Praise for the Spotmatic

pixie79 said:
The Pentax Spotmatic can use other battery. It only needs to fit. It has a 'bridge' circuit, so 1,35 0r 1,55 is OK. Not exact but sufficient.
The radio active was minimal! Not so with a certain 50mm f1.2! Placed in a box with a postcard paper, in dark. In a few weeks it had a black circle!
Sold it as scrap, telling buyer of my test! Finding working meter is a quest! My Leica meter cds from Metrawatt was toast in 2.5 years! The SP lasted much longer!
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Which 50f/1.2 is that? I've heard of certain Taylor Hobson large format lenses that are health and safety risk because of the radiation.
 
I was just remembering...a Pentax Spotmatic is what started me on the road to financial ruin and photography. And yet I've never owned one.

Over fifty years ago I was visiting an old friend. He had borrowed a Pentax from another friend in order to take B&W portraits to do sketches. He had done some pretty nice sketches I recall but what really got me intrigued were those drugstore prints in shades of grey. I thought they were beautiful. I had never been interested in photography before but I couldn't get those photos out of my head. I soon went to a news stand and bought every photo magazine I could find and spent 2-3 weeks totally absorbed in photos and stories about photographers, cameras and lenses. A few months later I was the owner of two Nikon Fs bought cheap from friends who were dumping them to buy the newly introduced Olympus OM-1.

Thank you, Pentax. You've cost me a fortune. 🤪
 
nickthetasmaniac said:
I was under the impression that only the Spotmatic F had a bridge circuit, rather than the whole Spotmatic line?
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According to Gerjan Van Oosten book, all the Spotties have a balanced circuit which is pretty immune to voltage
This has been my experience over 40+ yrs of using Silver batteries.

However, some people report that the end of the EV scale suffers (low and very bright light)
 
pixie79 said:
The Pentax Spotmatic can use other battery. It only needs to fit. It has a 'bridge' circuit, so 1,35 0r 1,55 is OK. Not exact but sufficient.
The radio active was minimal! Not so with a certain 50mm f1.2! Placed in a box with a postcard paper, in dark. In a few weeks it had a black circle!
Sold it as scrap, telling buyer of my test! Finding working meter is a quest! My Leica meter cds from Metrawatt was toast in 2.5 years! The SP lasted much longer!
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50/1.2? there is no M42 version of this, and the K-series is definitely not radioactive

So far from all the SP I have worked I'd say 1 lightmeter is dead out of every 5
 
If I don't find a decent spotmatic F for a reasonable price relatively soon and everything works I'm going to sell the pristine super multicoated takumar 50 1.4. Followed by the MX and keep the ME Super. Not a fan of stop down metering.
 
hap said:
If I don't find a decent spotmatic F for a reasonable price relatively soon and everything works I'm going to sell the pristine super multicoated takumar 50 1.4. Followed by the MX and keep the ME Super. Not a fan of stop down metering.
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I think you need to tone your expectations, and define what is reasonable price
You can find a working F but please do send it for maintenance.
Thus, a resonable price shouldd be $150 to $200
 
nickthetasmaniac said:
Why the secrecy? Plenty of lenses are known to be radioactive…
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You are so right. All lenses that contain lanthanum are slightly radioactive but it is usually less than background radiation. I highly doubt that a civilian lens could be so radioactive that it could draw a black circle on a sheet of white paper within a few weeks.
 
I just got back a roll taken with a new to me Spotmatic and a S-T 55/1.8, of flowers in my yard. Really impressed -- especially considering these were close to minimum focus with a "nothing special" normal lens. A polarizer was the only enhancement. Every bit as good, and maybe better, than results from a Nikon FTn and 55/3.5 Nikkor (which is of course a superb lens) I took around the same time. And as is often stated about Nikkors from the 60s-70s, the Nikkor results were a little cool in tone compared with the S-T.
 
But staying on this topic (sort of) -- I have several of the pre-Spotmatic Pentaxes (e.g. SV) and the mirror sticks up on these with regularity. I've judiciously oiled in the places described in several online videos and the camera works fine -- when the lens is off the camera. When it's mounted, though, the mirror often stays up at the end of the shutter cycle. The advance is not jammed; the mirror just doesn't return. I can't figure out why -- I'm wondering whether the rear pin on the lens somehow hangs up on the "pusher plate" (my term) at the bottom of the lens opening. I know these cameras probably just need a full overhaul, but I'm wondering if there are specific causes an amateur like me can address.
 
KoNickon said:
But staying on this topic (sort of) -- I have several of the pre-Spotmatic Pentaxes (e.g. SV) and the mirror sticks up on these with regularity. I've judiciously oiled in the places described in several online videos and the camera works fine -- when the lens is off the camera. When it's mounted, though, the mirror often stays up at the end of the shutter cycle. The advance is not jammed; the mirror just doesn't return. I can't figure out why -- I'm wondering whether the rear pin on the lens somehow hangs up on the "pusher plate" (my term) at the bottom of the lens opening. I know these cameras probably just need a full overhaul, but I'm wondering if there are specific causes an amateur like me can address.
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I'm interested in this as well. My SL (serviced in 2021) did this twice on the last roll I shot with it.
 
How are the pre-spotmatics activating the lens aperture? Are they using the same level at the bottom of the mount? Maybe this part is struggling with pushing the lens pin in?
 
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