Last night I stumbled across a Pentax PZ-1P in the case at the local used-camera mart. The price? It had been marked down from $199 to the princely sum of $49. Needless to say, the camera came home with me.
I had never been particularly drawn to this model -- I have had an earlier SF-10 which was an ergonomic/interface nightmare, and I also have an MZ-S that I adore as the pinnacle of camera interface design. The PZ-1P seemed more like the SF-10 than the MZ-S, so I never sought one out. However, it is a much recommended camera body. The fan base for the PZ-1P seems particularly rabid, so for $49 I was willing to find out what the fuss was about.
My initial reaction is both very good and very bad.
The good:
- Super sturdy build (even though it's plastic)
- Fast
- Can I say again --- FAST!
- Good ergonomics on the grip
- Lovely viewfinder display that is bright and very informative, without being cluttered
The bad:
- Terrible modal interface with one knob to choose different functions
- Power switch is a nasty slider that is hard to reach and blocked by a mounted flash
- Ugly as sin -- it looks like a leftover prop from the 1st Terminator movie
The PZ-1P is clearly of the same camera generation as the Nikon F90x/N90s. These two bodies actually seem like fraternal twins -- they look different, but inside they are very similar. Both offer brutally fast single-point auto focus, and both work best when left in Program mode. I do prefer the exposure-compensation controls on the PZ-1P -- they fall nicely to finger tips. The PZ-1P and the N90s both have a cracking good shutter (1/250 sync speed) and inspire confidence with the subdued "Thwak" sound of the shutter/motor drive. Both cameras, when put into continuous motor drive mode, burst though frames with no hesitation and sound like a machine gun. (The sound of the MZ-S is my only disappointment with that camera -- the shutter/motor drive has an anemic wheeze with no satisfying "thunk" at all.)
The viewfinder of the PZ-1P is reasonably large and bright. I don't know if it's my camera, or all PZ-1Ps, but my viewfinder suffers greatly when my eye is not perfectly aligned. (I do wear glasses.) It's as though the whole viewfinder is very unsharp, until I can get my eye perfectly aligned, and then the viewfinder is sharp. This is much less forgiving than either the MZ-S or the Nikon N90s -- both of which are immediately sharp, and invite me to stay looking through the finder and examine all areas of the frame at my leisure.
Obviously, i haven't put any film through the camera yet so I don't have any comments about real usability in the field, or the results given by the metering and autofocus systems. I expect that the PZ-1P will perform superbly however.
So my initial reaction -- I have gained a great deal of respect for the PZ-1P. It is a formiddable camera, solid, top specced, and nice to hold. It suffers for me when I actually look at it (I know, such a shallow way to judge a camera!) and when digging into the interface to control the camera. The MZ-S has kept it's place at the top of the heap in my mind.