[pathdoc]

Thanks, pathdoc, for starting this thread.

You're welcome.

I would chop and change a lot more often than I do if I could more easily get hold of single rolls at less than exorbitant prices (e.g. pack of ten Tri-X 400/36, $87 on Amazon; shipping included. One pack, $11, plus shipping... It doesn't seem worth it just to try one out, but I'd happily buy ten once my current ten-pack of Tmax400 is gone, if that were all I could find.)

Unfortunately I now cannot source film locally AT ALL, not even Walmart Kodak 200 or 400. Everything has to come in from outside.

[TheOtherRob]

Rob, really? I thought the K1000's light meter was horribly flaky. When the battery starts to drain the meter doesn't swing as much, and I can't count the number of times I thought it was either spot on or one stop over/under, and it was really 4 or 5 stops over or under, resulting in completely ruined shots. What's more, the battery drains constantly because the light meter will continue to operate from the light that enters the viewfinder. The Super ME I have has a wonderful light meter in comparison. And a much better focusing screen to boot. Once I found cameras with reliable light meters and split-prism focusing screens, I couldn't sell my K1000 fast enough.

Charles.

Rob, really? I thought the K1000's light meter was horribly flaky.

ChopperCharles and Gaweidert, absolutely I find the K1000 meter to be reliable. You aren't the first to say make this observation, though, so perhaps I'm just lucky enough to have an especially good copy. However, once I got the hang of how the K1000 metered a whole scene, it became easy to adjust exposure for averaging or bringing out this or that. The matchstick has generally worked for me, and when I do blow an exposure I can usually attribute it to a bad calculation on my part.

As for batteries, I must be doing something wrong because I literally get years of life out of mine. The battery in there right now is two and a half years old, and it often sits on the shelf for months at a time with nothing over the eyepiece. To confirm, I just grabbed it went outside and used it to meter three scenes in afternoon light, then shot the frames on a K1. To my surprise, the K1000 actually overexposed by about a stop, before I remembered the yellow filter on the K1000. I removed the filter, and it was pretty much bang on.

So, I guess I haven't had your experience.

Rob

[ChrisPlatt]

Your exposure meter may be influenced by large bright or dark portions in a scene, so use judiciously.

My wife used a Pentax K1000 for many years and her exposures were always spot-on.
Likewise mine have been good with my KM, which has the same exposure meter system.

We change batteries yearly though they still check good. We store the cameras in darkness, inside a case or bag.

Chris

[goatsNdonkey]

. . . . . The battery in there right now is two and a half years old, and it often sits on the shelf for months at a time with nothing over the eyepiece. To confirm, I just grabbed it went outside and used it to meter three scenes in afternoon light, then shot the frames on a K1. To my surprise, the K1000 actually overexposed by about a stop, before I remembered the yellow filter on the K1000. I removed the filter, and it was pretty much bang on. . . . .
Rob

The K1000 manual says only to keep the lens capped between actual light metering and photography. It says nothing about covering the eyepiece to protect battery life. Not that manuals can't have omissions or mistakes, of course. It does near the end suggest keeping the camera in a closet or cabinet or closed up in its case between uses, but that is in the context of protecting it from abrupt swings in humidity. Did it come with an eyepiece cover. I suspect it did not.

[TheOtherRob]

The K1000 manual says only to keep the lens capped between actual light metering and photography.

Hello goatsNdonkey, thanks for the info, but that actually confirms my experience. I was addressing a poster who may have been suggesting that the battery was susceptible to being run down if the eyepiece was not protected from stray light over time. My experience is that this is simply not the case, and I tested my old battery to confirm this.

So, no... I don't store my K1000 with a cover on the eyepiece and have never had any issues.

I fear I have inadvertently hijacked this thread. To bring it back on topic, I will note that I just finished developing the last two rolls shot through my ME Super.,.. and no surprises it was my traditional HP5@1600 for both. This combo just seems to work and I rarely put anything else in the ME.

Cheers,

Rob

[goatsNdonkey]

Hello goatsNdonkey, thanks for the info, but that actually confirms my experience. I was addressing a poster who may have been suggesting that the battery was susceptible to being run down if the eyepiece was not protected from stray light over time. My experience is that this is simply not the case, and I tested my old battery to confirm this.

So, no... I don't store my K1000 with a cover on the eyepiece and have never had any issues.

I fear I have inadvertently hijacked this thread. To bring it back on topic, I will note that I just finished developing the last two rolls shot through my ME Super.,.. and no surprises it was my traditional HP5@1600 for both. This combo just seems to work and I rarely put anything else in the ME.

Cheers,

Rob

I tossed in the manual info because multiple views on the issue were entering into the discussion. I have had strong light from a rearward angle seem to affect light readings on an old Ricoh body I had, so I wouldn't rule out bright enough light coming in an eyepiece turning on a meter circuit like in the K1000. I recently got a very well used K1000, which I'm refurbishing, and the question about the meter IS important to me.

Back on the thread's main topic, as well, I did just order some Fomapan 100 and 400. Never tried it before. Online images from it look interesting to me. Perhaps that film has a potential as a film I might stick with....for a particular camera or lens? I don't know. I'm the guy who earlier said I just hop around from film to film. So maybe I'll try Foma and hop on.

[Basie]

My K1000, which sadly is being neglected now due to logistical problems with film in this neck of the woods and the ease of DSLR and LR, was only fed Tri X or 100 ASA ( there, you know my age ) black and white. Any colour was done with my Ricoh KR5 or KR10 or MZ50. I don't know why, but the K1000 feels like a black and white camera. BTW, the metering was never a problem and sunny 16 worked well for when the battery ran down. For colour slides I used Velvia in the MZ50, never the K1000

Great thread

[ChrisPlatt]

I don't know why, but the K1000 feels like a black and white camera.

A large proportion of K1000 original owners purchased them for a college photography class
and probably never ran anything but BW film through them.

Chris

[goatsNdonkey]

K1000s are not going cheaply on the shopgoodwill website. $60 and higher, and that's wiht them being sold "as is." A lot of slrs certainly go far cheaper than that on ebay, and some of them listed as checked and working.

[skierd]

There are a lot of films I wouldn't put in my cameras, now that I've had experience with many different types. But the prohibitions goes across all my bodies, as it's generally I don't like a particular film's look, color, grain, etc.

[cobbu2]

I have 2 P6x7 bodies, the first, a newer P67, and the second, an old Honeywell P6x7 non-MLU. The older one I shoot almost always handheld, so it's had nothing but B&W. The newer P67 gets the projects that require a tripod (to exploit the MLU feature), so both color and B&W run through it.

[pathdoc]

So I went and stuck a roll of Tmax 400 into a P3 and it just doesn't feel right. Even in an ME, it wouldn't feel right. These are cameras that need colour film; the B&W gets saved for all-manual.

[cobbu2]

Come to think of it, when I was shooting my ME Super and MX regularly, I always, always had color in the ME-Super and B&W in the MX; I guess the "manual-only" design of the MX lent itself to B&W in my mind... sort of like the SLR version of an older Leica.

[AldaCZ]

I have recently used MX with M50 or Helios 44K, Sigma 28 with Fomapans 100 & 200(BW neg).