[James capp]

Hello I haven't shot film in 30 years I picked up a Pentax K 1000 appears mint with a 50mm 1.1.7 lense is there a list of other lenses I should pick up also how to access if it needs new gaskets on film door feels tacky to touch if so where to get done I am in NYC area thanks sincerely james capp

[UncleVanya]

James - welcome. Your lens question is pretty open ended. There are a TON of good K and M series lenses that are perfect for your use. The A series and M42 series lenses will also work. You can even use F and FA series (not FAJ) lenses as these have full metering capability and an aperture ring. Only the DA series and some DFA series lenses will not work for you. The very latest electronic aperture control lens only works on the latest bodies but that is a DA lens so it was already on the list you couldn't use.

What might help is to tell us what types of pictures you want to explore getting? The 50mm f/1.7 is a great start. Do you recall liking wide angle or telephoto more? Do you like portraiture? Do you like Macro? These will help guide suggestions.

Additionally - there are people who do Cleaning Lubrication and Alignment (CLA) for these older bodies. The camera may need that. The sticky foam can be replaced by DIY effort but the other bits are harder to accomplish. Not sure who in NY area does that.

Favorite lenses also may need some budget input. The K 28 f/2 is lovely but pricey. The K 1000 f/8 is rare and pricey and huge. The M* and A* lenses are exceptional but also pricey.

[Na Horuk]

Welcome!

I think that camera allows you to use pretty much any Pentax K-mount lens that has an aperture ring on it (ring with little f-numbers, like f1.7, 2. 2.8, 3.2, etc. usually up to f16 or f22, sometimes with a special A setting, which is useful on newer cameras, but useless on yours unless I am mistaken). There might be some exceptions in terms of compatibility, but those lenses are rather rare anyway. I would recommend you avoid m42 and m39 and m37 mount lenses for now, as those require an adapter. So, K-mount bayonet, also called K and then its newer incarnations KA, KAF, KAF2, etc. Sometimes its even called KR, for Pentax-Ricoh. You'll figure it out as you go along, don't worry
You can go here: Pentax Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database
And scroll down to M series. These are usually fairly affordable and good quality, especially the primes (fixed focal length - zoom lenses used to be rather poor and only recently have become great, but at a hefty price tag). As you can see, there are a lot of lenses to choose from. Pentax K-mount lenses have been in production for decades, by various manufacturers.

In your case I would recommend maybe a Pentax 28mm or 35mm lens for general wide angle (landscapes, street, travel), and a lens between 77mm and 135mm for portraiture. The smaller the mm number, the wider the angle of view. The lower the f-number, the more light the lens can capture. The M 50mm f1.7 is a good place to start, though.

The good thing about Pentax K-mount lenses is that you can even use them on modern digital cameras, like the top notch K-1 or the affordable K-S1. Of course, if the lens pre-dates AF or other features, it will not suddenly develop those once you put it on a new camera

One more thing - maybe you will get more answers to your question if you post in the film SLR subforum. It is also possible someone already had a similar question to yours and it got answered there. In the US I think there is well-respected guy named Eric that does a lot of this kind of stuff, repairs and refurbishing and general CLA. I'm sure his contacts will pop up in relevant threads, so just go search those forums

[pathdoc]

Hi and welcome.

Eric's website is pentaxs.com; a Google search I just did for "Eric Hendrickson Pentax" brought it up first thing. He was formerly working solo but IIRC he is currently training an apprentice who is cutting her teeth on K1000's.

A good three lens combination back in the day was a 28mm wide angle, 50mm "normal" (which you have) and either a 135mm short telephoto or, later, a zoom lens in the general region of (about) 80mm to (about) 200mm.

28mm and 135mm lenses were made by the thousands and are fairly easy to find cheap on E-bay and elsewhere including secondhand camera dealers, secondhand sections of modern camera supply stores (Adorama, B&H are both New York-based firms) pawnshops, etc, though outside of a specialty shop you have no guarantee of quality. In addition we have a market-place segment on the forum where relatively inexpensive old "glass" can be found that is being sold by people who know it well and have generally taken good care of it.

[Kerrowdown]

Lots of good advice given already... I'll just say welcome.

[Unregistered User 8]

Hi James. Welcome to the Pentax forums. As Kerrowdown says, excellent advice already given which I could not add to. Good to have you here.

[BigMackCam]

Hello and welcome to the forums - glad you could join us. You're already getting better advice than I could give, so I'll merely wish you the best of luck for now