Originally posted by edl I know this is a Pentax forum and we should restrict our CBA and LBA to Pentax-related stuff, but I've recently been thinking about running two systems and started doing some research on the other brands.
What other great film bodies (besides the known Pentax ones) are worth consideration? I haven't had the opportunity to use one yet, but the Nikon F4 seems excellent. It looks to be very worthy with awesome specifications, great lens compatability, many viewfinders, and stout battery packs/vertical grips.
Any thoughts?
(on a side note - i don't understand why my PZ1-P focuses faster than my K20D. It's so fast my friend with the 1dsmk3 said "WOW" when he tried it.)
Nikon Fm, F2 and F3 are all nice bodies, used them during my military service.
What I heared of Olympus OM sounds also appealing to me.
But if you have a film Pentax in the shape of the Pz-1p, why not try some older Pentax film body? Pentax KM, KX or K2 are nice competent cameras. Pentax MX, ME super and Super-A/Program-A are more compact alternatives. And then there is the LX of course
If you want to be able to buy a large system of good to excellent lenses for little money, consider the dead Konica system. Because the Konica mount has a shorter registration distance than most other there is almost no digital cameras that can use them, and therefore the prices are very low. Recently a few 4/3rd users has begun to modify Konica lenses, but they are still few. And if you read old tests, you will learn that Konica Hexanon (their lens brand) was right behind the Pentax/Takumar lenses, or sometimes up to compete with them, usually ahead of Nikon, Canon and others. Then in the 80's despite that Konica had a test model at about the same time as Pentax, they never introduced any autofocus solution, they lost market, bodies got cheaper and plastic etc, and then Minolta baught Konica and killed them (after letting them build the Hexar rangefinders for a while). A sad story. But the lenses are as well built and hard to destroy as the old Takumars or Pentax K/M/A lenses. Focus is a little bit stiffer than Pentax lenses, but in a consistent way so you get used to it. Konica had a mechanical solution for exposure time priority and an auto position on the lens apperture long befor Pentax introduced the KA mount. The best body is the Konica T3N, but T2 and T3 are quite fine as well. Built like tanks, fully manual and exposure time priority, full viewfinder info with exposure time and apperture AND min and max apperture of the specific lens (all solved mechanically! it's a miracle! don't understand how it works, but it does). Mirror lock up, timer, built in cover for the viewfinder. Because Konica have about 40mm registration distance instead of the typically ~45mm of for example Pentax and Nikon, there are adapters that let you mount m42, Pentax K, Nikon, Topcon and other lenses. You can run these cameras on zink-air-batteries (1.4V) as the simplest solution to replace the original mercury batteries, or modify them with a resistor bridge so that you can use silverdioxide 1.5V batteries (there are some workshops that does this). The T3/T3N was the peak of Konica SLR and the system included most accessoires that was associated with a pro camera at the time. The closest Pentax camera would be the K2. You can buy two T3/T3N bodies and a 24mm/f2.8, 28mm/f3.5, 40mm/f1.8 (the sharpest pancake lens, at least before the Pentax ltd's, much better than the old M40/2.8 Pentax pancake), 50mm/f1.7 or f1.4, 85mm/f1.8, 135mm/f2.5 or 3.5, 200mm/f3.5 or 4.0 and a 55mm/f3.5 macro that goes to 1:1 with an included extension tube for about 350-450 US$. There are some lenses that are so rare that collectors drive up the price even despite the small remaining number of people that actually use these cameras, such as a 21mm lens and a 35mm/f2,0 that may cost 200-300 US$ each, and some even more rare that I've never seen in real life, but this is still cheap for this sort of lenses. Have fun!
Someone here on the forum claimed he managed to mount a Konica lens directly on a Pentax camera, but for my life I have not managed to repeat this (without the adapter I have, but that does not allow infinity focus).
Someone else reported to have adapted Konica lenses to K mount by removing ~5mm of the lens. While it makes my stomach turn a bit, you can of course try this. Certainly some of the lenses are worth it. But it will of course only work on lenses were the last lens element is at least that much sunk into the lens.
Finally, there are some lenses called Konica Hexar (unlike Hexanon). These were their low budget option (a 28, 50 and 135mm lens I believe) that was not even built by Konica. A bit like the bayonette takumars. Not worth the trouble.