On Sat, 10 Feb 2001, Peter Loveday wrote:
> I'm looking to get myself a screw-mount camera, and I find myself
> rather attracted to the idea of having one with no meter. I like the
> idea of going out with glass, metal and no batteries, with a simple
> hand-held meter to get a real feeling for exposure. (I enjoy using
> hi-tech cameras, and fully plan to get an MZ-S shortly, but I feel I'd
> like to have something more basic for those for philosophical times).
Good for you! Philosophical Man cannot live on MZ-S's alone. Automatic
functions are an extremely useful tool, but there are times when I just
feel like going back to the basics.
> However, I find myself having very little knowledge of anything pre K
> Mount. Looking at the list on the AOHC page, it seems the 'best'
> models are the SV/H3v S1a/H1a. However it indicates that their are
> differences between 'early' and 'late' ones.
>
> Is there any way to tell the difference here?
The only thing I can think of is that the later SV's have an orange "R" on
the rewind knob instead of a green one. The orange one means that they
can accept the 50/1.4, while the green-lettered ones cannot.
> What camera should I be looking for? I want something 100%
> mechanical, no meter, but fairly 'standard' if possible. ie,
> preferably all the shutter speeds on one dial, 1000th shutter if
> possible, etc.
You have a few choices here. My first pre-Spotmatic Pentax was an S3, and
it's a great example of a simple, basic SLR. Shutter speeds up to 1/1000,
a cool self-advancing film counter, and nuthin' else. If you want
something even neater, get an SV. That has the weirdest self-timer I've
seen, plus a (supposedly) brighter viewfinder than the S3, though I can't
really notice a difference. The S1a is a scaled down SV without the
self-timer. Even though its shutter speed dial only goes up to 1/500,
you can use a 1/1000 speed by turning it one click past the
"500" setting. (This 1/1000 may not be completely accurate.)
That being said, one of the nicer ones I have is a black H2 that sounds
almost like a rangefinder at high shutter speeds. But to start off with,
I'd recommend either an S3 or an SV.
> I've seen the recent discussion, and it sounds like the 55/1.8 and
> 35/3.5 are nice. Is there a nice lens down around 24 or 20 ? Also
> something around 100 or 120 ? I hope to find SMC-Tak versions of
> whatever lenses I decide on, if this makes a difference.
Pentax made both a 20/4.5 and a 24/3.5 SMC-T, as well as a 17/4 SMC-T
fisheye. Then there's the excellent 105/2.8 SMC-T, as well as two
different 135mm SMC-T's (f2.5 and f3.5). I know nothing about the f2.5
version, but the f3.5 one is very common and inexpensive, and is actually
quite sharp from what I've seen.
> Thanks for any suggestions or input.
Always glad to be an Enabler. :)
chris
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