Noll
Well-known
While I have for the last year and a half invested much time and money with the Olympus OM system, lately a new obsession has snuck into my photography in the form of a Pentax Spotmatic SPII.
Only reason I bought it from the thrift store was that it was in great condition - clean, fully functional, and came with a 55mm 1.8 SMC Takumar lens that felt wonderful. I figured if nothing else I could have some fun with it and resell it for a at least I paid ($25). Since then, my OMs have been a bit jealous!
There's not much to the SPII - It is just a solid, simple mechanical SLR with your basic settings - shutter, aperture, and ASA. In terms of build, the SPII has a number of nicely fitted metal parts - from the gracefully curved wind lever to the self-timer, there is not much plastic on this machine. There is a switch on the side that turns on the meter and closes the aperture for stop-down metering - automatically giving you a dof preview. Once you've set your exposure, you can switch the meter off return to full aperture focusing, or just shoot in stop-down mode and the meter automatically switches off and the aperture fully opens after the shutter is triggered.
The fresnel screen is BIG, bright, and extremely clear. I read somewhere that it is not as large as the OM-1, but to be honest after looking through both in close succession, I can't see any size difference. They're both huge. In fact I find it easier to assess focus outside of the center microprism than on the OM1. Bonus points to the SPII for having square corners and a longer meter needle "throw" in the viewfinder.
Speaking of the meter needle - I like how it moves with cool, calm authority. Although sometimes slow to arrive at its target, it never bounces around.
That's about all there is to it - just a pure photographic tool with very little to distract the user from the focusing on the image. While my OM kit isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it will have to share the love.
Only reason I bought it from the thrift store was that it was in great condition - clean, fully functional, and came with a 55mm 1.8 SMC Takumar lens that felt wonderful. I figured if nothing else I could have some fun with it and resell it for a at least I paid ($25). Since then, my OMs have been a bit jealous!
There's not much to the SPII - It is just a solid, simple mechanical SLR with your basic settings - shutter, aperture, and ASA. In terms of build, the SPII has a number of nicely fitted metal parts - from the gracefully curved wind lever to the self-timer, there is not much plastic on this machine. There is a switch on the side that turns on the meter and closes the aperture for stop-down metering - automatically giving you a dof preview. Once you've set your exposure, you can switch the meter off return to full aperture focusing, or just shoot in stop-down mode and the meter automatically switches off and the aperture fully opens after the shutter is triggered.
The fresnel screen is BIG, bright, and extremely clear. I read somewhere that it is not as large as the OM-1, but to be honest after looking through both in close succession, I can't see any size difference. They're both huge. In fact I find it easier to assess focus outside of the center microprism than on the OM1. Bonus points to the SPII for having square corners and a longer meter needle "throw" in the viewfinder.
Speaking of the meter needle - I like how it moves with cool, calm authority. Although sometimes slow to arrive at its target, it never bounces around.
That's about all there is to it - just a pure photographic tool with very little to distract the user from the focusing on the image. While my OM kit isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it will have to share the love.
