About to join all you MX owners...

I can't help with the Program A I'm afraid, I stick to fully mechanical cameras when it comes to taking them apart - all those electronics confuse me! You could always try this Eric Hendrickson guy that George mentioned in the post above though, it may be something that's easily fixed by someone who knows what they're doing.

Went out for a family meal today to celebrate my sister's birthday; the K10D stayed at home and the MX reeled off yet another roll of Fuji Reala. Another trip to the developers tomorrow - can't wait!

Thanks anyway.Anyone selling a programA here in the states?

The ProgramA was also sold under the name ProgramPLUS in certain markets and a quick scan of eBay (and KEH) has thrown up quite a few in the USA:

eBay - a few scuffs but mechanically sound - $37

eBay - nice working condition - auction currently stood at $12

KEH.com - black - $41

KEH.com - chrome / excellent condition - $53

You may even be interested in the SuperA / SuperPROGRAM; essentially the same camera but with shutter priority shooting, max shutter speed of 1/2000 (instead of 1/1000) and TTL flash automation. If anything these seem even more commonplace although slightly dearer. Some examples:

eBay - good condition - $32

eBay - nice condition - auction currently at $9.99

KEH.com - various conditions (working) - from $59 to $119

I'm sure there are plenty of other places but these few should give you a good start!

The Super-A is an exceptionally fine camera. I had one for 20 years or so and didn't replace it until I found a nice *istDS. That's now gone and has been replaced by a *istD and a K10D.

The Super-A gives you much more manual control than the Program-A.

Thank you for the info. have had mine about 13 years and am just in love. its not working right now and i hate not being able to get the pictures I want with a Nikkon n55. just want my baby back.

If your camera has a sentimental value to you then it's worth getting it fixed (I spend more money on my car annually than it's actually worth and it would almost certainly be cheaper to buy a new one; but I just can't bear to let go of it!).

If there's no sentiment involved and you just want another that will do the same job, then it looks like you have a choice of several for little more than the price of a round of beers.

Either way, if using one makes you happy then you should resolve to do something about it - life's too short not to!

Good luck

Get over it. It's better to have loved a camera and thrown it away, than to never have loved a camera at all.

I have just picked up this thread I am glad I did as I have a bettery drain problem, so now I can fix it.

It is strange how we can get attatched to cameras, as I certainly feel an affinity with mine. I brought it new in 1978 and with the winder it cost me £299, which was a great deal of money for me back then. God knows what that would be worth today, over a £1000 I would think. It was not my first SLR, I had a Practica Nova PL 1 and a Practica PLC 2 before, but it has stayed with me even after my foray into auto everything (MZ50). I hardly use it at all, and have often thought of selling it, but I do not really think I could part with it. I guess it is the camera which gave me most of my photographic memories, especially when my kids were young.

Anyway hefty 1, the thread was great to read, the images excellent and it has inspired me to get some slide film and hit the road.

Glad you found it an inspiration!

If it's encouraged you to pick up your MX, fix the battery drain problem and go shoot some film then I consider my job was worthwhile.

After the last year humping my K10D around it's a breath of fresh air to just have the MX+FA43 with me on days out. I've also got a Praktica kit (bayonet mount though unfortunately) which the MX makes look and feel like a breezeblock - I was still at school when the MX was for sale so I never had the opportunity to buy one new, glad I caught up at last though!

I bought a new Zenit E when I was at school which cost £42 with case but they would at least throw in a free slide film with it.

A year later I bought a 2nd hand Fujica ST705 from the camera club teacher who was going to buy the just released Minolta XD9 ( I think it was that one, I know it was the first camera to support all automatic modes).

I went to college and the ST705 with it's awesome 55mm F1.8 standard lens, Tamron AD2 28mm and Pentax 85mm F1.9 lasted me to the end of college when I bought an MX just because it had a bayonet mount.

Still used the Tamron 28mm on the Pentax by buying a new mount but bought a Pentax 85mm F2 for the MX and that all did me fine until the MZ5 came out.

MZ5 eventually broke so I bought a Z1P.

Then digital came along and I bought a DS.

Bought Nikon D50.

Still looking at K20. Cant decide what to do next.

I have different cameras for different occassions. I have a cupboard full of 35mm/110/MF cameras that never get used but aren't worth enough to bother selling (although some sometimes get given away) and 5* cameras that actually do get used on a regular basis.

Most used are the K10D/MX duo. I find the ability to swap lenses between them (and the pocketability of the MX body) means they get much more of a run-out than if I owned digital and 35mm SLRs from different manufacturers as I don't think I could justify building up two sets of lenses, let alone carry two sets around with me in the field. As you still own a good K-mount film body and several K-mount lenses I'd suggest you either bite the bullet and buy a K20D or sell the lot and go for a 100% Nikon set-up. Nikon make very good cameras (both film and digital) and very good lenses, however, starting again from (near) scratch is unlikely to be cheap!

I'm not a Pentax loyalist but I do think there are some gems in the Pentax line up that suit me down to the ground - I include the MX, the K10D (and by extension the K20D) and the FA Limiteds in this group. If Nikon has products that better suit your needs then switch - life's too short not to!


*The other 3 are: Contax TVS Digital (digital compact), Leica Minilux (35mm compact) and Rolleicord III (medium format TLR).

I love the idea of the limiteds but they just didn't seem to be suited to my DS. I really needed a quality standard zoom that wasn't too huge and it looked like the Nikon 16-85 was about the best available. I also wanted a small decent body and didn't like any of the current Pentax line up (feel and weight a bit subjective) . Given that, the fact that the new 17-70 ( that maybe very good ) wont work on the DS, the problems with the 16-50 sample variation all meant that I needed a new body & standard lens ( 24-90 wasn't doing well on the DS either. Problems reported with the new K20D sensor and the high price of the body didn't help either. My old macro flash won't work on the newer Pentaxes either.

If Pentax eventually come out with a really great small body, a macro flash is produced, the new limiteds come out 15,30,55 and the 17-70 is as good as the 16-45 then I might switch back as I really want a small slr. I love the Pentax lenses but at the moment I don't love the bodies.

I have ordered a cheap macro flash for the Nikon, if that's ok then I could think about selling the Pentax macros and that would be a hard one to come back from but we'll see if it's ok and what happens at Photokina. I hadn't really made up my mind until this week to sell it all ( except the MX ) and even now I'm not 100%, the DS is better for macro due the the mirror lock up and the Pentax prime lenses seem better than the Nikon, bokeh is superior on the Pentax macro.

Well the rumours are that Pentax will be showing a KxxxxD to sit below the K200D - something along the lines of the Olympus e420 would be my guess but we'll have to wait and see.

If you do go the all-Nikon route then I'd imagine the D700 / 105 VR Macro / R1 Flash would be an incredibly sweet macro outfit. We're talking a big heavy body and lens combo there though, especially with the guns hanging off the end of it! I'd find that particular outfit very tempting but out of my price range and I'd really miss the Limiteds.

I don't understand the reluctance of some people to buy second-hand. Pentax ring-flash units come up on Ebay fairly regularly, and there are also a number of third-party units. In John McD's position I would buy a used *ist D and whatever ring-flash first appeared on Ebay.

G

Great thread Hefty, I've just got hold of an MX and am looking forward to using it, after the task of cleaning etc.