A friend just called to ask if I would look at this camera tomorrow morning. It's being sold locally.
I know how to judge a camera's usability but I'm unfamiliar with this model. Any Pentax MX shooters out there?
Thank You
I wouldn't trust Nicole's opinion on this. We all know ANY camera she uses produces great photographs.
Sorry Nicole, couldn't resist
Mike
... coupled with a good lens other than the standard kits lens, it should serve you well. ...
An MX was my first 35mm SLR too, also back about 1977 or so. It was a great camera, especially with the motordrive attached. I never had any problems with it. Only sold it when I went to Rollei SL35E for the Zeiss lenses.
Thats correct Ole, I used to sell them new when they were current in my shop, customers could have the option of either the 40mm pancake lens ( also sometimes called the cyclists lens) or the 50mm."Standard kit lens"? Wasn't that the 40mm f:2.8 Pancake? That was a wonderful lens, which should not be brushed off as a "standard kit lens"! This was in 1979 or so - long before the horrible "standard zooms" became "standard".
Thanks Ole, for refreshing my memory I've slept a few times since then, however I do remember we sold A lot more with the 50mm F2, probably because a lot of the people who purchased them were first time SLR buyers, and it was hard to convince them that the 40mm was a better option, since they would eventually probably buy a 28mm and a 80-200 zoom as most average customers did in those days. The MX was a lovely little camera, and as tough as old boots. I wish I had one now.Ben, I think the 50mm option was the 50mm f:2, which is an incredibly sharp lens and was slightly cheaper than the 40mm. But since the MX with the 40mm was smaller than most "compact" cameras, I would expect the majority to go for that.
There were other 50mm lenses produced too, but those would have been faster, heavier, and more expensive. The f:2 -M lens was small, compact, cheap and sharp.
A friend just called to ask if I would look at this camera tomorrow morning. It's being sold locally.
I know how to judge a camera's usability but I'm unfamiliar with this model. Any Pentax MX shooters out there?
Thank You
I have to be the bad guy here and say that as a Pentax enthusiast and user, I think they lost it with the M series. Small and compact they were indeed, but IMHO only at the expense of ruggedness and reliability compared with the previous K series and Spotmatics. I had all three - ME, ME Super and MX, but the ME & Super are so different to the MX that I won't dwell on their shortcomings. I bought my MX nearly new, thinking of it as down-sized Spotmatic/KX, but although it wasn't very old the foam seals needed replacing and the slow shutter speeds were a constant source of trouble. It cost me a fortune in repairs before I gave up on it. Pity, because it was certainly nice to use and I really tried to like it. One other major gripe was the LEDs for the meter display which were not very visible in bright conditions (great, though, for poor light, where the Spot/K match needle disappeared into the gloom). Perhaps I just had a bad one.
Best wishes,
Steve
Back then I had no idea what to do with a camera and the photo above was shot on the straight auto mode with on-camera flash. Nothing fancy in that. The in camera metering is still spot on today and has never been serviced.
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