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04-10-2023, 03:52 PM   #1
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Looking for info on a Pentax "Spotmeter K"

I've started getting into film photography again and was thinking about using the Zone System invented by Ansel Adams and while looking at Pentax Spotmeters, I saw a few listed as "rare K model" and I can't find anything about them in a Google search. I also asked the Bing AI search and it couldn't tell me more... so... does anyone here know anything about a Pentax Spotmeter K? Why is it rare? How does it compare to Pentax's other spotmeters?

04-10-2023, 04:22 PM   #2
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I don't know much about light meters but I guess you are talking about the third one in this list:
Light Meters - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database

PS - Listed as rare doesn't mean that it is actually rare
04-10-2023, 04:39 PM   #3
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Don't know that there was ever a Spot Meter K,
There were the Spot meters up to a V or VI (5 or 6) match needle,
Or the Digital Spot Meter, more compact,

There were third party modifications done for the Zone system (on both digital and the I-VI series) , search for Pentax Spotmeter and "Zone" looks like a rabbit hole, lots of opinions and information,
04-10-2023, 06:34 PM   #4
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Here is a link to some pictures. It's not the one I'm interested in. From what I can tell, it might have been a budget model? It has a Cds sensor with a range of 3-18 EV. It took a mercury battery along with a 9 volt. I don't know what years they manufactures these.


I had never heard of one until now.


https://kamerastore.com/en-us/products/pentax-spotmeter-v-3

04-10-2023, 10:35 PM   #5
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looks to me like a variation of a model II, Spotmeter | My Pentax
Big thing that caught my eye is that it takes a Mercury battery, which you can't get anymore, need to find a silver cell variant, and the circuitry on old meters does not like the different power curves. Inconsistent results across the life of the battery.
If you really want a spot meter to use, get a V, VI or the digital, they all took silver cells, which are easy to find.
That name plate on it looks funky too, almost like it's been 3D printed, all the others of that vintage I can see the tops of seem to have printed foil names on the top of them.
Could be rare because someone made only one name plate,
04-10-2023, 10:46 PM - 1 Like   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by mkirk Quote
Here is a link to some pictures. It's not the one I'm interested in. From what I can tell, it might have been a budget model? It has a Cds sensor with a range of 3-18 EV. It took a mercury battery along with a 9 volt. I don't know what years they manufactures these.

I had never heard of one until now.

https://kamerastore.com/en-us/products/pentax-spotmeter-v-3

There were multiple generations of the Pentax one-degree Spotmeter. I don't know the whole history of the meter but I have the similar looking Pentax One-Degree Spotmeter V (it says that where the link says Spotmeter K) and the so-called Pentax Digital one-degree Spotmeter (lower RH). It operats just like the analog Spotmeter V (get a EV reading and use a dial scale) except it much more compact and easy to carry around.



Lightmeters
by tuco, on Flickr


You can practice the Zone System of metering with a one-degree spot meter but you really can't practice the metering and the Zone System of film developing (highlight compression and expansion) very accurately without a densitometer similar to the one in the following picture.


X-Rite Model 301 Densitometer
by tuco, on Flickr

You need to establish 'normal' (N) development times for all your films and then find the development times for N-1, N-2, etc highlight compression and N+1, N+2, etc highlight expansion times if going to go all-out zone system. That's not too practical if you are only shooting 135 canister film.
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