[richard0170]

LX is gorgeous but high maintenance and only worth considering if you have the funds and are prepared to spend sometime away from it whilst it is being repaired. KX or MX are nice and generally reliable. P30's are dirt cheap and reasonably nice. A good starter choice IMO. For very little you can pick up a Chinon CE4, which is basic but all you need.
If you want AF and are on a budget an SF1 (or SFX) is a whole lot of fun. It's big, bulky, ugly and makes a lot of noise, but seems to be reliable, is comfortable to hold, cheap and whenever I pick mine up it puts a smile on my face.
My advice is first to set your budget but within that budget allow a contingency for service and repair. A few years ago I bought a KM which was working perfectly and in good cosmetic condition for £60. After a few weeks though it locked up. It cost me £80 to get it fixed. Was it worth it? Yes, as for a total of £140 I have a good quality reliable camera which should last me a long time. Was it disappointing? Yes, as I never factored in the potential repair cost when originally buying the camera. Lesson learnt, I now always go for a camera which has been recently repaired or serviced, or allow for such to happen sometime in the future in my budget, unless I happen to stumble on a real bargain, which is very rarely.* In the case of something like a P30 or Chinon, they are generally so cheap though as to be considered almost disposable. Just buy another if and when they fail.
*I once came across a Canon FT QL for £15 in a charity shop. It worked perfectly and still does, so for the money I had no qualms about buying it.

[jersey]

I do not want to spend too much, but do not have set limit. And on the other hand I hope that Pentax will release SLR at some point in time so do not need top of the line. Just reliable mechanical camera. Can repair it, no problems. I have other film cameras to use during repair time.

[pres589]

I think the CE-4s is a half-step behind the XR7 in features. None of my cameras are causing me any problems so I can't really say anything about reliability issues. Just keep them clean, change the seals when needed, and keep good batteries in them is all I really do.


Pentax could have created something like the L-Mount Alliance when they were handing out info on the original K-mount to companies like Cosina, Chinon, and Ricoh. But they would have needed to update the mount spec to the KA and KAF, etc mount variants. Which they didn't do, and it lead to fragmentation. It's hard to know how Pentax would have done after all of that took place, and maybe they were ultimately smart to not keep sharing updated implementations of the K-mount, but I still wonder what kind of cameras we would have gotten if everyone involved in the '80's had kept working together in the '90's and beyond with increased functionality at the mount level.

[andrewd]

I do not want to spend too much, but do not have set limit. And on the other hand I hope that Pentax will release SLR at some point in time so do not need top of the line. Just reliable mechanical camera. Can repair it, no problems. I have other film cameras to use during repair time.

I very much doubt they going to release anything in the same ballpark as the MX in terms of build quality. If they do it will cost $3k. If they release something of LX build quality it would be $5k.

[jersey]

I very much doubt they going to release anything in the same ballpark as the MX in terms of build quality. If they do it will cost $3k. If they release something of LX build quality it would be $5k.

I do not think price will be based on build quality but more on how much time, effort and money they will need to put into designing basic mechanisms like winding and shutter timing. And how much it will cost to get basic elements like shutter curtain (or start manufacturing of them). Whenever they pack it into LX or MX or even K1000-like body and features will matter less.

And I will be happy with modern incarnation of P30 or super A frankly.

[ChrisPlatt]

I currently own various Pentax models and have owned many others.
You can't go wrong with a Pentax KX. I own three, and use them all.

Chris

[Wheatfield]

Hi guys, need advice


I was M42 film shooter my whole life with Zenits, Prakticas, Spotmatic etc. Now, with possibility of new (YAY) Pentax K-Mount film camera I am thinking of getting something nice to start testing and building lens setup in K-Mount for my future brand new film SLR

So, question is easy - what Pentax K-Mount camera? Something other then K-1000 (I have Spotmatic and I like to have something else). As for subject it is documentary of a city look (street, but without portraits etc) and train photography. I would prefer old-style camera body, not modern one like PZ. Anything interesting in K-mount film world to look at? Or just grab LX and be happy?

I'm really fond of the ME-Super. It's really little and once you get used to the push buttons is very easy to use.
The LX is really nice, but if you are buying one, make sure you can get a refund if it needs seals and bumpers and resistors and you don't want to bother trying to get it fixed.

[andrewd]

I do not think price will be based on build quality but more on how much time, effort and money they will need to put into designing basic mechanisms like winding and shutter timing. And how much it will cost to get basic elements like shutter curtain (or start manufacturing of them). Whenever they pack it into LX or MX or even K1000-like body and features will matter less.

And I will be happy with modern incarnation of P30 or super A frankly.

By build quality I mean the whole thing including the quality of the internal mechanisms. It would be extremely expensive to manufacture something with the same mechanical quality as the old cameras. Even a rehash of the P30 would likely sell for $800. Not sure how many they would sell when you can get a perfect used example on ebay for $30.

