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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
04-09-2024, 10:25 AM
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I saw this post on Friday I think, and took a look at what Pentax lenses they had. I ended up purchasing a HD DA 35mm Macro for $211, and a SMC FA 50mm 1.4 for $87, minus 20% left me at $245 all in for the pair, which I think was a fine deal. I believe they were both rated as Very Good. Got them today and they came in their original boxes with all documentation. The Limited had its little bag and Pentax caps. The 50 had a Pentax front cap and a push-on generic rear cap, no big deal. Condition-wise they look close to new. No scratches or marks that I can see, glass is clean. Very happy, thanks to OP for posting this! One vote of confidence for buying from Lensrentals.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-11-2024, 10:13 AM
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I was happy to get the mirror back in place on the silver one and get it back together without incident. The black one is still disassembled. There's pretty much no way around needing a replacement meter needle thingy whatever it's called, which I don't think I'm going to be able to find.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-06-2024, 04:04 PM
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This appears to be the best I can do, the forum gives a 404 error when trying to post the embed string.
Michael Bergstrom | Flickr |
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-06-2024, 12:38 PM
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Regarding the silver KX, I got the little mirror back in place with some pliobond and tweezers, aperture preview works again. Unfortunately, the little window in the trim seems like it's maybe two pieces of plastic sandwiched together, and it has the appearance of delaminating, so it's a pretty crappy view. Can't see what to do about that, would need to melt the glue holding it in somehow. Probably a lost cause unless someone knows a trick. The black one is in the same state. I've reassembled the silver KX pending acquisition of seals and such. Thankfully it still works.
The black KX's meter needle contraption probably needs to be replaced unless it can be disassembled and fixed. I don't see how to get it out of there without digging much further into the guts and desoldering some wires. Probably a bridge too far for me, but I'm going to keep staring at it.
Getting the top cover offf and putting it back together was not too bad. There are videos online covering the K1000 and it's mostly the same with the following exceptions.
On the KX the ASA dial is under the rewind knob. It's a self-contained plastic disc that comes off with a slotted nut of the sort you see on the cocking lever. This one is normal right-hand thread. After you get it off you can see there's a slotted ring on the underside that engages an arm on the variable resister which adjusts ASA. Once you get the top cover off you see that there's a circuit board for that with three additional tiny variable resisters for tuning the meter.
I removed the cocking lever next as it gets in the way of removing the shutter speed dial. Three pinch screws to get the frame counter cover off, followed by a left-hand thread slotted screw to remove the dial, followed by a left-hand thread slotted nut to remove the circular piece that the dial sits in. Finally, there's a wishbone shaped metal spring circlip thing holding the cocking lever down. Undo the screw holding it in place and push it out towards the back of the camera, and you can remove the cocking lever. The cocking lever has a sort of leaf spring screwed into the top that engages a detent to turn on the meter (with a half press of the shutter button). To get the cocking lever back on, I oriented the lever in it's 'meter-off' position, tilted the tip of the lever up maybe 30 degrees from the top of the camera, and pressed the spring against the base of the cocking spindle thing, then lowered the end of the lever down into position onto the spindle. If you try to just seat it straight down, the spring will be in the way, so have to wedge the spring on the outside and lever it down into position. Not sure if that makes any sense at all.
The shutter speed dial is held on with three pinch screws just like the cover over the frame counter. I set mine to B and all three screws were accessible after removing the cocking lever.
Beyond that it was pretty straightforward stuff. The cocked shutter flag thing painted dayglo red is EXTREMELY delicate, super easy to bend, and it's held towards the back of the camera by the tiniest wire spring. Be careful around that thing. I'm linking a flickr album below with some pics, hopefully that works, we'll see. Going to get supplies to put the silver KX back in order, and continue to ponder the black one.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-05-2024, 05:54 PM
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Got the top cases off of both KXen. Will post pictures tomorrow.
The silver one with the aperture window problem was missing a mirror as expected. While turning the camera over and over I suddenly saw it lying on my work pad. Huzzah! Bad news is it's the one attached to the little armature on the front of the prism, facing parallel to the prism. There's about three millimeters of air between its seat and the prism. No idea how I'm going to get it glued back to its perch.
I pulled the prism out of the black one. The meter needle is not physically blocked so far as I can tell. I'm assuming the galvanometer (if that's the correct term) it pivots in is seriously unhappy. It ought to be lightly pinned to the top of its travel with no power.
