Pentax MX.....Good, Not so good???

Asha

Asha

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Out shooting film today, got collared by a guy asking if I might be interested in his MX that he no longer uses.

I could be but tbh I know nothing about the MX nor how good it performs etc so here I am again asking you knowledgable people for your reviews on it.
 
It's all mechanical, pretty reliable and pretty cheap to buy. Many love the viewfinder display, I don't personally. But yeh it's good camera, I've had 2.
 
I have one. If you like compact then this is great. The viewfinder is very good.

If you go to check it out, open up the back and watch the shutter curtains as you wind on. Check that the leading edge stays vertical as it moves. If it's at an angle, the repair will probably be more than the camera is worth.

Definitely worth having if ok though.


Steve.
 
In its day, it was an excellent manual/ mechanical slr

Vastly superior to the contemporary Olympus OM1 and Pentax K1000.
 
All mechanical is my cup o' tea.....guess that why i like Box brownies!! lol

Thanks for the feedback guys...I reckon I'll give him a call and go take a look.

As re the shutter curtains, are they prone to lag at slower speeds like in Zenits??

I guess the beauty is that the guy lives only 15mins from me so to test it before buying is probably a feasable option.

He's got two lenses to go with it too.....I'm suspecting one will be 50mm
 
Compact, well-built, highly featured member of the Pentax M-series. Viewfinder is large and clear, LED metering read-out is clear and useful in low light conditions.

Don't pay too much for it though, there are plenty of good examples on the used market.
 
I've got one as my second Pentax, and to give me more manual control. I got mine for £40 from a charity shop with a 35-50mm Tamron zoom on it. I've promised it a CLA because of a few dust bits on the VF screen, but I'll have to stop using it for a while and I'm not sure when that's going to happen!

Slightly annoying things: it's often hard to see the aperture telltale (which is way up at the top of the VF), and the shutter speed change is quite stiff, definitely not to be done with the camera to my eye.

Buy it! They seem to go for £45-£60 on the bay...
 
ChrisR said:
I've got one as my second Pentax, and to give me more manual control. I got mine for £40 from a charity shop with a 35-50mm Tamron zoom on it. I've promised it a CLA because of a few dust bits on the VF screen, but I'll have to stop using it for a while and I'm not sure when that's going to happen!

Slightly annoying things: it's often hard to see the aperture telltale (which is way up at the top of the VF), and the shutter speed change is quite stiff, definitely not to be done with the camera to my eye.

Buy it! They seem to go for £45-£60 on the bay...
Click to expand...

Cheers Chris....next step for me is to go view it!
 
Oh, that's true - for some reason, the K1000 has a really easy to move shutter speed selector - but the MX one definitely requires two fingers to move it. But it's still a nice little SLR.
 
Great wee camera, I used to have three of them. Agree with Chris about the shutter dial being stiff but an excellent, simple and usable design.

Bit like mini Nikon FM.
 
Yep - shutter speed changer on mine is stiff and a bit iffy, lights all over the place. But a great and easy to use little camera.
 
The mx was a sort of semi pro camera, not quite the lx but more solid that the me super, good camera with decent metering, check the shutter curtain (as mentioned already) and anothet thing to watch for is the shutter buttons were known to be able to be pressed even when locked, won't usually shot a frame but will run the meter batteries down.
 
I had an MX for many years - my first SLR. A superb camera, but check that the LED metering display does not flicker, as I understand this was fairly common with the MX after a long period of time. However mechanically, very reliable.
 
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