New pentax on the way!

karmagarda

karmagarda

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I just picked up a Pentax Spotmatic off ebay for 14 quid (linky). Have no idea what they are like, how good they are, all I know is I already have a HELIOS F2/55mm lens for it, and should have a 135mm on the way (thanks to bobbiscuit!).

Anyone ever use one or something similar? It's the M42 mount so I must browse the classifieds and spend more money I don't have right now :lol:

Next, what film to put though it first... hrmmm...
 
It was a good, solid lump that morphed into the K1000 when they improved the metering and changed to bayonet mount. For £14, you've not been done.

Bob
 
Should mention the model I picked up is the Asahi Spotmatic with the center weighted meter. How does that compare to the K1000 I wonder? Not that it matters, for £14 I'm pretty happy!
 
The later K1000 cameras were made down to a price and weren't very good. The earlier Pentax models were better.
 
The only Spotmatics with centre weighted metering were the electronic ES and ESII. Those are pretty similar to the K1000, in fact they are identical almost, they just have an M42 mount instead of a K-mount and unlike the K-1000 feature apperture priority ONLY with SMC Takumar lenses as they feature the pin needed to read the aperture.

That site is actually wrong (this is a very common misconception) in that for all Spotmatics before the ES, the metering was average, i.e it metered off the entire ground glass element and averaged for the whole scene. This was due to the weighting using more electronics that previous models did not possess, the Cds meter is litterally just compared against a fixed resistor, nothing more complex than that.

You may have some problems mounting that Helios lens, are you sure that that is not 58mm as that was a very common Helios lens? The lens extends too far into the body for my Spotmatic F so it is unmountable, it may work with some of the other models though.
 
s162216 said:
The only Spotmatics with centre weighted metering were the electronic ES and ESII. Those are pretty similar to the K1000, in fact they are identical almost, they just have an M42 mount instead of a K-mount and unlike the K-1000 feature apperture priority ONLY with SMC Takumar lenses as they feature the pin needed to read the aperture.

That site is actually wrong (this is a very common misconception) in that for all Spotmatics before the ES, the metering was average, i.e it metered off the entire ground glass element and averaged for the whole scene. This was due to the weighting using more electronics that previous models did not possess, the Cds meter is litterally just compared against a fixed resistor, nothing more complex than that.

You may have some problems mounting that Helios lens, are you sure that that is not 58mm as that was a very common Helios lens? The lens extends too far into the body for my Spotmatic F so it is unmountable, it may work with some of the other models though.
Click to expand...

Interesting. That was the only source I could find anyway. And bloody eck if the helios doesn't fit... you'd imagine they'd have made them some what compatable seeing as they are both M42. It's bad enough finding the correct mount, never mind finding out if that "correct" mount won't actually fit on your camera :bang:. Will check on the 55/58mm later, you could be right. Although 3mm won't make much of a difference to me to be honest.
 
The main thing with the M42 mount was that it was never designed originally to do half the things it did in the end:

  • The auto-diaphragm pin was an add on in the late 50's but didn't really cause too much trouble
  • Pentax SMC Takumar lenses don't mount on some cameras because the aperture sensing pin/lever catches on the mount
  • A lot of M42 mount camera manufacturers designed their own add ons for the mount which naturally made it incompatible with other cameras

See what I mean? For example my Helios 58mm won't mount on my Spotmatic F as it extends too far into the body but my 55mm Pentax SMC Takumar won't mount on my Zenit EM either.

Lots of lenses do work, some just don't, look them up before you buy is my advice. Anyway, for that Spotmatic, the best thing you can buy for it are Super-Takumar lenses which are not too much these days and are still great!
 
s162216 said:
The main thing with the M42 mount was that it was never designed originally to do half the things it did in the end:

  • The auto-diaphragm pin was an add on in the late 50's but didn't really cause too much trouble
  • Pentax SMC Takumar lenses don't mount on some cameras because the aperture sensing pin/lever catches on the mount
  • A lot of M42 mount camera manufacturers designed their own add ons for the mount which naturally made it incompatible with other cameras

See what I mean? For example my Helios 58mm won't mount on my Spotmatic F as it extends too far into the body but my 55mm Pentax SMC Takumar won't mount on my Zenit EM either.

Lots of lenses do work, some just don't, look them up before you buy is my advice. Anyway, for that Spotmatic, the best thing you can buy for it are Super-Takumar lenses which are not too much these days and are still great!
Click to expand...

I see! Thanks for the info on that. Being somewhat a film "green horn" I don't know all these little details! Camera arrived today so I will test it this evening and report back :thumbs:
 
Ok... the helios seems to fit on the pentax. Screwed it on until tight, and everything seems to click and clunk as it's supposed to! It meters fine... the battery is low so not sure how accurate the metering will be! But we'll put a film through it and see what happens.

In regards to the film, it's alien to me to walk into a high street shop (snappy snaps is my only option real close) and say

"Gimme yer cheapest film"

"That'll be 5.99 sir"

..... what the hell! This is for Fujifilm superia 200 which I can get online for about 2 quid per roll for a pack of 10. Jaysus, 6 bleedin quid!

Anyway, now that I have that rant over, yes I still did buy the film because I'm an impatient b****r and want to test if this blasted thing works. You'd think I have money to burn or something.

About 4ish clicks in and everything seems fine so far. Let's see what happens when I develop it though!

Don't tell anyone outside of the film forum... but for some odd reason this has suddenly become my new favourite camera... it's like having a lightweight D300 in my hands. How cool is that!
 
Brilliant little things, we use these at college and they're really nice to use and take some great photos.
 
My Spotmatic F is an absolute joy to handle. Its got just that right amount of weight so that its heavy enough to keep stable but then not too heavy. Although, add in my Vivitar Series 1 70 - 210mm (the original Kiron version) which weighs about 900g then the weight does go up a bit and then add on my new massive Vivitar 285 auto thyristor flash and its even more!

Plus it delights me that mine is in a perfect condition, brought it off ebay about 4 months ago for £60 along with the 55mm SMC Takumar and a whole load of filters and the original instruction books etc. The guy selling it said he brought it in 1973 and apart from a few scratches around the tripod mount it looks like it just came out the box! The photos it takes are great as well, it had been CLA'd a few years ago, when I got it I ran a Velvia 50 through it and they came out perfect.

Wonderful cameras...
 
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