[Uluru]

You would be right, but you neglect the Ricoh nanotechnology. This will be some high tech camera. I said a "special" M42 adapter. It has electrical contacts and a built-in aperture pusher motor. You lose SR with M42 lenses, unfortunately, as the sensor shifts forward to account for the 1.5 mm greater register distance.

Still this is the most retro-compatible SLR ever.

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You really thought of everything; like the Star Trek — technobabble saves the day and does the impossible.

[tclausen]

Wait, Spotmatic unfashionable? Come on, its the iconic SLR, the first image that pops to mind when someone says "film camera", the archetype, the platonic ideal of mechanic cameras!

Sorry, no, that's wrong. The iconic, platonic ideal of a, mechanical SLR has to be the Olympus OM-1.

Heck, the OM-1 is even so infamous that it's (still) used on "warning, speed-radar ahead" road-signs in 2013 in some places.....

[Uluru]

Why on the earth i need a FF camera only with ring aperture control and manual focus?

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Imagine a K5II in the shape of a flat box. That's what basically imaginary Spotmatic digital can be. A modern thing wrapped in an old charm. Much more controls, don't worry. Spotmatic is just a name, but in reality just a K-mount camera.

But more than anything I'd like Takumar name resurrected. Digital Takumar for the Pentax FF, the best of the best in prime lenses.
IN reality, if they want, all reissued, updated and recoated FA Ltds can be named as such. Takumar 77, Takumar 31, etc.

I'd love that.

[stevebrot]

Heck, the OM-1 is even so infamous that it's (still) used on "warning, speed-radar ahead" road-signs in 2013 in some places.....

If that were the criteria, then the prize would go to the Kiev-10 (Automat), whose unmistakable stylized image has warned generations of people to put their cameras away.



(photo courtesy commiecameras.com)

More at:

http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/kiev10/

If Darth Vader owned a film camera...


Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 06-29-2013 at 07:04 PM.

[ChrisPlatt]

The iconic, platonic ideal of a, mechanical SLR has to be the Olympus OM-1.

The Nikon F/F2 w/plain prism is the archetypal 35mm SLR.

Chris

[Nesster]

Sorry, EVERYONE knows that the Speed Graphic is THE iconic camera.


This is off topic, but by the way, why aren't we bitching Pentax isn't putting out a digital 6x7? Don't they realize they are in danger of losing that market to Singer for G-d's sake, who will put out an interchangeable digital back for the old Speed and Century Graphics.

[tclausen]

Sorry, EVERYONE knows that the Speed Graphic is THE iconic camera.


This is off topic, but by the way, why aren't we bitching Pentax isn't putting out a digital 6x7? Don't they realize they are in danger of losing that market to Singer for G-d's sake, who will put out an interchangeable digital back for the old Speed and Century Graphics.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: until Pentax produces a digital 8x11, they/re doooooomed!

[TOUGEFC]

approximately 40 shots per battery in-camera

LOL major fail!

[RobA_Oz]

...and with the exception of the beetle, the Spotmatic is from an earlier era, though bell bottoms were the style at the end of the Spotmatic production.


Steve

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but disco started in the late 1960s, which was also the time in which bell-bottoms made their first appearance outside of the navy. I was there! Personally, I wish I hadn't been, in relation to both those movements, but you can't help being born where and when you were!

[tclausen]

The Nikon F/F2 w/plain prism is the archetypal 35mm SLR.

Chris

OM and Kiev, used on a lot of "icons" around the world (and, Darth Vader, apparently), so definitely "iconic cameras" - almost by definition, eh?

Nikon F - I was actually contemplating if they were or were not in the same fold. Truth is, I cannot for the life of me remember....I remember the F3 as becoming /the/ press-photographers camera of choice, in no time, when it came out, but the F/F2 I do not recall much about from that time. This is just as - incidentally - the Spotmatic: I sorta-kinda knew of their existence, but that's about it. The Ricoh KR10 is - for me - more memorable. I was thinking if the Canon AE was in the same calibre...

An entirely off-topic digression: I remember the local photo shop in my home-town when I was a kid and a teenager, was member of some sort of franchise-chain, but otherwise independently owned. They'd every 6 months produce a thick A5 catalogue with all the camera bodies, lenses, ..., they were selling which was...all the bodies/lenses/etc. there was, essentially. Even as a pup I'd run down and pick up a copy on the first day a new catalogue was out, then go day-dreaming of having the pocket money to actually buy one of those cameras.......stupid as I am, of course, I've not held on to those catalogues. At the time, there were - it seemed - an awful lot, and an awful lot of diversity in the SLR space: Practica, Ricoh, Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Minolta all made SLRs. The SLRs usually were part of a "system" with each manufacturer making several different models with different characteristics - but typically using the same range of accessories, such as grips, flashes, lenses etc. And then, there was the rangefinders and the medium format section....such choice.

I can't help but wonder what my rose-tinted glasses will make of today's digital world: Minolta and Practica are gone, as are many others, Ricoh and Pentax have entered into unholy matrimony. What manufacturer there are left produce "almost identical bodies" all using the same sensors (essentially), and differentiation in the days of electronics almost seems to be perverted "intentionally crippling features in the firmware". Honestly, the most differentiating features between the bodies are WR, SR, AA-filter, buffer-capacity, weight and size.....and "system cameras" have gone out the window, even within a brand using the same batteries, grips is not happening much (at least, for Pentax, had to buy everything except lenses anew from *istD to K10D to K-01).

Anyways, enough digressing.....as a former Zuikoholic, one thing is sure: if Olympus were to release a digital OM1 (as in /exactly/ an OM1 in function, not that which they sell as OM-D which just remotely looks like an OM1), then I'd be all over it in a heartbeat. I can fully well understand how an original "Pentaxian" feels about the Spotmatic taking the same place in the K-system evolution - and it'd be really cool to get a Spotmatic-D, as close to the original as possible....

[RobA_Oz]

LOL major fail!

Absolutely not! The battery should be in the shape of a 35mm cassette! And inserted the same way, and in the same place.

[tclausen]

Absolutely not! The battery should be in the shape of a 35mm cassette! And inserted the same way, and in the same place.

And cause the camera to jam occasionally.

To be really hard-core, the only way to recharge the battery should be by way of inserting it into a "loader" and turning a little red crank repeatedly......

[RobA_Oz]

And cause the camera to jam occasionally.

To be really hard-core, the only way to recharge the battery should be by way of inserting it into a "loader" and turning a little red crank repeatedly......

Ah, an eco-friendly retro device, no less...

[Uluru]

Ah, an eco-friendly retro device, no less...

This new Spotmatic is truly Eco friendly; it was even conceived by a sudden break of wind ...

[Asahiflex]

Didn't Pentax create exactly such a camera in the digital era? Based on a K10D, but nevertheless... It even sports a Takumar-DA lens