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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-04-2015, 05:00 AM
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TBH I'd rather have a black Spotmatic F, I've got a good chrome Spotty I hardly use so there's not much point buying a black one.
I just search "Pentax" with it set to show newly listed items first, have bagged a few nice BIN items that way before anyone else noticed them. Also a good way to hunt for cheap restoration projects, like the tidy but jammed H2 I paid a fiver for and got working with a lot of lighter fluid and some careful oiling.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-03-2015, 02:30 PM
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Think I saw that one but passed it by as I didn't have the spare cash. Glad to see it went to someone on here!
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-02-2015, 01:25 PM
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The judas window could be a remnant from a previous hamfisted service.
I have a KX on which said device didn't work on arrival, pulled the top cover off to find the piece of metal supporting the mirror was bent. After some cautious trial-and-improvement bending with a pair of fine-nosed pliers it works perfectly.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
12-23-2014, 12:11 PM
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I have an SFX, SFXn and a couple of SF7s. Safe to say I like these '80s tanks! The second SF7 was about £7 with a Sigma 70-210mm zoom which has a horrible sticky mess where the grip should be, but the camera worked perfectly after dusting. I'm keeping my eyes open for an SFX eyecup as the n model's is missing.
Also have the AA battery grip for the SFX/SFXn, and the AF240FT flash. I'll get a photo of the complete outfit sometime.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
12-05-2014, 12:25 PM
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Score for €2!
If you're trying to remove that "2" from the back then try lighter fluid on a cotton bud. It might help the shutter too, depending on why it's jammed.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-30-2014, 08:45 AM
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I think the main reason for mad M42 Takumar prices is the ease with which they can be adapted to other mounts. You can buy an M42 adapter for pretty much any other system which just screws onto the lens and requires no machining or irreversible modifications. The K mount versions will only really be of interest to people using Pentax bodies. It's easier to fit an M42 lens to a current Canon DSLR than it is to adapt an FD, for example.
I've used my K55/1.8 on my K-5 and K-01 on numerous occasions, and would be intrigued to see what it produces on a K-3 or indeed any future Pentax FF body.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-25-2014, 02:11 PM
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I'm just hearing the A-Team theme, followed by a slightly smaller pile of fully functional cameras!
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-23-2014, 03:53 PM
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I keep meaning to buy some Pentacon Electric lenses for my Praktica LLC. Which was bought from a junk shop along with its mouldy CZJ 50/2.8, a Zenit 12XP with very broken electrics, and a Helios 135/2.8. The only part of the bundle I couldn't fully repair was the Zenit, which fires but doesn't meter. The Helios is a very nifty lens and the CZJ is pretty decent despite the inevitable dust after its cleaning. Not bad for £13!
I picked up these two lenses for £1 (the pair) along with an old flashgun in another junk shop last year. The Hanimex 28mm is very soft (I understand that there's a common fault with these lenses, but can't find what I need to tighten) but the Kennex 135mm is brilliant:
These Hanimex 28s were made by Tokina, and I've seen them with at least one other name attached.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-23-2014, 08:57 AM
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That Super A was a good catch. I have a rough but functional one which doesn't get as much use as it should.
I'm keeping my eyes open for a "European Camera of the Year" version and the matching 49mm lens cap. Chances of my finding a complete boxed set for a price I can afford are nil, but if I can snag a clean body, strap and cap I can reassemble the set as the other components are standard.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-19-2014, 02:42 PM
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My Zeiss Ikon Ikomat 520/2
Bought this about three years ago, I'm told it dates from the early 1930s judging by the serial number on the lens.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-14-2014, 09:41 AM
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Depends on the body. My pair of MEs and MX are all good, the MX has brass showing around the corners but the paint hasn't blistered or flaked.
The really weird one is my Super A, which despite having a plastic top plate is showing "brassing"! I think Pentax must have applied some sort of brass-effect coating before painting, the only reason I can see for this is that it'd look like the older bodies as it wore.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-14-2014, 04:28 AM
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Well, to be fair it didn't beat my finest bargain...
In 2012 I managed to pick up a cased Spotmatic (mint aside from a big dent in the top plate) with strap and 50mm f1.4 for...
£7.
