Help needed on Pentax timeline.

My wife has given me the task of cutting down on my camera collection, but also set my a challenge of buying/finding a Pentax camera made from the year both my wife and I were born in and also our 2 children,

Once we have our cameras, children included, we will be having a little photo competition of our own, using the cameras that were made when we were made, so to speak,

So now I need help, the years I am looking for are 1973, 1976, 2003 and 2006, I am guessing my kids will be having abit of a head start as they will be using digital,

Any help would be welcome and once cameras are bought and pictures uploaded/processed we will post them on this site.

Matty

You'll find everything you need at http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/index.html

He gives the production lifespans for all the kit.

Good luck - intriguing project.

unfortunately that web site only covers K mount cameras which appeared in 1975, for 1973 I suggest a Spotmatic F

---

Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -

Thanks for your help,do you or anyone know how to find the exact year of manufacture of the camera via its serial number or is that just asking to much or have I taken this challenge/compition abit to serious.

Pentax serial numbers follow little logical progression, probably intentionally to disguise production numbers from competitors.

---

Best regards, John

Thanks John, so what you are saying is I will be lucky to match camera and year up exact, so better off getting the cameras that were in production that year, still the challenge has been set and if anyone has any ideas of what iconic Pentax cameras or even duds that were around those years, that would be great.

Wikipedia is usually helpful in these matters

---

Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -

My First camera, a Spotmatic 500 was bought on the day I was born in 1973, my Dad claims it was new off the shelf so you could try that.

Paul

---

Digital

K-30, GX-10, DA 16-45, DA 18-55 and DAL 55 - 300

Film

ME Super, 2 x MX, SP 500 and SP F

and lense or 2

I bought an SPII in summer '73 prior to a safari trip. The Spotmatic F therefore either came out in late 1973 or in 1974.

In 1975 the K series arrived, so you have a choice of K2, KM, or KX. I bought a K2, and it was a superb camera.

G

---

Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.