with its separate slow-speed shutter dial on the front it looks a lot like my 1958 model K, whose serial number is somewhat later at 179xxx.

 

[Doug]

I just love the Pentax K1000 - I feel like it has everything you need and nothing you don't. ... I wonder what other cameras are like the K1000?

The K1000 was immensely popular over many years of production both in Japan and later in China. It's the least expensive of the K series that included the KM and KX that look almost identical, and a related higher-end model K2 with more differences including AE. If you like the K1000 you'd probably like these as well. Smaller? Look at the MX!

 

[tedwhite]

I can't recall ever having seen an S Model before. Pre-Spotmatic I'm assuming. No meter and slow speed dial on front. Also the lens simply says Takumar, so it ante-dates Super Takumar lenses. It's in beautiful shape.

 

[Doug]

I haven't seen an S model either, and since the serial number pre-dates my K model I'm assuming it's earlier. But it can't be more than a year or two earlier I think, since before that it was the Asahiflex...

Anyway, here's my 1958-dated K model, with the original 55mm f/1.8 Auto Takumar...

 

[tedwhite]

Looks quite like the S Model, except for the very different lens. My first look through a Pentax (1963, San Francisco) was through a K with those distinctive black and white alternating squares around the focusing ring. I saved up and bought an H1a, then an H3v, and finally on to Spotmatics. At that time, Nikons (remember those huge Photomics?) were all the rage, and you simply weren't a real photographer unless you had one (or a Leica, which none of us could afford). However, Nikons were heavy, the Pentax Spotmatic wasn't. As I couldn't see any difference in image quality between the two, I stuck with Pentax.

 

[Keith]

No love for Pentax?
WHAT do you mean? The most beautiful, handy SLR camera ever build -- Except, of course, you prefer Nikon F, Exakta Varex or similar stuff double it's weight!
They set a standard for the world how a SLR should look and handle like. In my home country the whole industry failed because they were to slow in accepting that. 30 years after that, fair sportsmen should accept that this were true BEAUTIFUL cameras.

cheers!

Now that is downright gorgeous ... so they can make a 'looker' after all! 🙂

 

[carlb]

Now that is downright gorgeous ... so they can make a 'looker' after all! 🙂

Pentax have made a number of great looking cameras - the Super A is the pick of the bunch for me, closely followed by the LX and the ME Super.

But I don't find the Spotmatic-era cameras all that attractive TBH

 

[robin a]

I have had a few Spotmatics that I put through their paces,no disapoinments.Great lenses and tough bodies.I now have a Sp 1000 50 1.4 SMC that's my go to SLR.They're Great...................Robin

 

[dee]

back in '72 I chose a Prinzflex [ Chinon ] STTL over a Spotmatic . It was cheaper , and I was seduced it being in black . which I subequently discovered was painted over chrome .
It actually served me well , but was heavy and NOISY ! That metal shutter !
I now have a Spotmatic , but recently revisited the STTL through e-bay . It looked terrible with chrome showing through all over .
Armed with inside knowlege , I guessed that it would be OK - even the meter works !
I ... er ... touched it up with semi matt acrylic , so it has an attractive ' grunge ' appearance now !
[ Sometimes I buy Dinky Buses with transfers reasonably intact with very chiped paint . I go for the Impressionist approach - tiny dots of matching colour so that for quite close they look fine ! Only close up do they look dee'seased ! LOL ]
Minolta took over with the lovely SRs and SR7v [ with inbuilt meter ] like smaller SRTs .
dee

 

[btgc]

I like Pentax....K-mount. In fact, R/K mount, but you get idea. Probably I should have to have one Pentax body just to compare to Ricoh, though I don't see many reasons.
If I will have digital camera, most probably it will be Pentax (DSLR) or Ricoh (compact).

 

[Sonnar2]

Looks quite like the S Model, except for the very different lens.

It is the "S", sold 1958 like the "K". Other than the K it misses the 1/1000s fastest shutterspeed, and automatic diaphragm. Therefore they were sold with the preset lenses (here with the 5-element 55/2.2) alike the 1957 "Original Pentax" model. It looks like the "S" was produced as a model cheaper than the "K" when the "Original Pentax" batch was sold out. But essentially they are the same cameras.

Very nice cameras for users are the S2-S3-S1 build in the earlier sixties. The same body as the S but with single speed dial, some have the 1/1000s, some not, beautifully finished. The chrome of the early ones (S/N 350,000 and earlier) is just glossy, better than Leica. All meterless. But you can setup, if you want, an odd top-prism meter which is quite precise, and was the first CDS photo meter AFAIK. Some shutters may need overhaul, they get lazy. Their livecycle is about 20,000 firings, opposed to 100,000 of a Spotmatic. The Spotmatic was a major redesign (1964), sharing no important parts with the S series and beeing 10% larger. The S body based on the Asahiflex. Look at my website, they are all there:
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Pentax_S.html

 

[Sonnar2]

As for professional photog. using NIKON. Time magazine bought Pentax cameras for their photog. before all get NIKON hooked. Probably the US army photog. in Vietnam made Nikons reputation, but that was late in the 60's. They were heavy cameras, and I used to know professionals who don't need changable prisms who bought PENTAX. In 1964 there was no hotter camera than the Spotmatic -- which last version was the K-1000, pictured above.
In Germany Pentax sales started not before 1968 (and Zeiss Ikon ceased camera production 1971). My first SLR was a Spotmatic SL-500 from a professional who used always Pentax, no Nikon.

 

[tedwhite]

Sonnar2 - that's very fine and informative website. I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I've bookmarked it. I have recently become interested in the MX, and just bought a black one (from K.E.H.; hasn't arrived yet). A friend recently gave me her KM - my first bayonet mount Pentax. Initially, I was put off by the meter always being on after removing the lens cap, but then I realized it was a superior design: no more fiddling with the meter switch! I'm assuming the MX uses the same system (except for the little lights).

 

[spystyle]

I like Pentax....K-mount. In fact, R/K mount, but you get idea. Probably I should have to have one Pentax body just to compare to Ricoh, though I don't see many reasons.
If I will have digital camera, most probably it will be Pentax (DSLR) or Ricoh (compact).

I have a Ricoh K-mount lens, I had to remove the "Ricoh pin" or the lens would be stuck on my Pentax camera body.

It's very easy, even for me who is afraid to repair cameras (click)

The lens I have is Sears branded 60-300mm and it was only $20 shipped. I really dig it 🙂

Hooray for K-mount 🙂

 

[spystyle]

...Look at my website, they are all there:
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Pentax_S.html

Thank you for the link 🙂

Here it is translated with Google to English :

http://translate.google.com/transla...eiter.de/Cameras/Pentax_AP.html&sl=auto&tl=en

 

[titrisol]

Sonnar2 - that's very fine and informative website. I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I've bookmarked it. I have recently become interested in the MX, and just bought a black one (from K.E.H.; hasn't arrived yet). A friend recently gave me her KM - my first bayonet mount Pentax. Initially, I was put off by the meter always being on after removing the lens cap, but then I realized it was a superior design: no more fiddling with the meter switch! I'm assuming the MX uses the same system (except for the little lights).

you can always download the manuals from Kim Coxon's site (pentax-manuals.com)
The MX is not on all the time, nor the KX, a little touch on the shutter or on the winding lever and light meter comes to life