| I've got a pair of K1000s, and I know a bit about each:
The first is a plain K1000 that my father purchased in June of 1977. It looks identical to the one posted above (the serial number (6440020) is stamped on the bottom, no "Japan" indication on the back of the top plate.) The Japan sticker, if it ever had one, is long gone. The date places its place of manufacture firmly in Japan, but it looks identical to:
my K1000 SE (brown leather), which was assembled in Hong Kong. The sticker that tells me that is still on the camera, on the baseplate near the "Japan" one is on the picture posted above. (I will post a pic of it sooner or later.) The K1000 SE's serial number is 6494452.
I would guess that Pentax swtiched to the later pattern (as seen on Hong Kong-assembled K1000s) prior to shifting production from Japan to Hong Kong, such that there are Japanese-built K1000s that look like assembled-in-Hong-Kong ones.
(Can anyone tell me when the brown leather K1000 SE was produced? I've always wondered, and I've never been able to find out...) |