DJE posted a long message which I'll be snipping ... and rearranging. > In general, does anybody want to try to talk me into or out of buying > a PZ-1P? For my ends it actually looks like a better camera than the > MZ-S (remember I don't own any Pentax AF lenses) and it's a LOT cheaper.
I'd be willing to try. I already helped another list member to decide to get a PZ-1p, and he'd been looking at the MZ-S and the Nikon F100. I let him play with my PZ-1, and next thing I heard, he'd bought a PZ-1p. > So, I looked at Boz's site and damned if I don't actually LIKE the > PZ-1P, at least based on what he's got about it. The specs are better > than most pentax cameras (most of which have slow film advance and slow > shutters from my point of view) and it does have a better control layout > than most pentax AF cameras (besides the ZX-5 and kin, which feel to me > as if they are made of paper mache). To top it off, KEH has a bunch of > PZ-1Ps for less than a used LX and less than half the price of an MZ-S. > > I can only see a few problems with it, which may not be problematic enough > to convince me to eventually buy another LX, or enough more ZX-Ms to trust > that one will remain unbroken when I need it. These problems are: > > -no PC sync socket visible. This is a quibble--I can always use a > hot-shoe flash to trigger my studio strobes as I do with my D100. If you're asking whether no PC sync socket visible means there isn't one on the camera, there isn't one on the camera. You already know the workaround on that one. > > -no threaded cable release socket visible. I'm sure it takes an expensive > electronic cable release. Same release as the ZX-5n and I suppose most of the other ZX series. Yes, electronic. Yes, more expensive than the old threaded kind. I don't remember the price, though. > > -no film rewind crank, and I'm not sure how I'd initiate rewind manually. Rewind will use batteries, but you can tell the camera when to rewind. On the PZ-1 this is done by spinning a couple of dials. Pretty easy to get used to. Don't know if this control was changed on the -1p. > > -no AA battery option, and no add-on grip for better holding properties > and vertical controls. True, the LX and such don't have this either. > OTOH, Super Program + Motor Drive A do, which is why I used that combo. I believe that an add-on grip does exist on the market, and I know that my friend referenced above made his own shortly after purchasing the camera. (Not an issue for me as the PZ-1 is about as large a camera as I want to hold.) > > -2CR5 battery. You can get A76 button batteries and AAs everywhere and > probably will be able to for many years. > > -hotshoe where I expect info display, and vice versa. I'm sure > I could get over this. I never understood the off-center hot shoe. Gets the flash further from the lens without using a bracket. > > -92% viewfinder coverage. This is pretty normal for Pentax, but > I've been spoiled by Nikon F series cameras. Another quibble. > > -"hyper" manual. WHAT on earth is hyper manual, and how does it differ > in use from "manual" as used on, say, the Super Program or K1000.? > I want to set shutter speeds and apertures by hand and have the camera > tell me how well exposed it thinks those settings will make the picture. > Any other camera interference in this process is unwelcome. Anybody care > to explain how hyper-manual actually WORKS in use? It basically is manual as you understand it, EXCEPT that while in that mode, you *can* push a button and have the camera instantly set the autoexposure on the program line. In other words, you can go to program auto in a big hurry by pushing one button. Then the setting stays there. The camera won't interfere with your setting the exposure unless you choose to push the button. I actually use it more as an indefinite autoexposure lock -- in an auto mode, if you push the AE lock button the settings are locked for a certain number of seconds. But if you are in HyM and push the little button (its name is the IF button) the camera sets the exposure and nothing changes until you change it. The system is also intended to give you a starting place from which to adjust your chosen settings the way you want them. NOTE though, that if you don't use the IF button in Hyper Manual mode, then what you have is metered manual as you understand it from other cameras. > > > Any weaknesses or annoyances that I don't know about? Boz says it > takes interchangeable screens--does that include a split image, and > if so could I actually GET one nowadays? > Can't help you with the screens -- you might have noticed in another thread that I mention having put a Beattie Intenscreen with split-image in my PZ-1; however, I do not know if the screens for the PZ-1 will work in the -1p. I suspect they don't, but I honestly don't know. ERN
