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06-04-2009, 12:23 AM
#2 Site Supporter
For all practical uses this is a P3n without the selectable Manual mode. Otherwise, everything said about the P3n is applicable. Actually not a bad P&S body. You can sometimes pick one of these up with an interesting non-AF lens for less than $45 US. (Well, maybe not so often today.)
I've had three of 'em and have given them to people that wanted to carry something other than a plain-vanilla P&S camera (after swapping out some more interesting lenses for generic 50/2.0's, of course).
Simplicity is the key word here. The ancestor of the plastic , non-AF body cameras. I suspect Pentax marketing learned a lot from this series. A more exciting word than 'plastic' might have made a big difference as the lighter weight body was certainly appreciated.
If I was given a choice between an M-, P- or Spotmatic film body as a travelin' camera today, I'd choose a P-body. Only 5% larger but 15% lighter than the M-'s and no contest with the Spotmatic/K1000's, to me they were more comfortable to hold and carry. I used various used P-bodies (mostly P3n's) from 1993 to 2004 with no mechanical failures or faults - a good system camera that was overtaken by the new AF (M-body) market. I did a LOT of shop/lab work with P3-series bodies and never had a failure of this design.
If you want to collect Pentax bodies, the P3-series deserves a place on the shelf. It never got acclaim in the press but it served well in the trenches until it was overcome by the AF bodies and their necessary marketing.
H2
Some criticize the P-bodies -- but there was never an image I needed I couldn't take with a P-bodies, and that included accident investigation scenes and close-ups.
Last edited by pacerr; 06-04-2009 at 12:54 AM..
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