Pentax celebrates 50 years of uh, Pentax
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 1st 2007 9:29AM
posted Jun 1st 2007 9:29AM
[Via dapreview]
posted Jun 1st 2007 9:29AM
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I wish they'd run it...seems pretty cool.
I loved that camera when I have one in photography class in high school.
My mom still has one of those cameras that she got in the 1970s as a teenager. It was her first camera. It still works like new, too. There really high quality
It looks awesome I would love to have one.
Let's just hope that Hoya will keep the Pentax legend going.
I'd buy it they made it. My have a K100d, but I still prefer my purely manual Pentax MX for style and feel. I would love to see Pentax make a "DX" a student's DSLR, remove all the scene modes and other consumer level features that don't belong in an dSLR, make it look like a classic SLR, and watch them sell. If Leica can do it with the M8, why has no other company tried?
~G
Yep, I like the concept too. Though it still is too round and probably too automatic for my liking. And I like your idea... get rid of all that consumer nonsense... let it only save RAW files, few automatics (might come in handy... but give priority to manual functions. I hate it that the wheel on top of cameras is used for scene modes etc. only. What a waste).
But there are alternatives. The Sigma SD10 only saved RAW files, was big and chunky (fits great into my hands), the dial is used for the shutter speed (though there were no precise settings, just from slow to fast... but at least something). Then the Panasonic L1... looks awesome, you set the aperture on the lens and the shutter speed on the dial... just as it should be. Unfortunately the only lens where you can set the aperture like that is the Leica that is included... and which is probably more expensive than the camera. Then, there obviously is the Leica M8, though that isn't a DSLR but a digital rangefinder. There is also the Epson D-R1, based on some Bessa model, it seems that all they did was add a display and a sensor. They even kept the thing you have to pull to advance the film. All of these cameras are a bit expensive though, especially of course the Leica(s) and maybe the Epson.
Actually, Asahi, er Pentax, did not introduce the world to eye-level viewing. (i.e. SLRs). That was done decades before by Exacta. Contarex and Kodak beat them as well. But they certainly popularized it. And the Spotmatic kept things going for years.
Me? I was a Pentax LX user for a while, until I traded it at Calgary Camera Excahnge for my first Leica.
Eric,
right you are. I was only saying that they popularized it, not first.
Thomas
pentax was the first to implement an automatic quick return mirror, within an slr, therefore making it convenient to use. I ordered my k10d today, not sure i want one of these versions, however give me a digital camera in a pentax mx body any day
Ive got one of the original spotmatics. Still use it from time to time. Great camera.
K1000 baby! Still going strong after 30 years.
I'd buy it. It would perfectly complement my dad's Spotmatic that I first learned photography on.
I have the one on the right! I use it everyday!
The Spotmatic is a solid performer. Mine is still going strong after nearly forty years.
Why did they have to beat it repeatedly with the ugly stick?
It looks like they wanted to make it look like a classic Pentax, but didn't want to redesign any of the internals, and so they had to compromise on the shape. Also, the top chrome part looks like plastic; it really needs to be metal, and the whole thing needs to be smaller in size (like the classic Pentaxes).
dpreview
not dapreview
lol