Ok. I have had already several film bodies - I have ME Super that is always having BW film in it and lives in my car with 50mm 1.7 on it. I had MX in fantastic condtion, I even got it fully CLA'ed but I sold it after all sticking to my main film bodies : two mighty Z1p
So Ladies and Gentlemens - there it is - a King :
This camera has literally *everything* that you can think of or dream about - apart from weather sealing of course - there is literally no feature I am missing on this camera. 1/8000s. 1/250 flash sync, massive amount of customization and fantastic - best to date handling. I had briefly MZ-S as I thought I would sell Z1p and switch to it -- after one roll MZ-S went to China
and Z1p was announced to be a King for the end of my 35mm film life. I have them two as one I use to shoot with slides and one for negatives. No issues whatsoever - at all - I have my Z1p since 2007 - I bought for whooping £150 !! back then and later I added another one for symbolic £55 - I have never had a single issue - the camera will outlast my - the quality of this camera always makes me to want to BUY again whenever I see it going for peanuts !!
And the batteries are surprisingly long lasting - I change mine every 2 years about - so that's just few pounds per battery and it lasts for many rolls ( I think over 40 in practice ). But frankly even if I had to change the battery EVERY MONTH - I WOULD - just for the joy of handling this fantastic camera. I wish that Pentax would release full frame camera with just about this body or similar to Z1p - large enough, substantial and solid ( apart from the bottom but that's not a problem with the grip :P ) - if course magnesium body would be nice.
Ok, that was the King. Now - my true joy when it comes to manual body - there it is my winner over K1000, MX, ME, ME Super, KX and Praktica BCX - Pentax ES II :
This camera offers me everything I need - full automatic with aperture priority when I want it, some manual times always available when I am fancy of that. There are massive amount of features too - but what I love most is handling !! THis camera has won over every single body I had in my hands - ( apart from Z1p if course
) - so when I have the time and I want to simple walk around and take some snaps - I would take ES II - my cherished gem.
-- manntax