Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,437 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: November 10, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $4.67
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Plentiful, lots of versions for collectors | Cons: | Many have laggy shutters | | It's pretty much a standard S/H camera. If you're interested in a camera collecting challenge, this is a fun one to try and pursue all the versions of. These are the versions I know of:
- Asahi Pentax S2 in Japan (and internationally in general)
- Asahi Pentax SB, where B is the second letter in the alphabet, sold in Japanese military camps, note that the rare SB2 is a Pentax S3
- Asahiflex H2 in South Africa, and possibly Finland (though the older, printed sources I read only mention South Africa, and I’ve found no sources except online that indicate Finland was a possible market)
- Asahi Pentax H2 (multiple international markets, mostly Europe)
- Honeywell Heiland Pentax H2 (US)
- Honeywell Pentax H2 (also the US, but later)
- Asahi Pentar H2 (South Africa), also one of the rarest Pentax cameras collectors can pursue
- Penta Asahiflex H2 (South Africa)
Also, it was available in black and silver, so you can presumably double that list if you want one of each color. And there were production variations. Early examples had no clip-on meter interface on the shutter dials. Latter versions did. The S2 Super had the 1/1,000th shutter speed. Also, I've seen photos of latter S2 Super bodies that have a self-resetting fame counter whereas the H2 has a manual-resetting counter.
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New Member Registered: February, 2019 Posts: 15 | Review Date: July 6, 2019 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | It does what it was designed to and it works | Cons: | Often far too expensive | | Why people buy old cameras and expect them to do (1) what they are not designed to do and (2) are expected to work 100% like a new camera are factors of the online photography review world that make me scream with annoyance sometimes.
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Site Supporter Registered: August, 2012 Location: Queensland Posts: 4,292 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: December 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Well made, still functional, and historical. | Cons: | Missing many auto features now standard | | I already had the SV and S1A which came after this model from 1959. It has no hot shoe, self-timer or auto reset of film counter. I checked under the base plate and the workings look a lot less complicated than later models. I love simplicity, and have now loaded a film into this model to check it out. Like the SV and S1A the body is a little smaller than the later Spotmatics which had to fit in the light meter.
The H2 (also known as S2) I have says Pentax on front. I understand it was the first Pentax to have all the speed on the one top dial, rather than having the slow speeds on front. Top speed is 1/500 sec. It used an Auto Tacumar lens which was manually opened for focusing but closed to the set aperture automatically.
I love the quality feel of these early Pentaxs, which was never surpassed in my opinion.
The S3 came later in 1960 with a 1.8 lens and 1/1000 sec speed
The S1 came after the S2 and 3, in 1961 as a cheaper S3 with 1/500 sec and Auto Tacumar f2.0
Later came the SV and S1A to which you could attach a nifty dedicated light meter.
Note: If you use a Super Tac. or SMC Tac, you should use the Manual setting on the lens, as the camera aperture lever was designed to trip the Auto Tac to it's pre selected aperture, and not calibrated for the pin depression to set the actual aperture.
When using the Auto Tac, and after opening the lens with the lever on the lens, the sequence is that as one pushes the release button halfway, the lens aperture is released to the preset position. At full depression, the shutter is tripped. Market Morning
Here is the first film I got back which is on expired Fuji 200. There is no PP at all on this. Some of my shots were under exposed more than I expected, and I don't know if the age of the film had anything to do with it. | |
Moderator Site Supporter Registered: June, 2008 Location: Florida Hill Country Posts: 17,377 | Review Date: May 16, 2011 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
| This is a sleak body and one in the succession of bodies following the AP-S-K triumvirate of 1957 and 1958 that set the 135 camera world on its head.
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