Pros | Size, weight, all mechanical speeds |
Cons | some duds were in production |
Rating | 9 |
Price (U.S. Dollars) | 219 |
Years Owned | 30+ |
I can recommend this camera: Yes
Value, Features, Performance & Size
Billed as a PRO camera, it was a simple no nonsense camera that had a many folks, when it first came out, saying it was "too puny to be a pro camera". However, Pentax believe in it or why else included a very impressive array of accessories for this camera. A
true system as was something for every situation certainly worth noting the nice selection of focusing screens. Its size, seeming feather weight, but that was only a disguise. A sturdy workhorse that was very capable of being adapted to many shooting conditions. The lack of automation might seem like a limitation, but most advanced user would not notice this as much.
Camera Review
This is still my standby cameras and I started with a chrome one that I still have today and also was fortunate to added recently a black version (got it cheap broken that I repaired very easily). So my time with this model has been long and pretty good mostly. The
size is a pleasure to have as it often allowed me to carry it much like a pocket camera...coat pocket and with the pancake mounted. When I was out and about I would have folks gave positive remarks about the size, but felt concerned that is was too small to do real work with it. I once had the winder for it which was comfortable and did added a little heft in steadying for slow speed shot, but that has mysteriously disappeared from my collection so no further testing there. So the weight might be a little getting use to for some, but I thing the right lens and a long day is when the combination shines. The
shutter never had issues and as mentioned, all mechanical so no real need for batteries, it just keeps working. I had my chrome hit the floor a few times and with only a minor dent, that I banged out later and it kept on working! The
meter is a simple five LED array that indicates high/low and near/"right-on". It seem to be too simple to some, but with practice and an understanding of this center/bottom weighted meter, I've confidently use it without too many surprises. The meter is activated in two methods: when you move the advance lever out to the stand-off position, about 10 degrees, and a slight depressing of the release button will lock it on or when you simple slightly press the release along for the momentary use of the meter. I am saying all this because this is a common situation that one might find a dead meter due to the lever being out leaving the battery to drain. On some copies of the MX, the
leaf switches are set too close and you can activate the meter even while the release button is in the locked position as on my black MX.
Speaking of quirks... years ago, I learned that quite a few of the MX bodies had
improperly drilled holes for the mirror hinge. This would give a slightly tilted image, but often not effect the accuracy from the focusing aid. This is because the axis of the error is directly centered... so one side is around half a millimeter up and the other down. This fact was disclosed when my chrome MX a year after purchase had a sudden a non-working meter. The very helpful technician told me the story about the mirror as well as being a good guy and told me the meter fix was free since it was simply of the leaf connector... it could get jarred out of position if it were set too far at the factory. Another thing I found was a common issue with
rough film advance on early copies. The first runs had an uneven feel when you advance a frame, but in later versions this problem was fixed by supposedly polishing differently. This seems true as my chrome version is a little ragged and my black version being a later one is very smooth to advance. The quirks aside, hundreds of rolls have gone through the chrome camera and hopefully hundreds more as I try to keep it CLA'ed and well stored. Years ago, I thought this might be the best choice over the big Nikon that others recommended and I was right. So if you are liking the traditional all mechanical workhorse in a compact package...MX!
Doing the Pentax Flick!
The MX can have mirror-lock-up if you know how to use the release button. The best way I found to do this is to position the very tip of my finger at the edge of the button and flick my finger off that edge. Just enough force to quickly make the button go down, but not hard or long enough to hit bottom and trigger the shutter. You will hear a soft click of the mirror going up and no slap of the shutter... as pointed out below... it may not always work... and my MX is also with a plastic holder.