Expectations when buying older cameras

GRHazelton · Oct 3, 2014

Your "new" Pentax MX.

I've dealt with KEH for 15 or 20 years and have never been disappointed. I'm sure you'll enjoy you MX, I must offer a word of caution. I have three of the little beauties, one's meter is non-functional, the other two suffer from rapid battery discharge, rapid in the sense of depletion in three or four WEEKS. My first MX performed flawlessly for several years, and then began to eat batteries. There is a tiny switch visible when the bottom plate is removed, some sufferers have found that a meter switch, connected to the wind lever, wasn't opening completely. According to my digital VOM the switches on my two are opening completely. Time for a trip to Erik, I guess.

This is no criticism of KEH, they obviously haven't the time to watch every camera for weeks or months, just a word of warning.

The winder is nice with the MX, but...the battery tray is secured with a tiny thumbwheel which treads into plastic. If the threads strip out I don't know of a repair other than a kludge. What was Pentax thinking! On the ME Super the winder tray has a simple latch. Oh well...

Les Sarile · Oct 3, 2014

GRHazelton said:
I must offer a word of caution. I have three of the little beauties, one's meter is non-functional, the other two suffer from rapid battery discharge, rapid in the sense of depletion in three or four WEEKS.

I don't know if you tried this yet but did you clean the battery cover? My first MX meter stopped working and when I got another that was fully functional, I swapped battery covers and the non-working MX meter started working. I cleaned the battery cover and both are now good to go.

hgaude · Oct 3, 2014

All the little quirks are coming back to me from 30 (!) years ago reading this stuff

GRHazelton · Oct 3, 2014

Les Sarile said:
I don't know if you tried this yet but did you clean the battery cover? My first MX meter stopped working and when I got another that was fully functional, I swapped battery covers and the non-working MX meter started working. I cleaned the battery cover and both are now good to go.

That I don't recall. Worth a try! Thanks.

Kyle M. · Oct 3, 2014

I've always wanted a Nikon F since I got into photography back in about 2005, back then I don't think I could touch one for under $500. A couple of months ago I decided to look for one again I managed to pick up an absolutely mint FTn for $140 from KEH. Of course the standard prism cost me another $200, but it was the only one I could find in the condition I wanted. Is it's market value $200? probably not, but to me it was worth it and since I have no intention of ever selling it resale value is of no concern. Personally I've always felt that if I can't find what I want at what most would consider market value and I really want it and am going to keep it then I can afford to buy at a highly inflated price. The lenses on the other hand I did great on mint 35mm 2.8 non ai I got for $30, the 50mm 1.4 non ai also mint I payed $40 for.

jaz1943 · Oct 4, 2014

KEH is one of the best places to buy used equipment. I have bought from them for as long as i can remember and no one beats their 14 day "no questions asked" return policy and their 180 guarantee.

Sent from my Surface 2 using Tapatalk

hgaude · Oct 4, 2014

Just checked the shipping and the camera is supposed to be here in a couple of days. I guess the first thing to do is run a small roll through it and make sure exposures happen properly. I don't have much experience with checking out older cameras, but I would guess shutter speed accuracy is one of the things that would go... is that checkable/correctable by a tech?

pbromaghin · Oct 5, 2014

Of course. Everything is checkable,correctable. You do need to be quick about that first roll, though.

LyleB · Oct 5, 2014

Unless the camera is sold to me as having had a recent CLA, I ALWAYS add the cost of one onto the purchase price. An old camera cannot be expected to work as new when it is dirty and guncked-up. Purchasing camera after camera, trial and error method until you get one that works seems to be a waste of time, money, and trashes a lot of potentially excellent cameras in the process.

Bite the bullet. If you want the camera, get it serviced. This has the added benefit of keeping the camera service folks in business for when we really want them.

BrianShaw · Oct 5, 2014

And the choir sang, "Amen", brother Lyle!

hgaude · Oct 5, 2014

LyleB said:
Bite the bullet. If you want the camera, get it serviced. This has the added benefit of keeping the camera service folks in business for when we really want them.

This is definitely my plan if need be. I wanted this particular camera because it was my first one used for work.

hgaude · Oct 8, 2014

Immaculate

Got the camera in yesterday and immaculate is the only way to describe it. KEH bravo! Inside of camera looks like brand new, seals plate, curtain, lens, everything. Ran a quick roll through it and did an exposure equivalency test through all the shutter speeds through 1000 and the density is VERY well matched, no light leaks that I can see on the film. Light meter even seems to be giving pretty good readings.

Exceeded my expectations for sure. NOW for the fun part of just going out and playing with a 'new' antique!

GRHazelton · Oct 8, 2014

I know you will enjoy the MX! Do see my earlier post for a couple cautionary notes re: battery life and the winder. The winder despite the design flaw I mentioned is, IMHO, well worth having. It adds just enough mass to the camera and gives a nice right hand grip. And the 2fps continuous advance is fun, if expensive to use. I almost never use that mode, preferring the single frame advance.

Les Sarile · Oct 8, 2014

hgaude said:
Got the camera in yesterday and immaculate is the only way to describe it.
Exceeded my expectations for sure. NOW for the fun part of just going out and playing with a 'new' antique!

The MX was my gateway to all my subsequent acquisitions as that gigantic and bright viewfinder made me confident in using manual focus lenses even in dark settings that made my AF lenses hunt.

E. von Hoegh · Oct 9, 2014

hgaude said:
Hi all,

I'm considering getting a Pentax MX and I wanted to understand what to expect from a dealer like KEH. I look at their ratings and I see many many comments that they are conservative. For a camera of the MX vintage, what would the expectation of an EX or EX+ be, can anyone tell me? Would I expect it to probably need a CLA or that one had probably already been done some time in the camera's past.

Thanks in advance!
Hayward

An MX isn't really that old, a proper CLA and new foam should set it up for a couple decades.
All of my cameras are older than an MX - my workhorse 35 is a '68 Nikon F that was completely stripped and overhauled about 1996-7, it's still running well.
I always assume that, even if it's apparently running well, attention will be in order. Cold weather is particularly problematic, a camera that appears to run well at room temp. will often misbehave even in the 40s (f) - forget subzero temps

Pioneer · Oct 9, 2014

E. von Hoegh said:
An MX isn't really that old, a proper CLA and new foam should set it up for a couple decades.
All of my cameras are older than an MX - my workhorse 35 is a '68 Nikon F that was completely stripped and overhauled about 1996-7, it's still running well.
I always assume that, even if it's apparently running well, attention will be in order. Cold weather is particularly problematic, a camera that appears to run well at room temp. will often misbehave even in the 40s (f) - forget subzero temps

This I agree with fully. I have a very nice Pentax SV that works very well in the summertime but the shutter starts hanging and capping at 20F.

On the other hand I have an equally nice H1a (basically the same camera) that I had fully overhauled a couple years ago and it runs steadily well below zero Fahrenheit.

Better then I do in fact.

Expectations when buying older cameras

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