Originally posted by Wasp The MX beating the LX is a surprise.
I had an MX. It was my first proper camera. I replaced it with an LX. It was a far, far more capable camera. Aperture priority and TTL auto flash were game changers for me. For long exposures on film, the LX even had the Nikon F3 and Canon F1 beat with it's off the film auto exposure. Also, the motor drive was faster and had more battery options.
As wonderful as the MX was, I think the poll was influenced by a bit of nostalgia. When these were new, they weren't even in the same league.
These days, the MX is a better used buy. Being a lot simpler, it has turned out to be more reliable and easier to repair than the LX. That counts for a lot, some thirty odd years later, and probably accounts for the result.
My guess is that most people will only vote for a camera they have actually had the chance to use, and many more people have been able to handle / use an MX than the much-pricier LX. The MZ-S may be a wonderful camera, but I have only ever seen pictures of one, I've never handled one and I've never used one. Therefore, I didn't vote for it.
We should also keep in mind this whole thing was A BIT OF FUN. The results are not entirely meaningless, but we shouldn't put too much weight on exactly where each individual model came.
---------- Post added 12-28-19 at 03:38 PM ----------
Originally posted by tuco So the greatest Pentax film camera is one that offers the user the most convenience apparently and not the one that will yield the best quality print.
Isn't the whole history of photography a story of convenience/capability versus quality? I love the quality I get from my 5x4 but I'm not going to take party snaps with it. As I wander around a beautiful historic church clutching nothing but my Pentax Q-S1 I regret at least not bringing the K-3 plus 28mm shift, if not the full LF gear. As great as the image quality is of a 6x7, not many want to lug that weight of equipment around for very long. The old aphorism that the best camera is the one you have with you has some truth to it. For many, 35mm offered, for very many years, the best compromise between quality and convenience.
K.