Half frame Pentax KX?!

[sjeffg]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

So it's probably a filmstrip camera.

What is a filmstrip camera?

 

[gone]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[thuggins]

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]

A few pics:

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A three-frame panorama:

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