Best manual Pentax ever - tough call. LX appears to be the consensus winner here. I can’t fault the choice. Sad to say I never had the good fortune to own one but had one on “loan” for a weekend. I have nothing but good memories of this fine camera. It does seem to have more than its fair share of maintenance issues however. The sticky mirror, battery/metering issues etc.
I do own and have used an MX for almost thirty years now and a good case could be made for this camera. I have had few issues of any kind with my MX and have only sent it in for CLA twice in all that time. It continues to perform well. I always found it a little small in the hand and felt the winder MX, at least for me, was necessary to complete the package.
I note the K1000 has its promoters although why such a simple camera has achieved such a cult status is beyond me. Not much for the money here. I know the lack of features made it the darling of photography schools but talk about basic. The KX would be a far better choice from the K family to my mind. Better still would be the K2. I have had one for over 20 years now and have come to appreciate its many features. The ASA range is vast from 8~6400. Unlike its K siblings or the MX it features auto exposure, a 1/125 sec flash sync and a real mirror lockup. It is solid and fits my hand much better than the diminutive MX. It was the “professional” model of the K series and was replaced by the LX in the early 80s. Setting the ASA is the only area some have found deficient. While initially awkward, it is pretty easy once you get used to it. All-in-all a fine camera for the film application and my choice for consideration in this field.
My current digital camera is the K10. In terms of build quality it reminds me of the K2 in many ways. But we are talking about the best film SLRs so this is a topic for another time.
Last edited by 8540tomg; 04-29-2008 at 01:52 PM.