I have 3 LX Bodies with most all of the really great M lens from 14m/m to 500m/m Other than 1 CLA by Pentax in Colorado for each body. I have found them to be very reliable. I imagine environmental factors such as humidity, ozone, etc could degrade the bumpers and seals quickly. One of the LX I use I ran run enough film to wear the chrome off the ends of the film support rails. This camera; after I finally lost track of multi thousands of rolls of film shot; required replacement of the worn parts in the shutter mechanism and film transport system. The camera rebuild was still cheaper than buying a used body on eBay and it works perfectly. Pentax Colorado's Pro Camera service dept really did some fine work on my equipment. I mostly shoot a Pentax 645nII now and have considered selling off the complete LX system. I stated with the Spotmatic in the 60's then on to the KX1000 and a MX camera. The LX has proven to me to be superior to the MX light meter and its lack of shutter coupling.
Jonathan Ayers [ma...@redwoodhorses.com] -----Original Message----- From: PDML [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of Bill Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2013 8:31 AM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: Anybody still shoot with an LX ? On 07/03/2013 9:14 AM, Darren Addy wrote: > I tripped across a cosmetically gorgeous LX body (FA finder) yesterday > and it seemed to be priced right, so I impulsively purchased it (long > distance). *After* doing so, I started doing a little research on it. > : ) > It appears that I may have taken a bit of a gamble, since it looks > like a lot can go wrong with these things and a full CLA from Eric > (pentaxs.com) is going to run $160-200 (!). It won't arrive until next > Tuesday, so I have a lot of time to fret. > : \ > I believe that I bought it reasonably enough that even if I did > nothing to it I could turn around and sell it for at least what I gave > for it, as it sits, so I don't think I have anything big to worry > about. > > I'm hopeful that I can put in a mirror bumper pad and seals in the > film back (myself) and be good to go, but that remains to be seen. I > was hoping that those of you with an LX (or experience with them) > might tell me what sort of issues you had with them (if any) and your > impression of where the LX stands in the Pentax film body family. > Ah, the LX. A wonderful camera that may as well have been designed and built by the Fiat car company. So, what can go wrong with an LX? Pretty much everything. Other than the aforementioned rubber bumper that turns to goo, you can have problems with ALL of the seals in the camera. The back door seals can turn to jelly, as can the top mirror bumpers. In addition to that, the aperture cam follower resistor is prone to corrosion, as is the ISO resistor. (exemplified by really flaky exposures in outomatic). In addition, the TTL flash control is beyond useless in all but the most controlled circumstances, useless to the point that although I owned three of them, it was the K1000 that I used professionally at weddings. I couldn't depend on the LX to fire the flash. All three of mine went into the shop on a bi-yearly basis with something or other wrong. The last time, I sent all three of them off in one box, hoping against hope that they would get lost in the mail and I could replace them with something else with the insurance money. Alas, it was not to be, and eventually, they were all shipped back to me. I love the LX, but I don't miss it. bill -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
