In many ways I miss the use of film – solid (all-metal) camera bodies and rugged, heavy lenses, and all that. And not to forget the simplicity of the equipment, where success typically revolved around the user's knowledge and skill set, as opposed to the vigarities of various bits of silicon!
Still, in rumaging through a closet the other day I happened upon an ancient Pentax ME Super, just sleeping quietly in a box awaiting, its next roll of film (and probably fresh batteries for the metering system, of course)....
Sadly, its days are now past and decent film ranges from scarce to unobtainable, depending upon the user's artistic inclinations.
Yet, the poor thing was not alone in its confines, surrounded by hundreds of color transparencies ("slides") and a large collection of 35mm negatives (remember those?). Memories of days also long past...
The net effect of all this was to inspire me to again investigate the current digital offerings from Pentax, following which I chose to obtain a rather decent example of the K500 – just 'to play with,' of course...
The beastie arrived sans manual, an issue quicky remedied via a .pdf download from the Web, and there began the annoying process of re-orientation to a wholly new (to me) menu system. (When in doubt, read the manual?)
After a few shots around the house to "customize" the settings, I found that both the camera and system were somewhat reminiscent of the 'old days' with the iconic Spotmatic – a very fluid and 'natural' operating flow, where it seemed qute easy to get the camera to do just what you required... This experience differed somewhat from that with other maker's products, and I quickly became accustomed to the 'nuances' of the K500.
The Pentax now resides next to digital offerings of similar vintage from other makers (Olympus, Sony, Nikon), which I have used over the years. But, somehow, I now find myself reaching for the Pentax, in preference to all the other choices. Perhaps this is just a matter of novelty – nothing more than an attraction to the latest 'toy" – or perhaps it is something more... Only time will tell...
In any event, I want other Forum members to know how much I have enjoyed reading your postings over the past few years and, now that I am once again a Pentax owner/user, I may become inspired to post a reply or two of my own every now and then.
My thanks to all of you for making this Forum both so informative and so enjoyable...
And, Happy Holidays to all!
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