Asahi Pentax SPII (Black....)
My Precious is here. Mechanically he looks pretty good except I can't get the battery cap off. It's pretty tight for some reason and I just can't get it even with a coin or a screwdriver. Shutter looks good, works at all shutter speeds. No fungus, but there is a bit of light seals foam floating around in the VF and they will need to be replaced. Normally I'd do that myself but since this camera will be going to Eric I'm going to let him do that. The paint job is pretty bad though for a Spottie. It's not just the usual brassing.
The paint actually bubbled up in spots and has chipped a fair bit. I've never seen this. It's weird. I'm fairly used to seeing spots where the person's skin acidity and constant use has worn off the paint, but I've never seen anything quite like this. This must have been a bad paint job at the factory I think. It does say "made in Japan" and the camera is solid so I don't think it's some kind of knock off but cosmetically we're a bit challenged this camera. I have several old leather Spottie cases so I just put one on for now because with a case on it's not as noticeable.
Figures though I finally get an Asahi SPII in black and it looks like some kind of factory reject, sigh. Eh, at least it looks to work okay. So Snake is a bit beat up and punk looking. I guess I can deal, grin. I replaced the rusted strap rings, put the case on. It will do. He is still a beauty to me even if it does have he does have cosmetic issues. I kind of wish there was someplace I could send him though for a strip and repaint because this cool little machine deserved far better than the paint job they apparently did on him. I'm still going to put a snake leather kit on him but I'm not too sure a touch up pen would cover the damage to the paint on this one. Snake really needs a good strip, repaint and reseal and that unfortunately is beyond me.
One thing that did surprise me is that the camera still had it's flash terminal covers, both of them. I hardly ever see that. My King (Black Honeywell SPII) only came with one and Queenie, she had none. It's nice to have a black Spottie with both of them. It's silly to care, I know, but it's the little details that make the SP's and SPII's so special to me, the terminal covers, the leather cases with their little crown badges, the nicely made black Navy weight cotton canvas straps with lobster claws that the SP's originally came with. I'm always so pleased when I get a Spottie and it has any of that left.
I do need to take some pics of my Spotties to mark the occasion but it's too late now. It's like 1 AM. Tomorrow. I'm just so happy though. This has been a long time coming. I will be even happier when Snake gets back from his CLA with his new skin, but for now I'm just very happy to have him at all. It's been a LONG wait for this baby....
My Spotties:
King-Honeywell SPII (BLK)
Queen (Queenie) Asahi SPII (Zebra)
Prince Asahi SP #1 (Zebra)
Princess Asahi SP #2 (Zebra)
Jack Asahi Spotmatic F (Black) Non-functional, needs a trip to see Eric.
Ace Honeywell SPII (Black) Non-functional, needs a complete mirror replacement, ditto on Eric.
Snake Asahi SPII (Black) Battery cap stuck. Needs a trip to Eric for a CLA. (#1 on my list to go...)
My Spotties also have two K mount KX cousins Jax and Max. Max and Jax are in perfect shape cosmetically. Max is 100% functional and has had his light seals and that done by me. Jax was okay but unfortunately has recently developed film advance arm issues and will need to go see Eric at some point.
There are a couple of K1000's and a P3 in my kit too, but I've never named them as I never use them. The kids I teach will probably end up with them one of these days. Right now those are the designated class cameras so I am hanging onto them. I've already given a couple of them a couple of P3's and another K1000 I had. My niece also has a P3 I gave her. Except for my Spotties and my KX's eventually they get almost everything else K mount. Lately I've also been outfitting them with GAF/Chinon cameras and Sears lenses, just so they have a proper film kit to learn with. I usually try to get them using M42 bodies or K bodies so they can share some lenses. Though that may change because lately I've managed to get a fair amount of Minolta gear cheaply and I'm thinking I might just keep some of those kits I just got for the kids, if they work. I don't have that many Minolta lenses anymore. I lost most of that in The Great Fungus Purge, but these came with kit lenses at least and I do have one newly gotten 135mm at least that they can use and share.
My nieces they both have older DSLR's at this point but most of the other kids don't. Technically they're now my one niece's cameras but the kids all share my old Olympus E-P1 and an *ist. My other niece is a bit more territorial with her K-x but she does share sometimes. :P Film labs are few and far between here but most of the kids I teach they would not even be doing this, learning photography properly, sans the film kits I give them so we make do. I have separate kits though for classes. I don't let them use my own kit, my Spotties, my K-30's or my K5II. I'm just not quite that trusting, laugh.
I shoot a lot with Queenie for those classes and I bring along the K5II usually but the kids they don't get to handle those. They're pretty good kids, but not all of them are as careful as I'd like and being kids they do get rowdy sometimes. I don't want them using gear I can't afford to lose, shrug. As they get more proficient I like to outfit each kid with their own film kit. No sense teaching them if they don't end up with a camera to use their new skills on. I wish I could outfit them all with older DSLR's but that's just not affordable for me. Someday when I'm making more $$$ I might just do that though. I like teaching them with film, but I suppose these days DSLR's would be more practical...Anyway, I'm tired and babbling, pics tomorrow....
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Originally posted by magkelly 
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