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What are the classic 35mm SLR's

BradS said:
....283? That was Chevy.

I think Mopar had a 273...no? and from this came the 318, etc...


and whoa! you left off the 340 ! (my favorite)
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The 273 was the smallest V-8 one could order for a Dodge Dart.

Steve
 
I'd love to see a classic 645 thread next. Did anyone mention Pentax K1000? I never owned one but heard of them often.
 
Curt said:
Did anyone mention Pentax K1000? I never owned one but heard of them often.
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You mean that camera without a DOF preview button, meter switch and (in later models) shabbily built with lots of plastic?

An anti-classic if there ever was one!
 
Rol_Lei Nut said:
You mean that camera without a DOF preview button, meter switch and (in later models) shabbily built with lots of plastic?

An anti-classic if there ever was one!
Click to expand...

The classic 35mm SLR of school photo programs in the '70s, '80s, and '90s...but not THE classic 35mm SLR.
 
Although I don't use a Pentax K1000 I think it deserves a place in this meaningless virtual honor roll. In the USA in the 1970's and maybe 1980's it was THE tool that many photographers first learned the wonder of photography. They were rugged enough for classroom use, at least the earlier ones were, and you could very easilly understand what the relationship between aperture and shutter speed was. There were certainly other cameras of that time period that did the same thing equally well but the Pentax K1000 was the tool of choice. Why? Availabilility? Price? Reputation? I have no clue, but it WAS the chosen tool. Maybe that oughta count for something.

Then again, lots of Americans shop at Walmart...

 
An unqualified vote for the Pentax K1000 here.
Millions learned 35mm photography with the K1000, and vast numbers are still in use today.
No apologies for its shortcomings, real or perceived. A serious photographic tool indeed!

Chris
 
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The K1000 may have been good value in its time when someone wanted to purchase a new camera.
But some marketing genius came up with "the perfect learner's/beginner's camera" and that got mindlessly repeated ad infinitum, until almost everyone has heard it and many believe it to be true. (And I once believed it too and convinced a friend to buy one).

But a classic? No way!
It was hopelessly outclassed by the other Pentax Ks (which *do* have DOF preview and a meter switch). The only thing really going for it was its price and the myth....

In today's market, recommending one is absurd, as the *myth* makes it more expensive than the better Ks, and one could perhaps even get a Nikon F2 for the price of one.
 
Your personal dislike of the K1000 notwithstanding, over 3 million units sold says it's a classic.

Chris
 

Have you checked "the current market"?

K-1000's are going for peanuts. Check sold items on eBay. They're currently fetching only about $40~50....with a 50mm lens!!!!! No way can you touch an F2 for that kinda money.
 
American Classics

Ralph,

I kind of like cars that were made in the 1950's although many automotive enthusiasts would say that they are not classics. Some mopar engines from the fifties that are worthy of note:

331 Chrysler Hemi (1951) The first stock hemis
345 DeSoto Hemi (1956-7) The first stock engine to produce one HP per Cu. In.
392 Crysler Hemi (1957-8) The drag racer's favorite
413 Wedge Very underrated
426 Hemi What can I say

As for the Argus as a classic? They were produced in very large numbers but I doubt if many people today would know what one was, even if they held one in their hand. The same could be said of a Kodak Instamatic. One of the most rcognizable cameras ever made is the Speed Graphic with a Graflite attached.

Dave
 
BradS said:
....283? That was Chevy.

I think Mopar had a 273...no? and from this came the 318, etc...


and whoa! you left off the 340 ! (my favorite)
Click to expand...

Brad,

I don't remember a 283.

Some dodge engines:

270 V-8 1955 Super Red Ram
276 V-8 1954 DeSoto Hemi
291 V-8 1955 DeSoto Hemi

Chrysler came out with a 318 V-8 in 1960. The 5.2 liter engines of recent vintage are 318 cu. in. There have been millions of 318's in several types made during the last 50 years.

Dave
 
My classification:
Nikon F & F2
Topcon RE Super & Super DM
Pentax Spotmatic, Spotmatic ES, Spotmatic F. KX, MX, K1000 & LX
Zeiss Ikon Contarex
Canon F-1 Old, FT-b QL & EF
Leicaflex SL, SL2 & R3
Minolta SRT-101, SRT-303, XM & XD7
Olympus OM-1, OM-2 & OM-4
Fujica ST-801
Ciao.
Vincenzo
 
BradS said:
Have you checked "the current market"?

K-1000's are going for peanuts. Check sold items on eBay. They're currently fetching only about $40~50....with a 50mm lens!!!!! No way can you touch an F2 for that kinda money.
Click to expand...

The reason you can do that is that there are so many of them out there. To their credit a lot of them are still working well. There isn't a college campus in the USA (even now in the age of the DSLR) where you won't walk into their photography classes and not see quite a few of the students sporting them. Some will have Nikon, Canon et all, but a lot of those students go Pentax for their first film camera.

Why? Because they can get them cheap, because it doesn't blow their whole student budget to get a few lenses and because the K1000 is the perfect manual camera for someone who is learning to shoot and develop their own film. Most students will move on eventually, true. But even when they have a more expensive Nikon or a Canon in their hands a lot of them will still recall that K1000 fondly.

It's a darned good camera. I'm more of a Spotmatic fan myself but if one came my way, particularly a brown SE version? I wouldn't turn it down, that's for sure. In my mind what makes a classic camera "classic" is that people really like it, will continue to use it, will keep it up even when newer cameras replace it, for years and years.

I personally think that a lot of the Pentax cameras that came after the Spotties, the K series were plastic junk by comparison. If someone handed me a P series Pentax I'd find a home for it, but if someone handed me a Spottie or a K1000? No way I'd give it up unless I had more than one maybe.

I've used other cameras, been given one or two, borrowed a few more to play with over the past few years, but for me it always comes back to the Pentax SP's. Other cameras they may come over the years but my Spottie is forever and that is what makes it "classic." I still got it. I still use it and I always will have one for so long as I can still get film to put inside it!
 
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