1957 and 1958 vintage...

Could help but post these pics of two beauties that have come my way in recent weeks (via e-YouKnowWho) after ages looking; both in virtually mint condition. The AP came as body-only so I fitted an Auto-Tak 55/2.0 for this picture. The shutter had jammed so it's now gone to Harrow Technical for some TLC to return it to operational condition. The K came with its original 'zebra' 55/1.8 lens and currently has a roll of film being put through it.

That AP looks familiar, think I just sold one of those...

Looking good - it's worth tracking down the ever ready cases for them IMO. The front part might be a royal pain, but they do protect cameras from the little knocks and scrapes which are an inevitable part of use. As you've got a couple of minty examples it's worth keeping them that way.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Amazing when you consider that Nikon didn't produce their ugly
ducking.... the F until 1959. They claim "It was the first to combine
many of the emerging camera design ideas into a single body" Ahem!!!!


The videos on this page are quite funny, whilst I appreciate that the Nikon F played an important part in photographic history, the films are far from accurate and even contradict themselves saying that the designer was influenced by Bahaus and then later the designer himself states that he's never heard of Bauhaus It also states that part of the designers credentials were posters he designed between 1964 and 1983.... they must have time travel in Japan

You may be right, hefty1!

When the AP comes back from t'menders, I won't be putting the semi-auto lens back on it for use, as there's no mechanism for pressing the lens pin for the diaphragm release. I'll probably use a slightly later Auto-Tak with an auto/manual switch until I can get my mitts on a preset 55/f2.2.

The K came with a brown leather case, but it doesn't have the cut-out for the slow-speed dial so was probably designed for the H2.

Unless the K was serviced recently you may well hit shutter capping problems. My SV does it and I assume the mechanism is similar?

Hi Matt.

I don't think that the K has been serviced recently. The test film came back as overexposing by what looks like a half to a full stop, which may be due to the shutter slowing down with age. What are the visible signs of capping on the pictures?

I'm using the Pocket Light Meter app for my iPhone which I use to set the camera up for a shot - brilliant little app that you can adjust up to +/-3EV. So I'm shooting another roll in the K with the meter adjusted to +1EV, which should give better results. Cheaper than a camera service considering I'm having my AP done now! At least that should be spot-on when it comes back.

It could well be - just compare your iphone light meter to a known good camera first though as it may be that the iphone isn't sensitive enough.

Shutter capping is when the second shutter curtain catches up with the first one - usually this results in blank or partly exposed frames at higher shutter speeds.

I calibrated the iPhone light meter against my Spotty (which exposes correctly) and it only needed +0.5EV correction, so that seems to work well. Thanks for clarifying what capping is; no sign of it on the K right up to 1/1000th.

Interesting - my spotty seems to overexpose by a similar amount! It works perfectly but the scans come back very pale (same scanner settings I use on film shot with other 35mm bodies, which are fine). It could be the mechanism slowing down or more likely the metering just isn't as accurate as that in the KX or MX.

Shutters run slower with age as the springs tire, so your 1/1000 sec is unlikely to be even close. Calibration in those days was only to within 20% anyway. You might only be getting 1/500sec, plus a bit of error on the meter.

It takes an electronic shutter to have any chance of being spot on.

Pentax evidently improved the design in the KM and KX, as I doubt my Spotty is much older than those two and they seem to expose perfectly (providing you meter properly to avoid the sky overpowering the foreground and so on).

I'll try the Spotty again soon and see if it was just my metering technique, I've since learned to point the camera at what appears to be the mid light intensity of a scene and meter from there. I've only had a handful of wrongly exposed shots since adopting this technique, even on slide film.

Hi John,

I've been away a while!

The last time I was down to see Robin, I took one of the Ashahiflex's as had been asking after them. As a matter of interest he put it on his shutter tester. He fired it off about 20 times at a 1/2 sec and all the results were between 490 and 495 msecs. Robin was rather surprised! or only was the shutter very consistant but also very accurate but it had been fully serviced and rebuild about 2 years before.

The "standard" may have only been around 20% but they were capable of great accuracy.

Kim

Horizontally running rubberised silk shutters are most likely to be out, such as the one in the MX. There was some evidence that they were initially calibrated to 1/1250sec so that they would naturally slow to 1/1000sec or thereabouts. It is essential to store these shutters in the uncocked state, otherwise they will slow quite quickly. Unfortunately with the age of the cameras now, some may have been left cocked for decades before we start to use them again.

The ME Super was the first electronic shutter camera to amaze testers. It delivered 0.5ms, or 1/2000sec, quite routinely and reliably. Amazing in its day. Having said that, the one Photo Technique got for test only managed about 1/500sec at the top speed, so clearly was badly adjusted or damaged in some way.

Update on these beauties: the AP is now back and working like new from Robin at Harrow Technical. I've now managed to get a pre-set 58mm/f2.4 for it, so now I'm enjoying running film through it:




What's interesting is that the lens came attached to what was advertised as a 'Honeywell Pentax H1', but as you can see from the picture, the camera body is clearly an AP (and a working one) with a H1 top plate on it! Finding a replacement AP top plate would be like finding hens' teeth (and in any case, it still then wouldn't be 'original' as the serial number would be different), so it's interesting as an unusual hybrid.




The K shutter is running about a stop slow, so is usable as long as the external meter is adjusted before use.