[Zeke Menuar]

This is my first post. I'll get right to it.

My wife was trolling garage sales today. She bought a bunch of old school camera gear. Mind you she's clueless about cameras. She thought I might be interested because I just bought a bunch of new DSLR gear(not Pentax, sorry).

She paid $25 for this:







In addition there is an off brand flash unit, a thrashed K1000 body and lens, Yashica Electric 35, and a nice leather camera bag.

You Pentax guys will recognize this as a Spotmatic SPII from the early 1970's
The Spotmatic and the lenses are in fine shape. The battery has an adapter so it has been used and taken care of.
The big teleconverter? is unfamiliar to me
The Spotmatic's controls are similar to the old Fujica ST605 I had back in the mid 70's.
I found a manual online. A good cleaning and it should be up and running. It will be a nice change of pace from my other camera.

[ramseybuckeye]

If the S-M-C Takumar in the last photo is in good shape she made a very good buy. In recent Ebay sales they are going from $55-85US. There are M42 adapters for more than just Pentax now, so these are pretty popular.

[LesDMess]

What you got there is a hellabuy!

[Zeke Menuar]

I have the same Tamron zoom. It is excellent.
http://adaptall-2.org/lenses/17A.html

Chris

I really hope the camera is functional. The Tamron lens will do things that my DSLR won't.

I'm out of town. Before I head home I'm getting a battery to see if the lightmeter works. If it does I'm back in business.

Now I need to hunt down some Tri-X and Plus-X

[Ratmagiclady]

Not bad. If that little meter functions, it's a handy type of little thing, ...the teleconverter looks like a 3x from the size and the f-stop conversions on the scale.

[Zeke Menuar]

Not bad. If that little meter functions, it's a handy type of little thing, ...the teleconverter looks like a 3x from the size and the f-stop conversions on the scale.

Here's another look at the teleconverter


Does anyone know what this lens is? I've never seen anything like it.




I thought I saw the lightmeter move. I reset the ASA to 400 and pointed the camera at a bright light. The meter works!!!

One more question and I'm calling it a night.
Can the shutter be operated with no film in the camera? I can't get the film advance lever to move and I'm not able to get the shutter to work.
Do I need to load it up with film to get the shutter to work or is there a problem?

[RioRico]

What is the f/3.5 preset lens next to the meter case? A 100mm maybe? It looks too short to be a 135.

Anyway, she made a good haul. The Yashica is worth upwards of US$50 if it's in good condition.

[kheldour]

anyways - you are damn lucky to get all that equipment for just $25.
It's worth at least $150 on eBay.

Go and buy some film and shot some pictures. I really enjoy my original Spotmatic

[Nesster]

One more question and I'm calling it a night.
Can the shutter be operated with no film in the camera? I can't get the film advance lever to move and I'm not able to get the shutter to work.
Do I need to load it up with film to get the shutter to work or is there a problem?

You have something locked up with the camera, the thing should work without film.

Have you tried eg setting the shutter to B? There's some mechanical stuff you can do to unlock the mechanism - and plenty of advice available on how to do so. All else fails, send to Eric.

The 135 preset Vivitar is very interesting to me, should be a fun lens to play with. If you have a way to adapt M42 to your dSLR you might have fun with it.

[Zeke Menuar]

You have something locked up with the camera, the thing should work without film.

Have you tried eg setting the shutter to B? There's some mechanical stuff you can do to unlock the mechanism - and plenty of advice available on how to do so. All else fails, send to Eric.

The 135 preset Vivitar is very interesting to me, should be a fun lens to play with. If you have a way to adapt M42 to your dSLR you might have fun with it.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look around to see if it can be fixed with a hammer or something.

I don't think the lenses will adapt to my D3100.

Who's Eric?

[stevebrot]

Who's Eric?

Eric Hendrickson is a repairman specializing in Pentax film cameras. He enjoys a reputation of mythic proportions on this site. Eric does excellent work at a reasonable rate and can be reached through:

www.pentaxs.com

Steve

[Zeke Menuar]

Eric Hendrickson is a repairman specializing in Pentax film cameras. He enjoys a reputation of mythic proportions on this site. Eric does excellent work at a reasonable rate and can be reached through:

www.pentaxs.com

Steve

Thanks

I'll look him up. My wife agreed we should get it up and running.

Thanks to all that responded.

[Kim C]

One likely cause for this is that the second shutter curtain hasn't completed it's travel fully. Fairly common problem with the spotties now thy have got to a "certain age". A good service will certainly be needed and should cure most of the problems.

The manual is availabe on my site here if you want it.

Pentax Manuals

Kim

One more question and I'm calling it a night.
Can the shutter be operated with no film in the camera? I can't get the film advance lever to move and I'm not able to get the shutter to work.
Do I need to load it up with film to get the shutter to work or is there a problem?

[Tom in Delaware]

That Tamron looks like it might be an Adaptall-2 lens, if so it is a sharp little zoom, you should be able to pick up an adapter that will fit your Nikon.

[titrisol]

WOW!!! you have a hell of a deal!
the SPII + 50/1.4 is a fantastic combo!

You can use the 50/1.4 in your DSLR (canon, pentax or Sony) with adapter.

The 135/3.5 Vivitar is posibly a great lens!!!

If you do not want any of those I'll gladly pay for the shipping