[Lowell Goudge]

If you really want a film camera, and want to use everything you own, including all your digital lenses (I am making an assumption some of them are full frame lenses) get a PZ-1 or PZ-1p.


they work with everything, including the FA-J or crippled K mount lenses. Although they are not the old mechanical metal bodied cameras like the LX I would argue that it is one of the best overall cameras ever built.

[Blue]

my film camera came very handy when we were out camping and had to swim for about 300 meters to an island.

i didnt have my waterproof bag with me at the time, so opted to swim with the film camera rather than my brand new K20D, since i didnt know how long i could actualy swim with a monopod and camera in one hand

turns out i could swim 300 meters with one arm above water, but it also turns out that i'm severly out of shape, HAHAHA

none the less, sometimes when your gear is cheap it allows you to do/go places you would otherwise be scared to do.

Only a true camera geek . . . never mind.

[clawhammer]

As for if you will use it, there's a good chance you will. YMMV, but I forsook film for about 8 months after getting my K10, but then I shot a roll of slide film and had it developed. WOW. there's nothing quite like looking at a slide on a lightbox. There's something mystical about it, and it has returned me to my film habits.

As for the camera, I'm hunting for a good manual focus body myself, so I give my thanks to everyone in this thread for their advice, even though it wasn't directed at me. Secondly, for an AF camera some of the ZX/MZ series are pretty good. like solisti said, the zx/mz-5n is a great AF camera with a little nod to the past, and I love my ZX-L. The ones to avoid are the zx/mz 30, 50, and 60. poorly built cameras with few features and craptacular controls.

I have a beautiful k1000 as a backup to my digital camera. It's great fun pushing B&W film and experimenting with expanding the tonal range in development. I love the "organic" feel of honest-to-God real film grain! Every photographer worth his or her salt should at least try film before it's gone. There's a real romance to it. But don't kill yourself in the darkroom. 27 years in poorly ventilated darkrooms about did me in. Now I just scan my film.

[alohadave]

Pawnshops are a good bet. No one cares about Pentax, so the prices are often good (Nikons and Canons go for ridiculous prices).

Remember, there're about a million K-mount cameras out there - Pentax released the mount as, pretty much, open source.


All the Ricoh SLRs (the ones made after the late seventies) were K-mount. And most of those have diagonally-split prism for focussing, a big plus. The KR-5 Super might be compared to an ME Super, though with a 1/1000 top shutter speed, a top ISO setting of 3200, without the simply amazing ME-series viewfinders.

I just picked up a Ricoh KR-30SP with a 25-70 and 70-210 lenses for $10 from a friend. The lenses mount fine on my K100DS, and vice versa. I haven't taken it out for a test yet, but the batteries are still good and they are probably a couple years old.

[spb37]

Besides black and white why type of photos / scenes benefit most from using film rather than digital.

I am just curious to get the perspective from people who shoot both as to when they reach for film. I recently bought a zenit RF to try this myself. Thx

[solisti]

Besides black and white why type of photos / scenes benefit most from using film rather than digital.

I am just curious to get the perspective from people who shoot both as to when they reach for film. I recently bought a zenit RF to try this myself. Thx

The main thing about film for me is the "film look" in the colours, that I haven't been able to imitate with dslr. The second best thing is the better control over DOF combined with the usability of the older film cameras.

B&W-films are also great, especially when the light is low and the film needs to be pushed to ASA 1600 or higher. Love the grain.

And last but not least... with film you have to think more carefully about the photo itself, think what you do and how you are going to do it...

[lithos]

Here's a question: what's easier - creating a sensor and a bunch of software/firmware filters to completely emulate the look of film, or simply change what the demographic's definition/idea of what a "photograph" is?

The answer's the latter, in case you were wondering. We'll never reach the stage where we have a sensor/software bundle that has the rich tone of Velvia, the soft, delicate and hesitant tones of Fuji Superia, the film-noir shadows of Tri-X at 3200, or the...

Ahem. It's easier just to wait for us silver halide junkies to die out.

I don't touch digital much any more. The pictures aren't...real. They don't exist as images. They're just ones and zeroes, tiny switches in a silicon matrix. Non-chronologically, it's the difference between Morse code and a phone call.

The magic moment for me is after you fix a reel of black-and-white. When you lift it out of the dev tank, and can see you images - right there on the film! - as something tangible.

The hallucination, however good, of digital, is never quite complete.

A fraction of history - one sixtieth of a second, one two-thousandth - sliced away from the timestream and frozen forever, in metal salt and gelatine. A slice as thin as the emulsion itself.

