Want to Buy WTB: Pentax ES II camera

[jhw]

Hello - I have Spot II, but want aperture-priority...also, this one uses readily-available batteries, etc.
If you have one for a decent price, please give me a holler
thanks,
john

 

[Ian Grant]

Might help if you give a location. I've been after an ESII for a while but they tend to sell for quite high prices.

Ian

 

[werra]

Not to turn your wish down, but I suggest to try to get a hold of and maybe burn a roll thru the camera before buying. I had the same desire and finally got ESII a while back. Quite a disappointment, to be honest.
The beast is rough, heavy and handling is quite a far from sleek and straightforward SP. On the other hand the electronics seem to be quite fragile. The meter is kindof broken on mine as well, so I will not offer it to you.
Just some thoughts, before you shell out quite considerable amount of cash as ESII really tends to be expensive, especially in pristine usable condition.

 

[gkardmw]

Just to counter what werra says, I have a few of them and they are quite nice. Two I had cleaned and the other I did not. I suppose any camera this age needs a cleaning. As to the handling - I never had a complaint.

Dave

 

[jhw]

Thank you all very much; I'm grateful for your thoughts. I've never handled one, so didn't know there was a perceptible difference in feel. The SP certainly is a nice, simple nuts/bolts camera. Ian, yup, I've seen them on the boards only a few times...at a price; and on ebay up close to $200USD. Quite a bit to pay when you can get an F100 for that these days (one of my favorite SLRs). Werra - thanks for the advice; I'll keep trying local as well. Dave - so, you have three of these, eh?....

 

[Steve Roberts]

I have an ESII that has "been around the houses" and continues to perform well. The height is IIRC 6mm more than the SP, which seems to bother some people but personally I don't notice it. Obviously there's more in the way of electronics to go wrong than in a SP, but the faster shutter speeds (1/60th to 1/1000th) may all be used independently of the meter, electronics and batteries. As far as I know, the bad reputation for reliability came from the original Electro Spotmatic, but the ES and ESII seemed to have sorted the problems. (I also have examples of the Electro Spotmatic and ES which I acquired u/s but was easily able to sort - the problems were of the broken wire type, not circuitry-related).

Get one and enjoy it!

Steve