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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-20-2017, 11:05 AM
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Ah ok, the camera doesn't directly move the stop down pin then, it simply loosens it's grip on it?
I can't test right now as I have film loaded, but based on what you say I think it's fine because the bounce only occurs when twisting the aperture ring. If I close the lens to f/22, then use my finger to open the lens up with the stop down pin but then let go (in the same way as it would be let go by the camera) it snaps back shut just fine.
I'd imagine you might still be right about the aperture spring, but perhaps it's just not quite bad enough to stop it working altogether yet. I don't think it feels too tough to open the aperture when doing the test in your 'Note' however.
An interesting development: I've noticed that the lens stops down to f/16 and f/22 just fine when at the closes focus distance (0.45m). As I focus closer to infinity I can actually see the aperture open wider, and it seems that at infinity is when it refuses to change beyond f/16. Am I being stupid and is this just a feature of the lens? Does the focal length change between 0.45m and infinity enough that Pentax have engineered a system into the aperture to gradually change with the focus?
Cheers for your help!
---------- Post added 12-20-17 at 11:06 AM ----------
A shame, I think I'll have to sell it as faulty and keep my Tak rather than go through the bother and cost of getting it serviced.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-18-2017, 12:00 PM
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I've taken the mount off but haven't looked at the blades themselves. What on the blades themselves could cause the strange bouncing? The pin on the back bounces with them.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
12-18-2017, 11:06 AM
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Hi,
I've recently been investigating because my Pentax-M 50mm f/1.4 wouldn't stop down all the way. I can't remember if it wasn't to f/22 or not even to f/16 but I still don't think it's fixed as the aperture in my S-M-C Tak. 50mm f/1.4 looks smaller set to f/16 compared to the M at f/22.
Anyway, besides this, I noticed that the aperture closes very sluggishly or even bounces sometimes. By this I mean if the aperture ring is closed quickly the blades close down, bounce open slightly then close back down. The pin on the back moves along with this. It still ends up at the set aperture, but I'm worried that in real life use, when the camera (in this case my ME Super) stops down when the shutter is released, it won't keep up with the shutter curtain so will vastly overexpose.
If anyone has any similar experiences I'd appreciate any help. I think eventually I will probably sell the M and carry on trying to deyellow my Tak, because annoyingly at the moment the light transmission is much better in the M.
Cheers,
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Forum: Sold Items
11-10-2017, 11:48 AM
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Looks lovely, NOS stuff in original boxing is always exciting.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
10-12-2017, 02:48 PM
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Thank you for this, living in the UK it helps to have info on a repair / CLA service closer to home.
EDIT: R.E. your comment about the K1000 pronunciation, I just realised it could be pronounced "KK"
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-11-2017, 10:19 AM
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Sounds promising, did you have to pay for any parts on top of the £86 repair price? I don't think mine would need any but I can't say for sure. I think I may have an early model though which is unfortunate, look what Harrow say:
'Early model MX’s are best avoided for two reasons. Firstly the winding mechanism is usually stiff to operate and high shutter speeds can be erratic. Later models are improved particuarily the winding mechanism which is noticably smoother. Later modified models normally have a plastic film reminder slot attached to the back door as opposed to a metal part on original cameras.'
They quote £96 for an original MX repair, £10 more than a normal MX.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-11-2017, 04:25 AM
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Wow that is a lot of Pentaxes! Must say I'm quite jealous of your collection of pre SPs, despite the fact that I recently purchased an SPII and still think 'big, slow, dark, loud, and clunky' when I pick it up rather than 'perfect, pure, simple, beautiful' which seems to be the general opinion.
I wonder if you know about any changes in production of the ME Super? Three of mine have a rectangular mirror and is plastic rather than leather behind the little film holder on the back. The most recent one I spoke about has smoothed off corners on the mirror (so an irregular hexagon shape) and leather behind the film holder. There may be other differences I haven't spotted.
I think I may take you up on your advice, I paid around £50 (66$) for the ME Super + 2 MXs so with the revenue I gain from selling my old less-working ME Supers and the worse for wear MX I'll be able to afford sending the MX off for CLA.
---------- Post added 09-11-17 at 04:30 AM ----------
I was thinking of them, they charge £86 for an MX repair + postage however. I checked shipping prices to USA and it's cheap enough that I reckon a CLA from Eric would come out around the same price or cheaper. With Eric's reputation I thought it would be worth it.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-10-2017, 01:04 PM
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Hi,
Recently bought a bundle of 2 Pentax MX bodies and an ME Super on eBay. I wanted it for the MX as I already own 3 ME Supers (all have small problems besides my black one which I think may just be slightly inaccurate metering). Turns out you pay for being a cheapskate as neither MX works well at all, they both have misaligned shutter speed indicators, one has a very dodgy meter, other has the battery door stuck tight, mirror locking up (intermittently), pretty nasty feeling winding on and painful squeaky shutter sound.
