Half frame Pentax KX?!

sjeffg · May 25, 2016

Here's a vintage camera mystery for the APUG hivemind: What's the story behind this apparently one-of-a-kind half-frame Pentax KX? I snared this unicorn at the Pasadena Camera Show this past weekend; the seller got it from an estate sale on rubylane.com. It's got a modified film gate, masked-off viewfinder, a regeared film advance, and a handwritten 72-frame insert for the frame counter. Beneath the gate is inscribed MODIFIED BY KLINGER, and other inscriptions read I.M.C. and TITLE IV B. Tell me what you know!

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Theo Sulphate · May 25, 2016

I saw one of these at the swap meet in Washington state last month - in fact I've seen it several times before.

I don't know anything about their rarity.

mehguy · May 25, 2016

This seems very interesting. Maybe Pentax sold kits to repair shops that could perform a modification on the camera? But there doesn't seem to have much info on the web about this.

AgX · May 25, 2016

I don't know anything about this camera.

But in Germany full-frame SLRs were modified this way either by a manufacturer or later to serve clients as law-enforcement agencies.

Kirks518 · May 25, 2016

I don't know anything about the camera either, but...

if it was modified by Klinger, it probably wears a dress and is looking for a Section 8!

summicron1 · May 25, 2016

I suspect someone just did it for fun, or something. I have a friend who modified a Nikon to shoot square negatives.

not that big a deal if you know how to make gears and a film gate mask.

Theo Sulphate · May 25, 2016

The one I saw also had "HALF FRAME" on the front, exactly like in the photo. Nicely done. I suspect that Klinger probably made more than a few.

The counter dial and inscription is incongruous with the work on the front.

jeffreythree · May 25, 2016

Now that is pretty cool. I would not mind something like that since my fun little Mercury II is not that intuitive for someone raised on slr's.

sjeffg · May 25, 2016

Theo Sulphate said:
The one I saw also had "HALF FRAME" on the front, exactly like in the photo. Nicely done. I suspect that Klinger probably made more than a few.

The counter dial and inscription is incongruous with the work on the front.

I wonder if you saw the same camera I ended up buying? The seller told me that he'd toted it around to quite a few camera shows before I snapped it up.

Agree about the inscription, although the handwritten frame counter would have to have been installed by Klinger at the same time they did the modification... right?

Theo Sulphate · May 25, 2016

sjeffg said:
I wonder if you saw the same camera I ended up buying? The seller told me that he'd toted it around to quite a few camera shows before I snapped it up. ...

Maybe - perhaps the PSPCS website will show it in one of their "pre-show" photos - they do a good job of showing all the stuff that the vendors brought:

http://public.fotki.com/hbeyea/pspcs-annual-presen/

!!! ---> WARNING <--- !!! site induces equipment lust

NSFW: Not Safe For Wives

sjeffg · May 26, 2016

Over on photo.net I was informed that school libraries were often called the "Instructional Media Center." So it's probably a filmstrip camera, paid for by Title IV-B. Right?

(I couldn't spot the KX in the PSPCS photos, and believe me, I looked!)

Tom Cross · May 26, 2016

I've seen these types of cameras a few times. One of them was said to have been modified for the police to use as a "mug shot" camera, and the shutter speed had been fixed at a certain speed. How true this is I don't know, as I would have thought they would want the photo before the roll of 72 images is finished, unless they were using short rolls.

AgX · May 26, 2016

sjeffg said:
So it's probably a filmstrip camera.

What is a filmstrip camera?

gone · May 26, 2016

All I know about Klinger is that while he might have been a good camera man, he looked lousy in pumps.

I see Kirk beat me to it. Floridians think alike.

Theo Sulphate · May 27, 2016

From the 2015 show, look at photos 104 and 105:

http://public.fotki.com/hbeyea/pspcs-annual-presen/2015-pspcs-annual-show/p4112168.html

http://public.fotki.com/hbeyea/pspcs-annual-presen/2015-pspcs-annual-show/p4112169.html

That's definitely a KX way over on the left. I can't see if it has the half frame designation. However, as I remember it, the table and what's on it look right. The reason I paid attention is because I was looking for a clean KX among the few cruddy ones at the show - I finally spotted a nice chrome KX and it turned out to be a half frame - which disappointed me.

Edit: if I look at my monitor from different angles and kick the photo to 400%, it does look like the designation is there.

Anyway, I'm going outside now since Mars is pretty bright and I want to look for canals.

sjeffg · May 27, 2016

Theo Sulphate said:
From the 2015 show, look at photos 104 and 105:

http://public.fotki.com/hbeyea/pspcs-annual-presen/2015-pspcs-annual-show/p4112168.html

http://public.fotki.com/hbeyea/pspcs-annual-presen/2015-pspcs-annual-show/p4112169.html

That's definitely a KX way over on the left. I can't see if it has the half frame designation. However, as I remember it, the table and what's on it look right. The reason I paid attention is because I was looking for a clean KX among the few cruddy ones at the show - I finally spotted a nice chrome KX and it turned out to be a half frame - which disappointed me.

I am almost positive that's the same seller — and therefore the same camera! I remember the guy having that unusual three-dialed light meter at the bottom of the first picture. I think the label said "first electronic exposure meter" or something.

Good eye, my friend! You can actually sort of see the half-frame mask through the ground glass of the KX.

Theo Sulphate · May 27, 2016

Cool. I think I've spotted some vegetation in Syrtis Major as well.

thuggins · May 27, 2016

sjeffg said:
Over on photo.net I was informed that school libraries were often called the "Instructional Media Center." So it's probably a filmstrip camera, paid for by Title IV-B. Right?

Speaking of which, film strip projectors and viewers are readily available and very cheap these days. They make an excellent tool for viewing half-frame trannies, which are otherwise a bit of a challenge due to the small size.

sjeffg · May 27, 2016

A few pics:

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A three-frame panorama:

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Half frame Pentax KX?!

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