[k100d]

Besides black and white why type of photos / scenes benefit most from using film rather than digital.

print film still has more dynamic range. and it can be scanned to very high resolutions as well.

i just shot a quick roll of 24 to test out my ZX-5n and it was a blast primarily because of the waaay better VF and the lighter handling of the body. i ripped through 24 exposures in 10 minutes. now i have to wait for the chance to have them developed

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

I know it is like blessomy to some, but I will say this anyway: don't buy a K1000. It is overrated, overprised and booring. It is basically a spotmatic with K mount. If that is what you want, get a spotmatic instead. Nothing wrong with spotmatics. But K1000 is a lousy choice if you want a K body from before the KA mount (from before electrical aperture information from lens to body). If you want a camera from the K generation any of the KM, KX or K2 are better choices all with the DOF preview (how on earth could a camera like the K1000 without DOF preview become a camera school classic!?) and features like mirror lock up, self timer, exposure compensation, higher flash sync speed etc with the K2 as the top model (that's why some oldies are dreaming of a K2D as a new Pentax top model). Or if you go for a M generation camera the MX is a nice alternative to the LX still with pro-features. I would have liked the ME super had it had DOF preview...
The Super A and Program A (somewhat different names in the US) are nice cameras with manual, Av, Tv, program, DOF preview and they are the first to make use of the KA lenses. Avoid the A30 and P family as they are just plastic and crippled versions of the Super A and Program A. I'm skipping the rest since from the Z and MZ families the cameras are beginning to have many of the features we expect from the digital cameras, except they are analog, and I get the feeling you want to go basic.
But don't go so basic so you get the K1000. It is booring. The only Pentax I ever sold.

[Blue]

I know it is like blessomy to some, but I will say this anyway: don't buy a K1000. It is overrated, overprised and booring. It is basically a spotmatic with K mount. If that is what you want, get a spotmatic instead. Nothing wrong with spotmatics. But K1000 is a lousy choice if you want a K body from before the KA mount (from before electrical aperture information from lens to body). If you want a camera from the K generation any of the KM, KX or K2 are better choices all with the DOF preview (how on earth could a camera like the K1000 without DOF preview become a camera school classic!?) and features like mirror lock up, self timer, exposure compensation, higher flash sync speed etc with the K2 as the top model (that's why some oldies are dreaming of a K2D as a new Pentax top model). Or if you go for a M generation camera the MX is a nice alternative to the LX still with pro-features. I would have liked the ME super had it had DOF preview...
The Super A and Program A (somewhat different names in the US) are nice cameras with manual, Av, Tv, program, DOF preview and they are the first to make use of the KA lenses. Avoid the A30 and P family as they are just plastic and crippled versions of the Super A and Program A. I'm skipping the rest since from the Z and MZ families the cameras are beginning to have many of the features we expect from the digital cameras, except they are analog, and I get the feeling you want to go basic.
But don't go so basic so you get the K1000. It is booring. The only Pentax I ever sold.

I have a Spotmatic F, K2, SuperProgram, and k1000 (pre-China). Personally, I like the basic light meter in the K1000 sometimes. The k1000 is not better or worse than the F except the F now requires a Wein cell due to the mercury battery being banned. As a result for a "regular use" Spotmatic, the ES and ES II are very good. Now I'm in the blasphemy zone.

I know it is like blessomy to some, but I will say this anyway: don't buy a K1000. It is overrated, overprised and booring. It is basically a spotmatic with K mount. If that is what you want, get a spotmatic instead. Nothing wrong with spotmatics. But K1000 is a lousy choice if you want a K body from before the KA mount (from before electrical aperture information from lens to body). If you want a camera from the K generation any of the KM, KX or K2 are better choices all with the DOF preview (how on earth could a camera like the K1000 without DOF preview become a camera school classic!?) and features like mirror lock up, self timer, exposure compensation, higher flash sync speed etc with the K2 as the top model (that's why some oldies are dreaming of a K2D as a new Pentax top model). Or if you go for a M generation camera the MX is a nice alternative to the LX still with pro-features. I would have liked the ME super had it had DOF preview...
The Super A and Program A (somewhat different names in the US) are nice cameras with manual, Av, Tv, program, DOF preview and they are the first to make use of the KA lenses. Avoid the A30 and P family as they are just plastic and crippled versions of the Super A and Program A. I'm skipping the rest since from the Z and MZ families the cameras are beginning to have many of the features we expect from the digital cameras, except they are analog, and I get the feeling you want to go basic.
But don't go so basic so you get the K1000. It is booring. The only Pentax I ever sold.

Definitely disagree with you on this. That's the beauty of the K1000. Simplicity. It's you, the camera and a light meter. Concentrate on the image. See the image. Be the image. I have the K1000. I also have a Mamiya 1000 DTL that uses the old screw mount. I like using it also, but prefer the quicker change of the K mount lens. I also have a ZX-50 that I rarely use because it is all electronic. Sometimes it's just great to use the K1000 with some film and get back to basics. And if the battery dies it ain't a big deal.
I never find the K1000 boring

I do not own one, but I do understand the appeal of the K1000.
It has everything one needs in a camera, and nothing more.

Chris

Exactly! That's what I said but in a whole lot more words. We do get points for more words and bigger ones, don't we?

[Canada_Rockies]

The K1000 is missing two things I miss - depth of field preview and mirror lockup - and I miss depth of field preview much more than the lockup. KX for me. No batteries required - except for the meter needle. Aperture periscope at the top of the finder. Shutter speed indicator down the right side with a needle that moves with the shutter dial. Same place has a black needle that moves with the light meter to say where the camera would put the exposure if it could. I dislike the LEDs in the MX because they don't work without batteries.

And here I am, proud user of the k10d that is a very nice paper weight when there is no battery power. What can I say?

[solisti]

... KX for me. No batteries required - except for the meter needle....
...I dislike the LEDs in the MX because they don't work without batteries.

How does the MX LEDs work worse than the needle in the KX? I can agree that the needle is more visual in good light, but both cameras are totally mechanical and only need power for the light meter...