[Lord Lucan]

Pentax could have created something like the L-Mount Alliance when they were handing out info on the original K-mount to companies like Cosina, Chinon, and Ricoh. But they would have needed to update the mount spec to the KA and KAF, etc mount variants. Which they didn't do, and it lead to fragmentation..... I still wonder what kind of cameras we would have gotten if everyone involved in the '80's had kept working together in the '90's

I am not sure what you mean by "handing out info on the original K-mount" of 1975. Pentax did make the K-mount royalty free, so those minor SLR makers adopted it. I don't know about where you are, but Cosina, Chinon, Ricoh and Petri were minor players in the UK SLR market around 1980. The only person I ever knew to own one was an uncle who had a Petri, and I don't think any of them were still making SLRs after about 1990 by when electronic lens coupling had become important. Pentax plus Chinon etc was effectively a K-mount alliance for a time (although their flashguns were not all compatible) but it would never have got the other big players such as Canon and Nikon to join it.

Alliances of common technical standards tend to be formed among smaller players. Big players like Canon and Sony can ignore them and even oppose them because they want to lock users into their own system, which is protected by patents as far as possible. Microsoft fighting against standardisation in file formats and network protocols is an example in the software world.

I didn't know that Pentax did not made the K-mount enhancements (ie KA etc) open source. I suppose lens makers to those standards paid royalties to Pentax?

[pres589]

Lucan, Ricoh was still selling K-mount SLR's after 1990, though that era was definitely a time of decline. The KR mount with 'the Ricoh pin' had already been developed, giving their cameras a means of electronic communication with the body. I think the big issue was competing autofocus implementations which were incompatible but all built around the venerable k-mount.


"handing out info on the K-mount" == "making the K-mount royalty free". I'm curious how many cameras Cosina would have had to make for you to not consider them minor... Ricoh owns Pentax, does that make Ricoh minor? Major? My thinking was that AOC could have worked with other companies like Chinon and Cosina and Ricoh to develop better autofocusing technology to share among all "K-mount Alliance" players to better take on Canon, Nikon et cetera. But that alternate history never happened and is not a thing that could happen now.

[LesDMess]

Hi guys, need advice


I was M42 film shooter my whole life with Zenits, Prakticas, Spotmatic etc. Now, with possibility of new (YAY) Pentax K-Mount film camera I am thinking of getting something nice to start testing and building lens setup in K-Mount for my future brand new film SLR

So, question is easy - what Pentax K-Mount camera? Something other then K-1000 (I have Spotmatic and I like to have something else). As for subject it is documentary of a city look (street, but without portraits etc) and train photography. I would prefer old-style camera body, not modern one like PZ. Anything interesting in K-mount film world to look at? Or just grab LX and be happy?

Just a size comparison relative to the Spotmatic



Interesting that the original Asahi Pentax was quite small then it continued to grow. Also, the original had a "lifesize" viewfinder which got smaller with the new releases. Pentax reversed both with the smallest SLR with the largest viewfinder in the MX.

Of the interchangeable viewfinder types, the LX has the smallest form factor with the largest viewfinder - not to mention the widest selection of viewfinders.



For me, what sets the LX apart from any film camera ever made is it's exceptional meter that is capable of aperture priority exposure lasting many hours. I've successfully tested both of mine for exposures lasting many hours in duration with consistency.

[Lord Lucan]

I'm curious how many cameras Cosina would have had to make for you to not consider them minor... Ricoh owns Pentax, does that make Ricoh minor?

I know that Cosina made cameras (and camera parts) under contract to other companies which were sold under those other names as well as their own, and of course that Ricoh own Pentax today. However, as I remember things in the UK in the 1980s (when I became interested) there were not many SLR cameras in the shops with the Ricoh and Cosina names on them. There were plenty of Ricoh point and shoot cameras though (I still have one myself). At the time I had also heard of Petri, Mamiya and the original Miranda, but I think those had ceased making 35mm SLRs by then.

Around that time the old Miranda brand name was bought and revived by Dixons, a UK high street hobby tech shop, and they used it on a range of budget photo equipment; this included K-mount 35mm SLRs which Wikipedia tells me were made for them by Cosina. The screen shot below shows one on Ebay just now - they do not fetch high prices, and this one did not sell by the way.

The dominant SLR brands in the UK back then were the "big five" : Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax. Also present were Fujica, Leica, Yashica, Contax and Praktica, but in smaller numbers. Outside the UK it may have been different.

[Wasp]

Another vote for the MX from me. I had one back in the eighties. I sold it to buy an LX, which I still have. The LX is a great camera but repair guys do not want to work on it any more. Over the years Pentax changed a lot on the inside while the outside stayed the same. Parts are hard to come buy as a result.

You could also look at the ME Super or Super A (Super Program). I had one of the latter and it was pretty good. To test the K mount waters, a cheap P30 could be a good option.

[reh321]

I purchased my “Super Program” in the Spring of 1983, after my first Pentax SLR {a “ME/SE”} had been ruined by becoming damp at Niagara Falls, then used it for over 12 years, before my Canon ‘vacation’. I still use that “Super Program” on occasion; right now it has B&W film in it. Frankly, if you feel a need to get a new camera, I would advise waiting until Pentax comes out with a new one, if your current camera is useable; you already know how to use it, and know it’s eccentricities. Hopefully, they will come out with a new one, constructed of new {and replaceable} parts, reasonably soon.

[rpjallan]

I think the CE-4s is a half-step behind the XR7 in features.

Just out of interest, what did the XR7 have that the CE-4S didn't?