Yes, that's not a typo and there are no missing digits! The camera doesn't work properly (capping shutter) but the lens is perfect, and now lives on my good Spotmatic body.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-14-2014, 03:09 AM
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There was a very clean black Spotmatic II with 50mm f1.4 on ebay UK yesterday, buy it now for £45. Funnily enough it didn't stay for long! Anyone here bag it?
I would have, but for the fact that I've already spent this month's camera budget on a handful of lens hoods...
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-12-2014, 02:13 PM
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Mine had lost one of its battery contacts, strange as that was the only damage to the camera. I made a replacement from a spring and soldered it to the remains of the original, it's a little bit too long as the battery is hard to remove.
I was advised that a AA would be fine, and sure enough the meter reads correctly. However, it's such a fiddle to use stop-down metering on the LLC that I usually just guess the settings.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-12-2014, 11:25 AM
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That's making me want to fish my Praktica LLC out.
For some reason it came with a CZJ 50mm f2.8 rather than a Pentacon Electric, so I've no idea whether the open aperture metering works. I had to clean a mushroom farm out of the lens and the self timer doesn't work, but the test roll I put through it (mostly using Sunny 16) came back fine. Paid about the same for it as you did for yours!
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-11-2014, 01:51 PM
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Yep, fully functional. Meter and shutter are accurate, there are a few specks of dust in the viewfinder (between the prism and the focusing screen) but I'm not going to try to get in there. It works at the moment and the specks don't affect the images.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-11-2014, 08:32 AM
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One of my oddities:
It's not in the best of condition, in fact the baseplate looks as if someone used it as a sledge! But notice that chrome disc on the front? It was originally sold in Italy. I've seen ME Supers with the same disc and there were probably others too, it was a way of denoting official Italian market products as opposed to grey imports (like "Honeywell" on US market M42 bodies). Came to me via ebay, jammed, for a few pounds. I dribbled some lighter fluid into the mechanism and prodded gently with a screwdriver until the second shutter curtain dropped and the mechanism reset, then finished cleaning it and fitted new light seals.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-10-2014, 08:48 AM
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Black MXs are hard to find, I don't see that many for sale. I also have a minty chrome one which I picked up in similar circumstances to the black ME, but paid a bit more for. Oh, and two slightly rough chrome ones. One was my first MX, the other the repair project now being film tested.
MEs apparently breed in my cupboards. I have another minty black one and three chrome ones with varying levels of scuffing! I think they're often unfairly overlooked, the black versions with an M 40mm and fast film are very nifty for parties.
Lens hoods seem to suffer from one or two ebay sellers convincing people that they're rare and should be expensive. I refuse to pay £35 for a lens hood, which one seller seems to consider the going rate! Problem is, anyone else listing one will follow suit and hey presto you have a situation where if you want one you're paying that much. I waited for ages to find one at a price I considered sane.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-10-2014, 07:38 AM
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The ME was a lucky find on ebay. Nobody else bid, so I got a minty black ME with the nicest M 50mm f1.7 I own, original lens cap, original strap, the case that had protected it since new and the manual with the original guarantee slip for £25. I replaced the light seals, fitted a couple of new batteries and got a perfectly exposed roll of film back.
The MX was listed as spares or repair, turned out it needed a good clean, new light seals, and a new focusing screen. I fitted a spare grid one I had hanging around which has a couple of small marks. The light meter was overexposing by about 2/3rds of a stop on arrival but after a lot of wiggling the ISO dial it seems to have calmed down.
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-10-2014, 07:23 AM
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Having managed to hunt down some M series lens hoods I thought a portrait of my examples of the first M bodies was in order:
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-09-2014, 01:01 PM
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If the camera is fundamentally in good condition then I'd spend the money on the CLA.
I've often thought that if I could afford an LX I'd probably buy a tidy but jammed example and have it repaired. There's just as much chance of a working example locking up at some point, at least that way I'd have one which had been serviced. The price of camera plus CLA would probably be about the same as the price of a working example.
As things stand I'm happy with my KXs and MXs. Yes, I could probably sell them all and buy an LX, but the K and M bodies are simple enough to DIY repair. I have an MX on test at the moment which came to me as a stripped hulk with a dead light meter and non-functional flash connections. After replacing the missing parts and some strategic bending of contacts it seems to work fine, the shutter sounds right compared to a known good example. I doubt an LX would take kindly to the same treatment!
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