Leslie Wyatt
Film Photography
OK, let's get the main gripe out of the way first....it doesn't have an auto exposure
lock. But you can always set it to manual exposure and enjoy pressing the up/down buttons
to change the shutter speed and if you are trying to compensate for bright skies you should
be using an ND filter anyway. So, you can tell that I love this camera. It is my go to
'workhorse' and is a delight to handle. It is probably the smallest SLR ever made and weighs
in at only 650gms. Pentax glass has always been a premium product and there are so many lenses
to fit the Pentax K mount. It is incredibly small for an SLR but all metal and so feels firm
in the hand. As far as build quality goes I merely need to quote the American photographer
Ken Rockwell...."Made in Japan".
I fail to understand why nobody seems to want them but that makes them incredibly cheap at
around £200 ( 2022 ) for one in very good condition. I see occasional snags with the shutter
and film advance posted on the web but fortunately I have two fully working cameras looking
as if straight out of the box.
It has an incredibly bright 0.95x viewfinder and coupled with split screen focussing and a very positive focussing ring on the SMC lenses it is very fast and accurate to focus. It has no depth of field preview but on my cameras with a depth of field preview button I never use it anyway. It doesn't have an on/off switch but just comes to life when you touch the shutter release. Surrounding the shutter release is a mode control ring with which you can set auto, manual, X-sync (1/125s) and bulb B. It also has a shutter release lock position L which can be used to prevent accidental depression of the shutter release in a bag, for example. Pressing the shutter release half way will light up the indicator leds in the viewfinder against a passive shutter speed display. In aperture priority mode ( auto ) this is a simple orange or green led against the shutter speed calculated with the current aperture setting. Green for correct or over exposure, orange for correct or under exposure. This matches the exposure compensation range which can also be selected with the ring surrounding the rewind lever. If the aperture chosen is outside this range then a red UNDER or OVER is displayed at the bottom or top of the viewfinder display.
In manual mode the shutter speed can be selected for a particular aperture by pressing the
up/down buttons next to the prism housing. This control is often a point of contention but
I really like this idea as you don't need to take your eye away from the viewfinder. The
vertical focal plane shutter will operate from 4 secs to 1/2000 sec in 14 increments. Flash
synchronisation is at 1/125 sec which is selected on the mode control ring and the hot shoe
is on the top of the prism housing. A delayed shutter release lever is in the usual place on
the camera body next to the lens.
Loading film is just like most other 35mm SLRs but the take up spool sports a set of white
'needles' instead of a slot. The film leader is inserted between the needles and it needs
to be securely tucked underneath the chosen needle otherwise they will not lock the leader
in place when winding. It takes a bit of getting used to and can impart rather a tight curl
on the film leader. This can snag on the edge of the pressure plate when rewinding but opening
the back to release it at this point is not a problem as you will be at the start of the film.
This is really no different to other 35mm cameras. The film speed can be set by lifting and
turning the exposure compensation ring until the desired film speed appears in the window
on the ring. It can be set from ISO 12 to ISO 1600 and so you will have to use the exposure
compensation ring to push it to ISO 3200.
The film advance lever is a standard full stroke lever and a mechanical shutter cocked indicator
is shown in red on the top housing next to the lever. On the rear of the top plate beneath the
film advance lever is a small window showing red stripes which wiggle back and forth when the
film is correctly loaded and moving between frames.
Prefer a larger camera? Then add an auto winder and a 28-135mm Zoom lens as shown above.
I had to try this setup out of curiosity but in use it becomes a bit of an unwieldy heavy brick.
I prefer fixed focus lenses anyway and who needs a motor drive on a film camera nowadays? If
you want to adopt the 'Spray & Pray' approach you might as well get a decent digital camera.
Other than the monster lens shown above, I have two ME Super cameras and because they are so
small and light I can carry both in a small Billingham Digital Camera Bag. One with black and
white film and the other with colour film. I have three 50mm standard lenses, one f1.7 SMC-A,
one f1.4 SMC-M and one f1.7 SMC-M ( one of these is attached to a Pentax K1000 camera - see
review ). I also have two SMC-M f2.8 28mm wide angle lenses, a 135mm f3.5 SMC-M lens and a
200mm f4.0 SMC-M. If I need to carry any of these I often use a ThinkTank Turnstyle 10 bag.
In the field they are a delight to use. Excellent framing and fast focussing they just do the
job and the results are very pleasing. Used at a family wedding recently the professional
photographer using digital gear next to me just said "...I love that sound!" The use of a
film camera clearly brings out the nostalgia in people.
