Pentax Screw Mount - Need Help

ray*j*gun

ray*j*gun

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Recently my father in law passed away and left a bunch of Pentax stuff......mostly lenses. I know very little about the Pentax screw mount cameras and need some help.

Once he must have had a Pentax SP II but replaced it with a Chinon CX II. (The Pentax manual is with the gear).That Chionon camera is shot.....all the seals are bad. I was thinking of buying a Pentax screw mount to use with the lenses but I noticed that they all have a switch that can be set "A" or "M". I am confused about that since I didn't think the Pentax's had any sort of auto focus etc. Any way, I guess I don't want to buy a body and find the lenses don't work or fit well.

Thanks in advance for your help!!
 
Seals are very easy to replace, look for the kits sold by Jon Goodman they come with everything you need and great instructions. He can be PMed here or found on ebay as interslice.

The switch should be to set the lens aperture to Auto, where the aperture stays fully open to let you focus and only closes when you click the shutter release, or Manual used for depth of field preview.
 
If you have a good selection of Pentax lenses, I'd look for a Spotmatic of some kind to use them with. The Spotmatic F will give you full aperture metering, so that may be the one to look for. These are great cameras and lenses.

There were some pretty good Chinons, too. In some ways more versatile than the Pentax. But, the Spotmatics, to my mind, just have a better feel to them.
 
Just get any of the Spotmatic, one of the best body family ever made. If you want really old school nice stuff, I personally like the Honeywell H3 very much :D
 
Well, if you are shopping for a new body you might also try a Fujica ST605 ST705 or AZ-1: very large bright viewfinder, small size (just a hair larger than an OM-1), very precise meters, and they all use modern batteries. The AZ-1 is aperture auto, the other two are fully manual cameras. They typically go for less than Pentax bodies.
 
Well, Pentax/Takumar lenses are very good.
The A-M switch refers to auto/manual diaphragm, which means that the diapraghm is kept closed all the time or only for light-metering/shooting

Now for a body, consider a modern Bessaflex or simply a Spotmatic.
If your lenses are Super-Multi-Coated (SMC) try getting a Spotmatic F, since that one allows fully-opened light metering.
 
You can use Takumars on any Pentax SLR or DSLR with a screw mount to K mount adapter, but they only work in Automatic mode on the Spotmatics. I use mine on a ZX-M, set to manual, but I have to stop down to meter.
 
I have used other batteries for my Spot. They have a bridge circuit which makes the voltage if it is only a small bit off OK; example 1.5 volts is normal but 1.35 volts works.
 
Wow.....thank you all for that info.....answered all my questions as usual.

One final thought, as I examined the lenses I noticed one that has some haze or dirt inside the rear element....its not fungus. Its a beautiful 85mm that is mint in every other way....who would be a good repair/CLA type for the Pentax lenses.

Thanks again .....I knew that someone here would be able to answer questions even if they are about evil SLR's...lol.

Thanks!!!!
 
This has been discused ad-nauseaum in many forums
Spotmatics can take silver oxide batteries, and even alkalines with no problems.
The only downside is that those batteries last ofr 1 year or so only.

payasam said:
What a windfall. The Spotmatics are fine cameras, but for metering they use mercury cells.
Click to expand...
 
Ray, get a "Lens Pen" and try cleaning the rear element yourself, maybe the dirt is in the outside only.
Otherwise Eric is your man!
IIRC he also has a few cameras for sale from time to time, already serviced and good for another 20 years

ray*j*gun said:
Wow.....thank you all for that info.....answered all my questions as usual.

One final thought, as I examined the lenses I noticed one that has some haze or dirt inside the rear element....its not fungus. Its a beautiful 85mm that is mint in every other way....who would be a good repair/CLA type for the Pentax lenses.

Thanks again .....I knew that someone here would be able to answer questions even if they are about evil SLR's...lol.

Thanks!!!!
Click to expand...
 
A and M refer to auto aperture stop down or manual aperture stop down. If you do not understand what this means, mostly you can just leave this in A and forget about it until you learn more about the camera and photogrpahy using them. The early Pentax screw mount gear is quite high quality - explaining its vast popularity back in the 1960s and 70s. It is now readily available, cheap and for the most part still very functional. Most Pentax screw mount lenses give excellent results and great value. You will pick up a Pentax Spotmatic (the camera body you need) for next to nothing on eBay and have a great time shooting with it. Mostly these will be Spotmatic SP or Spotmatic SP11s as was your dad's camera. The only thing to be aware of is that I find that the most common fault with the lenses is that the aperture / diagphragm (the thing controlled by the A / M lever) can sometimes be sticky after all these years and so when shooting it does not stop down to the correct aperture as quickly as it should - resulting in over exposure. This requires a service to fix. But even this is quite chepa to have done and by no means all lenses will have this issue. If you are serious about shooting with these- try to find a book that was contemporary with these cameras called "The Pentax Way." These can be found quite readily in antiquarian book stores and on eBay and like the cameras themselves are cheap. The book will teach you everything you need to know about using these great old cameras.
 
Hi Ludo,

I checked with Jon and doesn't have a kit for the Chinon, but thanks for the info which I will hold onto for the future.


ludoo said:
Seals are very easy to replace, look for the kits sold by Jon Goodman they come with everything you need and great instructions. He can be PMed here or found on ebay as interslice.

The switch should be to set the lens aperture to Auto, where the aperture stays fully open to let you focus and only closes when you click the shutter release, or Manual used for depth of field preview.
Click to expand...
 
The kits are indeed universal. BTW that 85 is a superb lens to adapt to a dslr. There are 3 variants of the lens all fantastic. If yours is labeled SMC or Super Multi Coated it is the latest version. Showing higher contrast do to multi coating. If you don't get on with it. There is quite a demand for that lens with Dslr shooters.
 
f16sunshine said:
If yours is labeled SMC or Super Multi Coated it is the latest version. Showing higher contrast do to multi coating.
Click to expand...

Agreed, those 85mm's are very capable and cheap too.

Here's a pentax 85mm photo from the early eighties with my spf . . . and yes I still use both, frequently.



xxxiipl.jpg
 
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