Veteran Member Registered: January, 2011 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 982 | | Review Date: February 17, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Accurate shutter speeds, overall feel | | Cons: | meter is inoperative | |
This review is for the Spotmatic SP. I dunno why it isn't listed with the other M42 camera reviews, but it isn't. It appears to be the same as the SP1000. Shutter speeds 1-1/1000, B. ASA 20-1600.
I don't have much experience with this camera. It was the rear lens cap for a lens I wanted (a 50/1.4 Super Tak). But once I had it in my hands I began to discover a few things. The first thing I noticed was that its slow speeds are very accurate. Most old mechanical cameras I come across of this vintage -- and even newer -- have sluggish slow speeds. This Pentax's slow speeds were crisp and accurate. I can time by ear up to 1/60 and it was obvious to me that speeds up to 1/60 were accurate, and chances are, the rest of them are too.
The overall fit, finish, and operation of this camera are a pleasure to experience. Fit and finish are superb. The film wind crank has a positive feel to it with just the right amount of resistance. Except for a bright mark on the base plate, this camera is in mint condition.
The viewfinder has a single microprism spot, surrounded by a ring about 1/3 the width of the viewfinder area. The meter needle, with + and - indicators is on the right side of the frame.
It took me a long while to find a battery for this camera's meter. The meter responds to the stop-down switch, but that's it. It does not respond to aperture or shutter speed selection, or to light.
Mine came with a clip-on accessory cold shoe. Handy to have and I recommend it. You can find one on eBay for a few bucks.
Mine came with a genuine leather neverready case. I never use these cases when out in the field, but I will frequently store the cameras in them when they're back home. Such is the case with this one.
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Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Colorado Posts: 1,437 | | Review Date: July 31, 2014 | Not Recommended | Price: $82.05
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Simple to use, great lens, sturdy base, easily understood macro scales, optional 100-foot film spool back | | Cons: | Not portable, limited and specialized uses, no interchangeable lenses | |
This is a review of the Pentax Honeywell Repronar 805A.
This is a very specialized camera with a limited usable range. That said, it also allows significant creativity for the user. These are cameras that, today, would seem to have no place whatsoever since they were used mainly for slide copying and, as in the name, reprographic work. However, there are a number of creative uses for them. Mine included a film back that takes 100-foot spools, which would allow animation cells to be copied onto a 35mm motion picture reel, were I so inclined (I am not.) It would also allow a number of slide duplicates to be made for sale as souvenirs, as was done back in the day.
The camera comes with a simply stunning 50mm f4 macro lens -- but not the typical Takumar Bellow Macro. This is a much different lens and stops down to f32. Oh, the aperture is stepless. The size and shape of this would hint that it is also optically different. It is one of the sharpest 50mm lenses I've used and if you can get it on a non-salvageable Repronar body, the lens is worth salvaging for use on a bellows.
The camera itself is tricky to use. IT has only two settings -- B and I. I is probably about 1/50-60th of a second. Mostly, exposure control is done with the macro lens' stepless aperture. The bulb in the Repronar's base is always on for focusing (the camera has a waist-level finder and magnifying glass, which is nice) and the can either be the standard on brightness or can be a fairly bright flash bulb. If your Repronar does not have a working bulb, I do not know if they're still available. Make sure that if you want to buy one it has the condenser glass that goes between the bulb and material to be copied. The bulb get very hot and could damage a plastic animation cell, slide, or other photographic subject.
The waist-level finder, which, because of the camera's fixed orientation is actually a face-level finder, is bright, large, and easy to use. The flip-out magnifying glass is extremely useful for fine focusing.
If you can get one of these with an unsalvageable base, it will make a stunning macro camera in the field.The camera bellows' rails are large and heavy and the camera's not easy to carry, but it's a nice macro camera. And, honestly, it's not hard to get it off the stand so it could be taken off periodically for use in the field anyway.
I like my Repronar and I like that I want to use it and enjoy using it and that, because of it's limited usability, I have to stretch my creative thinking to find ways to use it that are neither clinical nor boring. This is a fun camera to try and use and, if you can get a working one, worth purchasing.
So why did I list no for a recommendation? Like I said it's of limited use. It also takes up a LOT of space. Mine takes up the top of my file cabinet. And it can't get dusty, either, as that will cause the dust to burn onto the light bulb and diminish your light quality and output. So my girlfriend's mom made a nice dust cover for it. But it still takes up a large space and requires a dust cover. And in order to use the light in the base you need to be near a power source. So for regular or non-specialized use, this is not your camera. For specialized use, creative exploration, or a photographic challenge, then this is your camera.
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