I could swap the black KX's prism over to the silver so that I have one fully functional KX, and continue to work on the black one. Dunno if that's the right move. They both need cleaning and new foam and seals pretty much everywhere, so will have to source that stuff. I will continue inspecting them and try to determine the best plan of action.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-03-2024, 04:16 PM
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I'm definitely going to attempt to fix the aperture window, hopefully the mirror(s) are still there and just need put back or adjusted. I do think the meter issue is going to end up being beyond my capabilities, but I'm going to at least try get to it to see if there's anything obvious.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-01-2024, 01:36 PM
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Did some more testing and comparing between the cameras. Set them both to ASA 64 so that the silver one recommended a shutter speed of 1 at f/22 when pointing at a blank wall. Running the sliver one from f/22 to f/2 the recommended shutter speed goes from 1 to 1/125, so eight stops of shutter speed for eight stops of aperture. The black on starts at 1/8 at f/22 and also ends up at 1/125 at f/2, so four stops of needle travel for eight stops of aperture. The lowest the needle will go on the black one is a little over 1/2 and highest is a little below 1/500, while the silver one will pin the needle at both ends. So it looks like the black one is constrained at both ends. I haven't found any documentation on adjusting the meter needle, have a feeling it's not something I'll be able to do, but will take the top covers off of both and see what I can see. Waiting on Amazon to deliver some JIS screwdrivers, thought I had a set, no idea where they went.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-01-2024, 09:29 AM
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I agree, battery check is working, and the meter does react to light changes. What I meant is that the default resting place for the needle when powered off is between 250 and 500 on the black KX, while on the silver it rests all the way at the top of it's travel, above 1000 and kind of pinned to the top of the scale, which seems to be where it's meant to be when powered off. So the black one's meter seems to be out of position. Functioning, but physically lower than the factory position.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
12-31-2023, 05:44 PM
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Happy New Year!
I picked up a pair of KX today (along with a astonishingly NIB K1000 of the Hong Kong variety). The KX are one silver and one black, both have M 50 f/2 lenses. The silver one is somewhat beat up while the black is pretty darn clean. All functions on both cameras appear to operate normally, with the exception of the black one's meter needle. At rest it hovers between 500 and 250. When I press the battery check button it goes down to 30, and when I release it bounces back up and overshoots its current resting place before returning, so does not appear to be physically blocked. I'm guessing its resting position has been shifted somehow. I need to get new batteries, but both cameras have working batteries and I've swapped them between each other, doesn't affect the black one's resting position. I'm not afraid to get inside it, but I wanted to see if anyone has seen this before to provide some insight.
I'll see if I can add pictures of them tomorrow. The silver KX has both it's little flash socket covers, while the black one only has one with the tail where the other one used to be. Only other obvious issues I noticed are that the sliver KX's aperture window seems to be misaligned or blocked, and on the black KX the fabric tape strip stuff that covers the hinge of the mirror is coming up at the ends, but that doesn't seem like a critical problem.
If anyone has any insight on the maladjusted meter needle, I'd be grateful.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-09-2010, 07:17 AM
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So this lens is marked as a DA lens and the official Pentax press releases refer to it as a DA lens. It's wearing the green stripe of a DA lens. But pentaximaging.com refers to it as a DA L lens and it is clearly mechanically and construction-wise a DA L lens. Why is Pentax deliberately confusing their lens line-up? I guess most ordinary consumers wouldn't necessarily notice or care if they're buying a Pentax for the first time. I just can't figure out why they would do this.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
09-03-2010, 11:44 AM
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This is disappointing if true. I would rather see Pentax dedicate their lens manufacturing to lines which advance their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Quickshift is an acceptable bridge from the screwdrive system to in-lens motors. DA-L lenses are a step backwards. WR/AW lenses/bodies enable Pentax to differentiate themselves from their market competitors. I understand that Pentax has to compromise to hit certain price points in the market, but I'd rather that they were $20 more expensive if it meant that they could have a consistent lens line-up of: consumer = quickshift + non-sealed; pro = in-lens motor + sealed. They need to commit to their strengths. I also understand that they're stuck in a hard place with backwards compatibility being one of their strengths (e.g. the "limited" lenses), but they need to commit to a progressive roadmap. DA-L never should have happened IMO.
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