For the Pentax Spotmatic Experts out there

[Uncle Bill]

I have a Spotmatic F and I finally found a decent late screwmount 55 f1.8 SMC Takumar lens to go with it. I now have the automatic metering. Question of the evening. Is there auto shut off when I put the cap back on or is the meter on all the time?

Bill

 

[David Brown]

http://www.lensinc.net/manuals/SpotmaticF_user.pdf#search='spotmatic%20F'


Hope this helps.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Hey thanks for the link to the nice scan, David! I got the Spottie F manual from Pentax and it's only a really high-contrast photocopy one that makes pics unreadeable.

Bill, short answer: no there is no shutdown switch on the F for the meter, you just have to put your lens cap on not to drain the battery. I've just started using one, and it's such a nice camera (and I got that sweet f1.4 SMC Takumar 50mm!).

If I may add a suggestion, get a 28mm f3.5 for wideangle and a 135mm f3.5 for short telephoto. Both are numerous and going for a piece of cake on the auction site. But don't bid on the one I'm watching!!

 

[Uncle Bill]

Thank you for this valuable bit of information. I am going to have to train myself to keep the lens cap on when between pictures or I will be relying on my Gossen Lunasix. I have a bunch of Super Takumar wide angles and a telephoto lens. I have 4 other screwmount bodies but the Spotmatic F was the one I had the knowledge gap on.

Bill

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Bill, I forgot to mention that the light meter is turned on automatically only for the SMC Tak lenses, because they have that extra pin for open aperture metering. If you use a normal M42 lens (like the Super Takumar), you'll have to use the stop-down lever on the camera (not on the lens) in order to flip on the meter.

 

[John Koehrer]

uncle bill
If it uses a similar ciccuit as the K1000 camera, There's a cell above the eyepiece that turns the meter on/off. When the light goes below a specific level the cell stops conducting & effectively the meter is turned off. Using the lens cap as a switch works well. You just need a pocket full of lens caps. Contact your local leprecaun.

 

[Steve Roberts]

uncle bill
If it uses a similar ciccuit as the K1000 camera, There's a cell above the eyepiece that turns the meter on/off. When the light goes below a specific level the cell stops conducting & effectively the meter is turned off. Using the lens cap as a switch works well. You just need a pocket full of lens caps. Contact your local leprecaun.

I recently whinged about this in another thread and see it as rather "cheapskate" of Pentax not to have included a switch for another tuppence on the price of the SP-F and K1000. Pentax always maintained that the battery would still last a long time even without frequent replacing of the cap, but as an engineer I always hankered after a switch and thought about the poor old light meter if the cap was off and the camera dangling around my gut should end up by chance pointing at the sun!

Steve

 

[titrisol]

look for the manual here: www.pentax-manuals.com

I have little knowledge on the F but I htought it had the switch on the side.

 

[Steve Roberts]

look for the manual here: www.pentax-manuals.com

I have little knowledge on the F but I htought it had the switch on the side.

I'm told that you could switch it off my unscrewing the lens a quarter of a turn, but the possible consequences of that don't bear thinking about!

Steve

 

[Uncle Bill]

I think I will have a pocket full of 49mm lens caps. I am aware of the the extra pin the SMC lenses have to activate the meter, pity the powers at be with Pentax did not have an on/off switch or button like the Olympus OM-1. I will have to remember keep the cap on when I am not shooting.

Bill

 

[dschneller]

If it's anything like my SP500 or SP1000, then the meter switch is shut off after you depress the shutter.

Dave

 

[David Brown]

... pity the powers at be with Pentax did not have an on/off switch or button like the Olympus OM-1.

Or like the non-F Spotmatics! Actually, on the earlier Spots, the meter shuts off every time you trip the shutter.

(Opps - see prior post. Timing is everything. )

 

[stark raving]

If it's anything like my SP500 or SP1000, then the meter switch is shut off after you depress the shutter.
Dave

If the linkage still works. That's usually the first thing to go (and not worth fixing IMO, just remember to turn the meter off manually.)

 

[dschneller]

If the linkage still works. That's usually the first thing to go (and not worth fixing IMO, just remember to turn the meter off manually.)

I would have thought the meter would be the first thing to go.

 

[gnashings]

You may be the perfect customer for one of those obnoxious "cap-keepers"(the little elastic that goes around the lens with a string attached tht sticks to the front of the lens cap)
Usually, I would say the thought of something dangling from my camera would make me have fits, but in this case, I think it may be just annoying enough to save your batteries!

 

[tony lockerbie]

Uncle Bill, just buy plenty of those batteries or get an old Spottie with the meter switch on the side. You can also do as I did and but a C.V Bessaflex to take all those sweet Pentax screw mount lenses, it's even got that meter switch!

 

[Donald Qualls]

I would have thought the meter would be the first thing to go.

Not in mine. The linkage was gone when I bought mine, used and then 14 years old, in 1981. The meter finally died in early 2005, at 38 years of age; the shutoff linkage was repaired when I had the meter cells replaced a couple months ago, and is already non-functional again.

I've seen very few Spotmatics of similar vintage to mine with meters that didn't work if you put in a battery, though the CdS cells do age and most from the late 1960s are probably due to fail in the next decade or so...