Restoring dad's Pentax ME Super!

[PatrickCheung]

A few months ago I was flipping through a few photo albums filled with photographs my parents took when they were about my age (20). My dad took those with a Pentax ME Super, his first camera which he later replaced with a Canon EOS 630 which sort of became my first camera. When we moved to Canada about 17 years ago, he left the Pentax in Hong Kong.

I recently went back to Hong Kong for an internship. My uncle found the Pentax and handed it to me. He said that he dug it up a few years ago and found that a battery was left in it and leaked. The shutter was stuck was well! He cleaned out the battery compartment "opened up the bottom" (didn't say how) and "put some oil in it", the shutter retracted up, and never came back down again!

The advance lever winds film, but doesn't cock the shutter... you can "advance" infinitely. The shutter button doesn't work, not even on the manual 1/125 mode! Not to mention the 50/1.4 it came with is almost all covered in fungus on both front and back elements!

Is there any hope for fixing the body? It'd be nice to be able to bring back my dad's old camera for him 🙂

 

[_tom]

I would send you the original Pentax ME Super service manual if you should decide to repair the camera by yourself. Just drop a PM and I´ll send you the document.

 

[FrankS]

It would be far easier and cheaper to buy a working Pentax me super. The actual camera can be displayed on a shelf. It's just not a model that lends itself to an easy fix due to its electronics and miniaturized size.

 

[Dan Daniel]

United States, Eric Hendrickson is the guy for Pentax-
http://pentaxs.com/

Drop him an email. Maybe include a photo of the battery compartment area. He'll let you know what might be involved. To me it sounds as if the camera is done for. Maybe Eric could transplant your father's outer shell onto an overhauled mechanical core?

 

[PatrickCheung]

Humm... I figured it would be so, especially since it was mostly electronic! A shutter that's been disengaged from the advance lever doesnt sound good either!

I'll bring it back for him anyway, and maybe I can nab a cheap/free pentax body to try that fungus etched lens on!

 

[lam]

Yeah, Pentax ME's are stupidly cheap for real good performing cameras anymore.
By the sounds of it, it may be terminal. 🙁

Go grab another body for pennies and bring it back to him!

 

[Lawrence Sheperd]

Unfortunately, the ME and ME Super suffer from age-related problems, namely internal light-blocking foam that turns to goo and seizes both the cocking/winding mechanism and the mirror raising/lowering mechanism. Very tedious to try and clean since you must either remove or carefully work around the mirror cage assembly.

 

[MPWhite01]

I have my Dad's ME Super, and it is like new, he ran maybe 3 rolls of film through it tops... he loved to buy cameras, as he was a professional for over 70 years. Got lots of who knows what!

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

I had the same issue. I bought a used camera, exact same model, in perfect shape. It's easy to hold, shoot, and remember my dad doing the same.

 

[PatrickCheung]

😛 I'm assuming the ME Super was popular in it's day if all our fathers have owned one! Lucky to those who have functional ones!

I'll take a look around today and see if I can find another body... I'd be nice to have the original there at home as a decoration too! The lens seems fun to use... anyone ever use a fungus filled lens??

 

[ebolton]

Now I feel really old. An ME Super was the first camera I bought for myself, and I bought it brand-new. I spent a long time researching the cameras of the day in my price range from Pentax, Nikon, Canon, and Olympus. The ME Super didn't have everything I would have wanted, but it had most of the features and was lower priced than the others. I'm guessing all your dads made the same decisions!