The Beautiful Spotmatics

[Doug]

Seems the black finish is less common in the screw-mount Pentaxes, so they tend to sell for a bit more. Both my Spotmatic ES and ESII are black, though.

 

[Moto-Uno]

^^ That kinda sounds like a line from Star Trek 🙂 . Peter

 

[leicapixie]

I am sure on my old Spotmatics the meter switch "jumped" back to "off",
on release of shutter..mine at home. sheltering elsewhere..
The screens are darker than My Nikon-F, but very easy to focus on.
I used to get headaches working with SP's due to focus system were set for far sighted? The Nikon-F meant no more headaches. I was a pro so it was many hours looking, framing and focusing!

The Leica-M3 was the easiest to work with and never needing glasses till my 40's. Later my eyes changed from near sighted to far, sadly my arms not long enough..but no need for glasses on those Spotmatics..
I love the size and 'feel' of Spotmatic and still use a few incl. a black one.

 

[p.giannakis]

I am sure on my old Spotmatics the meter switch "jumped" back to "off",
on release of shutter..mine at home. sheltering elsewhere..

Really? Will be interested if you check this out when you can. My two Spotmatics (both charity shop finds) didn't go to off automatically. Actually, if you didn't turn the switch to off whilst taking the picture, the mirror was staying up in both of them (they were going back down when switched to off).

 

[Michael Markey]

Sold the black Spotmactic .... just this SL now

 

[Shac]

Really? Will be interested if you check this out when you can. My two Spotmatics (both charity shop finds) didn't go to off automatically. Actually, if you didn't turn the switch to off whilst taking the picture, the mirror was staying up in both of them (they were going back down when switched to off).

The switch on my Spotmatic II goes off when I take a photo

 

[retinax]

Confirming the switch goes back on my SP, at least it did before it died.
I've also been uncertain if it's ok to push it back to open the aperture back up and turn the meter off. It doesn't feel great.

 

[Pál_K]

Confirming the switch goes back on my SP, at least it did before it died.
I've also been uncertain if it's ok to push it back to open the aperture back up and turn the meter off. It doesn't feel great.

Exactly. After the shutter is released, the meter switch will go back down.

The problem was when I chose not to make the photo and manually lowered the switch (thus also re-opening the aperture). Very stiff and sticky. As I said, it broke in one week on a new camera.

2nd easiest workaround is to switch the lens to Manual - then the resistance to the switch goes away. I got good at doing it quickly.

I have two yellowed 50's. I don't want to put them in hot bright sunlight. Does the Ikea UV lamp work?

 

[wwfloyd]

I've picked up a couple Spotmatics a couple years ago. Not sure what one is. Black with Spotmatic on the front, only a serial number on the top and 1000 top speed. Maybe a II? Looks like WWFloyd's right above this post. Another one is an SV. I have two 55 1.8s, one 50 1.4, 28 3.5 and I think a 135. I just un-yellowed the 50 1.4 last week. I only ever shot one roll of film with the black one. Nice camera. It harkens back to the good ol' days before plastic was invented. Lol. I should probably get rid of the stuff though. Never see myself using it. I guess the romance was better than the reality...

If it does not say 1000, it would be a Spotmatic (original), same as if it had SP near the serial number -- some had that, and some did not.