Off-brand K-mount body.

Hamster · Jul 8, 2009

I am in the market for a k-mount body.

I have a selection of M42 lenses and hope to eventually be able to afford a Pentax LX.

At the moment I am slowly trying to acquire some k-mount lenses, and would like a body to use them on. MX/E, K2/M/X, K1000 are a bit expensive and hard to come by.

Are there any off brand K-mount camera models such as Ricoh/Revue/Chinon/Porst/etc... that is worth considering? All I need is some kind of control over the shutter speed and reliability.

Anscojohn · Jul 8, 2009

The Ricoh KR series was a solid body. I have heard the Chinons are ok, too. Freestyle sells a Vivitar, made in China, I think. Porst could be anything; it was a house brand name for Foto Porst, a German equivalent of Ritz Camera (USA).

titrisol · Jul 8, 2009

Meanwhille you can give the ProgramA / ProgramPlus a try, those bodies are usually cheaper and are very nice and solid
with all the pluses of the old ones, pus electronic shutters
There was one for sale + lens+motor drive here a few weeks back
You may also want to check a MZ7 or a MZ-M which are cheaper but very functional

Don't waste money/time on the K1000 better spend it on a KX/KM or an MX/ME Super

The Ricohs are generally solid cameras, those were also sold as Sears brand, and usually are sold for peanuts.

Get a good set of light-seals from JonGoodman for any of those thou

Hamster said:
I am in the market for a k-mount body.

I have a selection of M42 lenses and hope to eventually be able to afford a Pentax LX.

At the moment I am slowly trying to acquire some k-mount lenses, and would like a body to use them on. MX/E, K2/M/X, K1000 are a bit expensive and hard to come by.

Are there any off brand K-mount camera models such as Ricoh/Revue/Chinon/Porst/etc... that is worth considering? All I need is some kind of control over the shutter speed and reliability.

Ian Grant · Jul 8, 2009

The Chinon CE-4(S) are excellent camera's they sell for very reasonable prices on ebay, they are what Pentax should have made rather than the ME & ME Super, I've used them all.

Ian

AgX · Jul 8, 2009

Here you'll find a SLR body offered with different lens mounts:

http://www.chine-taiwan.com/phenixoptics.htm

It is sold rebranded by different companies, but seems to be of chinese origin.

dmr · Jul 8, 2009

Supposedly some of those newer el-cheapo ones (Chinon, rebrands, et. al.) are made from the same tooling as the last run of the Pentax K1000. That's what "they" tell me, anyway.

dougjgreen · Jul 8, 2009

I really like the Ricoh KR-5 - there were 3 versions, all good. They can usually be found on the 'bay for $25-40 and they are quite nice. Essentially, a more compact, lighter version of a Pentax KM or KX - with a few more features than a K1000, including more viewfinder info and depth of field preview.

I wouldn't consider the Ricohs as an off brand - they were not copies of anything, and had nice ergonomics and nice features. IMHO, they are quite legitimate alternatives to the Pentaxes.

dynachrome · Jul 8, 2009

Off-brand K mount body

I have three Vivitar V4000S bodies and a V4000. The S has a self timer. I don't thnk I paid more than $25 for any one of them. They are very light and have sensitive and accurate light meters. As a stop-gap measure they should do what you need. I also have two Sears KS Autos, a Ricoh KR-5 Super, a Ricoh XR-S and another auto-only Sears K mount SLR. These all seem light in weight compared to the K1000 I have. The Sears cameras were made by Ricoh.

Off-brand K-mount body.

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