[Old Keith]

The dreaded day has arrived and my Pentax MZ-5 is now suffering from the infamous mirror return problem. It started with a slightly longer reset after an exposure and quickly progressed to the mirror not resetting every third ot fourth frame. It occasionally stays up and will only release when the camera is switched off. I understand this is caused by a plastic cog splitting on the mirror drive motor, the repair of which is way beyond my capabilities so it looks as though it will end up on the well know auction sitte for sale as 'Nor Working - for Spares or Repair'.

Whilst I love my SV and MX, sometimes I need autofocus to help out with my ageing eyesight so I need to find a cheap alternative here in the UK - recommendations welcome.

[FozzFoster]

R.I.P Pentax MZ-5

sometimes I need autofocus

time to get a MZ-S!

...I hope to get one someday

[gofour3]

For the MZ-S the bodies with a s/n of 5xxxxxx are supposed to have the brass gears and not the plastic like in the earlier 4xxxxxx s/n range.

I'd look for in the the higher s/n range.

Phil.

[shyrsio]

If it can be of any help, somebody on the forum posted a link to an ifixit page they made about the issue. I wouldn't say it's easy but, its a thorough guide.

[UncleVanya]

Z-1. Great bodies.

[jumbleview]

I have PZ-20 and like it. I believe it does not suffer of that problem (if I am wrong somebody will correct me).

[Terry C]

I bought my MZ5 new, from memory in the late 1990s. Just six months out of warranty, and very few rolls through it, same thing. Would never buy another Pentax film camera.

[tonyzoc]

PZ-1, Z-1, PZ-1p, Z-1p or Z-5p. The best shutter on any Pentax and best ergonomics also. The Z-1 series has 2 main issues... the popup flash relies on a spring connected to a plastic post which can break. Its not too hard to fix though and you can still use the flash if you hold it up with a finger. Next is the edging around the battery door always cracks. It hard to find one without cracks...but it usually has no effect on function. I believe the Z-1 also has a plastic gear issue similar to the ZX/MX line, but its much less common to fail.

The MZ-S is a nice camera but is expensive and suffers from the same gear issue unless its been replaced or you find a very late version...like 5xxxxxx serial.

[UncleVanya]

A picture is worth... well you know:

[andrewd]

The dreaded day has arrived and my Pentax MZ-5 is now suffering from the infamous mirror return problem. It started with a slightly longer reset after an exposure and quickly progressed to the mirror not resetting every third ot fourth frame. It occasionally stays up and will only release when the camera is switched off. I understand this is caused by a plastic cog splitting on the mirror drive motor, the repair of which is way beyond my capabilities so it looks as though it will end up on the well know auction sitte for sale as 'Nor Working - for Spares or Repair'.

Whilst I love my SV and MX, sometimes I need autofocus to help out with my ageing eyesight so I need to find a cheap alternative here in the UK - recommendations welcome.

For a cheap, reliable AF SLR I would give serious thought to picking up a Canon EOS camera. These were made in vast quantities and the latest models are very reliable. The lenses can be bought cheaply too. I bought a 300X for £35 on ebay. This was the last film EOS camera released in 2004. It has 35 segment matrix metering, 2.5fps film advance and super fast AF. The camera I bought had hardly been used. Build quality is plasticy like everything else in this era, but they are still great cameras.

[Old Keith]

For a cheap, reliable AF SLR I would give serious thought to picking up a Canon EOS camera. These were made in vast quantities and the latest models are very reliable. The lenses can be bought cheaply too. I bought a 300X for £35 on ebay. This was the last film EOS camera released in 2004. It has 35 segment matrix metering, 2.5fps film advance and super fast AF. The camera I bought had hardly been used. Build quality is plasticy like everything else in this era, but they are still great cameras.

I have a bunch of the Canon EOS cameras Andrew; 2 x EOS 300, 1x1000f, 1 x EOS 300v and 3 x EOS 50E, each bought for between £5 and £15 because they all had broken back door latches. I repaired each one with new latches for about £5 each from China and a few hours work. I have a variety of lenses for them but my favourites are a Canon EF 17-41mm L IS and an EF 24-105mm L IS which I bought to use with my Canon EOS 5D MkII in 2008 but of course, being a Pentax forum, images from those don't get posted here.


This is one of the last images made with the ill-fated MZ-5. I was fortunate to arrive at the scene just after the garderers had finished clearing the first fall of leaves ready for a 'Social Occasion' later - can't let nature spoil things can we!!!!! This is a scan from a silver gelatin print.

[Old Keith]

Whilst I love my SV and MX, sometimes I need autofocus to help out with my ageing eyesight so I need to find a cheap alternative here in the UK - recommendations welcome.

NEWS FLASH: Santa reads Pentax Forums!

An early Xmas present has arrived in the form of this pristine Pentax MZ-6 camera - and I mean pristine, I cannot find a single tiny mark anywhere on the body or lens. I suspect it has been sat unused for a number of years so I left it to warm up for a couple of hours before giving it some gentle execise in manual mode without a film, starting with slower shuter speeds and wide apertures and gradually moving through the ranges of both, all of which operated sweetly. I loaded a dummy film and ran the tests again without any problems. All I need now is to get out and try it for real.
I'm very fortunate in that I enjoy using both my Pentax and Canon auto focus cameras but sometimes there are days when it just has to be one or the other and now, following the sad demise of the MZ-5, and am now back to having the choice.

[TwoUptons]

I think functionally, the ZX-6/L are one of the best cameras Pentax ever made. All the right features, great ergonomics.

But...

It has the same mirror gear issue as the ZX-5...

I'm on my third one because I've killed two others...

-Eric

[Old Keith]

.....It has the same mirror gear issue as the ZX-5...

-Eric

Thanks Eric, sadly I'm aware of the inherited problem but as it was a gift every frame will be a bonus.

[Old Keith]

I don’t know if this will be of interest to anyone but after the demise of my Pentax MZ-5 I decided to take it apart (somewhat brutally) for what useful spares I could salvage, screws,springs etc. and no, I was not going to attempt to repair the broken cog problem, in fact I couldn’t even identify which one caused the problem in the first place! However, two things leapt out at me.

Firstly, the number of plastic cogs, I counted at least 23.

Secondly and most most surprisingly, I found that the ‘pentaprism’ was made from three mirrors sat on top of the focussing screen - very similar to the old Mamiya ‘Porroflex’finder for it’s 6x6 TLR cameras.

This method of construction seems to typify how products are ‘built down’ to a price range and possibly a lifespan. Based on internet posts, this range of Pentax cameras werenot very long-lived before the dreaded ‘cog’ problem reared it head.