However the purchase was worth it for the ME Super: I took it out, put it on B to test, fired it, and nothing happened. So I chucked it on my bed to focus on the MXs, but a while later I hear a click and sounds like the ME Super has sorted itself out. Upon closer inspection it looks completely unused, still has some plastic on it, and most amazing of all when I opened the back door I found a label over the film plate stating 'please remove before use'.
After removing the plastic and cleaning up some of the goo and dust it looks brand new (I imagine, I'm too young to know what a new film camera feels like) and it is almost certainly going to replace all of my current ME Supers which are problematic in some way.
Whilst I'm here I'd like to give the ME Super a general shout-out as it seems to me an extremely underrated camera. It's rated pretty highly here on the forums but looking around the web generally it never comes recommended, despite being genuine pocket-money price, having an incredibly lovely viewfinder, and a very accurate shutter which goes up to 1/2000! I don't understand the hate around the buttons in M mode, I find them quick and easy to use without taking your eye from the finder and besides, this camera excels so much in Aperture priority I find myself only using the aperture and exposure comp dial most of the time anyway.
Oh and another often overlooked feature is that this must be the quietest SLR in existence (maybe not including the leaf shutter Retinas etc.). Each one has a distinct sound, some of mine have a high pitched clink, including the one described above, but my favourite sounding is a nice black body I also got recently which simply emits a dull clunk and no more.
I've been rambling but I wonder does anyone have any advice r.e. the MX bodies? Has anyone ever sent cameras to Eric from the UK, and is it worth it? I'm still not decided whether I want to service one to keep or sell both as parts, my general feeling was that I'm not going to like them as much as the ME Super anyway.
Cheers and thank for reading, will get some pics of the lovely shiny ME Super up soon! :)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-29-2017, 08:44 AM
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I don't know anything about the Tamron unfortunately. I've found a little info on Zeiss designs however and this Chinon looks very similar to the Distagon design: http://www.abload.de/img/dist_flek_comp4ki6.png . Would be interesting to hear about the Tamrons though.
Unfortunately I didn't although in hindsight I should've done. The picture in the original eBay listing was open at another page, off the top of my head it was the 24mm f/2.8 and it had lots of elements, definitely upwards of 6 and maybe about 9. The 28mm is listed just above the 35mm on the scan of the page I've got and the design looks almost identical to the 35mm, 6 elements with the same corrective elements in the middle but different powers of the front negative and rear positive lenses however. It is a bit tricky to tell. I could try to get in touch again although they likely would have sold it by now, it was part of a Spotmatic bundle I believe.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-29-2017, 04:16 AM
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Even if it is fungus, all it requires is disassembly of the lens then cleaning the affected element. There are some good in depth YouTube walk-throughs out there.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-28-2017, 03:20 PM
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Here's a page from a Chinon catalogue which a kind eBayer scanned for me. Shows the design of the 35mm f/2.8 which I own also, might help those of you interested in tracking down its origins. I read some mention of Tamron so maybe a quick comparison would confirm?
Regardless to say this is a very nice lens albeit massive and in my opinion quite ugly.
I shared this a while ago on this forum but got very little response, maybe I posted in the wrong section :confused: .
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Forum: Sold Items
08-25-2017, 07:32 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-22-2017, 01:55 AM
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I agree, in my experience it's rare to buy equipment this old boxed (whereas if I bought a digital camera used I'd expect it to be boxed, even if used). I did purchase a Spotmatic II recently which although fairly well used was boxed, which I for the first time really appreciate. it's mostly plain white, nothing compared to this Pentax macro box, but I love the front- and side-view illustrations of the camera on it.
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Forum: General Photography
08-21-2017, 11:35 AM
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Forum: General Talk
08-21-2017, 11:27 AM
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Not the same film but you should watch 'One Hour Photo'. Robin Williams is great in it but some of the photography related chat is quite cringey (not in a bad way). I remember a line which went something like "Wow, a Leica Minilux, this is a very good camera!".
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-21-2017, 11:18 AM
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Wow looks like NOS or just genuinely bought and never used. Unfortunately you may be right about the service in this case, although if it's been kept away from moisture and anything else harmful it may just need some movement to free it up.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-17-2017, 10:01 AM
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Hi all,
A while ago I bought a Chinon lens from eBay because I wanted a 35mm focal length and it was cheap. Turned out to be really good, sharp wide open and very sharp as soon as I started stopping down, and bokeh was lovely at all apertures due to a pretty round 5 blades. I sold it because I prefer 50mm and all my 50s are much smaller anyway, even big ones like the f/1.4 Takumar / Pentax-M. I also managed to get more than I paid for it originally.
Anyway, I was recently browsing eBay mindlessly and in the background of a listing, it was a Spotmatic or something, was a catalogue of this line of Chinon lenses and when I asked the seller nicely they sent me the page with this lens on, complete with the diagram, which I have attached.
