Pentax Z Series Cameras

It's 1991 and PENTAX piles on the muscles with the arrival of the Z series cameras. John Riley researches some of the latter film era camera models.

Posted: 03/04/2025 - 13:24

The year is 1991 and with it arrives the start of a whole new direction and new set of Z series models. At the time, I recall speaking to the Sales Manager of Pentax UK and saying I thought cameras were beginning to look too plasticky for my taste. His reply was at least Pentax were still using metal for the classis, whereas most manufacturers were not. This preamble is a way of suggesting that the qualities of the Z cameras perhaps lay under the skin, even if to some they were not the prettiest to look at. This is of course very subjective, but whereas the manual focus cameras had been elegant examples of fine engineering, the new designs were, in my opinion, blocky and had more obvious brawn. However, as it turns out they also had plenty of brains, so let's delve beneath that brash exterior and see what is revealed.

The K Mount

Just a note about the K mount. There are a number of different levels of complexity as the original 1975 K mount was adapted to the electronic era, and then to AF lenses. The degree of compatibility is extraordinary, and as previously noted remains a tribute to the original sterling work done on the mount design, a co-operation between Pentax and Zeiss.

This completes the changes to the film cameras, with the exception of the *ist that we will get to later in this series of articles. Each mount change up to KAF2 adds electronic information but does not change mechanical connection, so all previous lenses can still be fully used without resorting to stop down manual operation. At this point there are no exceptions, and even screw mount lenses can be used via their adapter on the very latest film bodies.

The flagship Z-1 arrives in 1991, a relatively large camera for Pentax and absolutely brimming with new technology and options. Here is the birth of the Power Zoom, as it becomes possible to exchange much more information between camera and lens with an increasingly complex (electronically) K mount.

Eye-catching features include modes Hyper Program and Hyper Manual in addition to the Tv, Av, P, B and Flash Synch. Hyper Program has four different program lines, including MTF that selects the optimum for the lens in use. Hyper Manual sets a correct exposure automatically which can be altered by the user by aperture (rear control wheel) or shutter speed (front control wheel) as desired whilst retaining correct exposure.

Excerpts from manuals showing features:

Many features that we now take for granted are being added, including eight-segment multi-pattern/spot/centre weighted metering. 15 Pentax Functions help to fine tune the basic operations of the camera.TTL flash control plus dedicated external flash units offer powerful options to the flash capabilities of the cameras.

The Z-10 is a stripped down version of the Z-1 and there are some minor points that could be significant. For example, the camera reads the DX code off film cartridges to set the ISO value and there is no manual setting, so any non-DX films are set by default at ISO 100. At the time, stick on DX codings were available that enabled different ISO settings to be used, and these are still available. Shutter speed is capped at 1/2000s compared to the 1/8000s of the Z-1. Drive speed is also limited on the Z-10, to just 1fps, compared to the fast for its day 4fps of the Z-1.

Motor drive and other features that are increasingly electronic do of course also need better power sources, and the Z series uses the 6V Lithium 2CR5 battery. These are available for around the £7 mark.

The P designation refers to Panoramic. This is a simple mechanical system that closes two metal blades that reduce the vertical dimension of the 35mm frame, thus creating a miniature panoramic format. This is probably most useful when shooting colour slides (transparencies) as in the case of prints it is no different to simply cutting an image to whatever format is required.

It is clear from the brief specifications above that there are two series of Z cameras. The heavier (650g) models have pentaprisms, faster shutter speeds, faster drive speeds and are clearly designed as a more advanced series. The second series are much lighter, use penta-mirrors and have curtailed top shutter speeds. Reviewers of the day liked the Z series and Pentax maintained a creditable reputation for quality and innovation. Power Zoom and all the tricks that became possible were probably well ahead of their time. The details of the lens features are covered in the FA series article.

Meanwhile, tastes evolve and the next step will be, again, a reduction in size and weight that leads us to the MZ series, the one *ist film camera and then into the digital era. These models will be covered in the next article.

Pwynnej Pwynnej

1660 posts
18 years
Richmond / Denbigh

Posted 08/04/2025 - 13:06 Link

I bought my Z-10 in 1992 (someone elses unwanted competition prize) and I loved it, a complete step up from my Chinon CP-7m, although it wasn't long before I was seduced by the Z-20 and then the Z-1p, I had a Z-1 for a while afterwards but from those 4 I only have the Z-1p which is sadly betraying it's age - the base plate is held together by glue and the eyepiece disintegrated last year.

In spite of this, the Z-1p continues to be a joy to use. But I made the mistake of selling my FA* zooms in favour of the D-FA trinity and sadly they don't focus on the older cameras..

If only somewhere there was a supply of parts for them....

Z-1p, K-1, P50
F50 1.7. SMC-FAs 24, 35, 50 1.4, 85, 135. HD-FA15-30, DFA24-70, D-FA*70-200. The SMC-FA Limited Trinity.
Metz 45 CL-4, AF500FTZ. AF540FGZ.
Some Mamiya and some Nikon, and a Canon T70.

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