Pentax MV arrived....it's tiny!

[gone]

Honey, I shrunk the camera! There's an old Chinese saying that says if you get a good thing watch out, you're going to get a bad thing too. And the other way around. So after buying 2 Nikon FG cameras that were bought dead and stayed dead, it was nice to get a working camera.

Like the EM's before it, it was bought as "untested" ($27, shipped), and it also has a broken rewind handle, which is no big deal. It came w/ a clean nifty 50 lens too. New batteries, and it fired right up. Even had a hood for it. Yes, it's a basic 35mm P&S camera, but that's what I wanted. No more missed shots of people walking their tortoise because I didn't want to tote the heavy N8008s w/ Leicaflex lens, which focuses backwards from the Pentax! That was unexpected.

Here's a handy size comparison. L to R: FG, MV, N70 and N8008s. The MV feels a lil lighter than the FG, and has a normal film advance lever, not that thing they put on the FG/EM's. Bought this and a budget Kodak TLR from Jon here, all for less than $70. It helps top have a convenient memory lapse for all those other deals that went way, way South. Love the handling of this little MV. The shutter is very quiet too. What a cutie.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Enjoy

 

[drmoss_ca]

Here's a Pentax ME Super (same body size as your MV) compared with a Leica MP. No prizes for guessing which was lighter, either!

A love of tiny cameras might explain my current infatuation with the Olympus Pen-F series.

 

[warden]

Honey, I shrunk the camera!

Wow that is a little guy. Congrats!

 

[gone]

Now that my initial impressions have worn off and I've run a roll of film thru it, I might add that the lens focuses really close, the shutter is louder than I thought (think cheapo-camera-CLACK), and the focus AND aperture are opposite from my Leicaflex lens. That made for some major fumbling around today.

I only have the one R 90 Elmarit lens, so when looking through the viewfinder, those things that habitually had looked so close were sure far away. I have to get an 85-100 lens for it, the focal length difference btwn the 2 cameras is way too much, it slows me down.

But: it handles so well and it's so small and light, that makes it a keeper for now. I'll upgrade to something w/ a quieter shutter later. You're probably not going to get a second grab shot in a cafe w/ this critter.

 

[abruzzi]

fortunately, if you shoot manual focus Nikon, focus and aperture turns the same way as the Pentax cameras. Lens mounting is in the opposite direction though.

I love the Nikon system, but the small size of that era of Pentax is very very nice (I have a MX that I usually use, and a Super Program when I want some level of exposure automation. The SP is a tiny bit larger than the MX, but they're both smaller than any Nikon I own.)

 

[wiltw]

text 'borrowed' from someone's post on Pentax sizes on another forum

W - H - D
Pentax Me - 131 x 82.5 x49.5
Pentax ME Super - 131.5 x 83 x 49.5
Pentax MX - 135.8 x 82.5 x 49.3

Source - http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/bodies/film_M/index.html