I have a few questions however as I do not know much about lens design, however after searching through a lot of designs I think this looks more similar to the Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35mm f/2.4 than any other 35mm I can find, which might explain why it's such a fantastic lens (the Zeiss is well considered I think). Then again I also think it looks like the Pentax-M 35mm 2.8. Could someone help me out?
I saw another one for sale recently so couldn't help myself buying it to see what it's like again. It is very large although after shooting more I think I'm becoming more comfortable with the 35mm focal length (not any wider though, even 28mm I hate). When your 50mm fits in your pocket but your 35mm doesn't, it's inevitable which is going to be used more in my opinion anyway, hence why I think rangefinders and compact cameras are better for shooting 35mm and wider anyway.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-04-2017, 01:03 PM
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I wonder if that's how the fungus has got in, as it seems to be behind the front element. If that's the case then I won't be able to get to it for cleaning... best option is probably to leave it in that case. Although I have nothing to compare to, as you say, it doesn't seem to have any impact on my photos.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-04-2017, 10:25 AM
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I fixed it! I dismantled the lens again just now for another regrease and realised there is another ring around the helicoid which, once removed, allows the helicoid to be fully unscrewed. Gave everything a very good clean with white spirit to remove the grease, regreased the helicoid lots (I applied as little as possible but it wanted a lot to get moving nicely) and now works perfectly. Thanks for everyone's responses :) . Now the only problem is a little bit of fungus and that horrible looking broken focus ring. There's also some weird rainbow blob at the very edge of one of the front elements but it doesn't seem to be a big problem.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-04-2017, 08:22 AM
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I hadn't even thought of that as the seller only said that it was corrosion, but you're probably right. I don't think it's the cause of the stiffness though as the only damage is to the focus ring which came off with no difficulties.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-02-2017, 08:00 AM
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Not sure I do enough to warrant buying an ultrasonic cleaner. This Jupiter 9 is definitely the worse condition lens I've bought but I knew that when I bought it. That said, the price I paid for it plus £70 would probably still be less than even an ok-condition goes for now.
I take it those things are only useful if you can isolate the parts you want to clean? As I said, I can't full unscrew the Jupiter 9 helicoid which is the main obstacle.
Also cheers, I wanted a good sharpness / bokeh test so chose some small flowers with a string of fairy-lights in the background. I can't deduce much about sharpness as the grain of fomapan 100 adds a sort of sharpness illusion to anything from what I've found, but the white flowers I set the focus are glowing which I quite the look of. Probably wouldn't work well in colour.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-02-2017, 04:11 AM
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Are those two Spotmatic Fs there? If they work then you'll get a lot of joy running a roll or two of film through them, even if you plan to use the lenses with a digital body. They look beautiful, as do the lenses there. Also, any budget digital Pentax you get is going to have a 1.5x crop.
N.B. your flickr link above is wrong, it's taking me to the album organiser, not your actual album ;)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-02-2017, 04:05 AM
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Sounds very fixable, I took apart the same lens but M version and it's easy to do (and easy to put back too). Hardest part is making sure you calibrate to infinity properly. Someone's even got a whole video for it
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yQbQvHJJQ3E?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-02-2017, 04:00 AM
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Hi all,
I cleaned the helicoid as well as I could with toothpicks, toothbrush, tiny bit of lighter fluid on a q-tip. I'm using Castrol LM grease, it's lithium based. It did a good job for my Industar-50 (m39 slr mount) but that was alot easier as the helicoid fully unscrews. The Jupiter 9 helicoid does not unscrew fully from the body though, so perhaps there's lots of hardened grease I can't get to. If so does anyone know how I can unscrew it all the way? Cheers for all your tips :)
Whilst you're here, here's a quick test shot I took with the lens mounted on my ME Super whilst trying out Fomapan 100:
... and a picture of the unfortunate corrosion on an otherwise almost-mint body:
(apologies, the weird glow effect is due to my Moto G 2015's HDR mode which I forgot to switch off)
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
08-01-2017, 10:33 AM
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Hi all,
I recently bought a Jupiter 9 on eBay which was supposed to be in terrible condition, but turns out it just required some standard CLA. Luckily as it is M42 and not the complicated M39 variety it was easy to take apart and fix up.
Only problem remaining is the focus is still pretty stiff despite cleaning and regreasing the helicoid. I've even greased all moving parts where I think there is metal-on-metal contact, so mainly the inside of the body where the whole lens group moves up and down.
There's also a big chunk taken out of the side of the focus ring due to aluminium corrosion. Not a big deal, I've scraped away the corrosion but it just doesn't look all that pleasant. Thinking of crafting a little wooden focussing tab to stick on there.
Anyway, I was hoping someone on here might know what area I'm missing with regards to the stiff focus. Cheers :)
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