Honeywell Pentax ESII?

Here comes today's dumb question.
I was looking at info on Takumar and SMC lenses on the net, and the site I was using employed a Honeywell ESII to show the various lenses. I did a search for the ESII but don't seem to find any history. I know it's an M42 screw and it looks to be the son of an F. Was it actually made by Asahi to be marketed in the USA, and is there a European Asahi equivalent? Is it as good as/better than an F?

Thank's

Cheers.

The Asahi Pentax ES was the first SLR with automated exposure control, allowing aperture-priority exposure metering. You set the aperture, the camera set the shutter speed. It was a milestone, and very expensive. It came out in the late sixties or early seventies, and I think used late Takumar lenses like the ones used on the SPF.

At the time, Pentax was represented in the States by Honeywell, who rebadged the cameras (all, not just the ES and ESII) as Honeywell Pentax. There were one or two variants specific to the US market, but most were just like the international Pentaxes.

It's obviously a "better" camera than the F, in the sense of having more capability, but otherwise was much the same. All, or almost all, were black.

That's all from memory. You might well find more on the AOHC site.

G

Thank's again George, for clearing this up. The ES and ESII sure seem to be rare on eBay - I wonder if very few were made/sold. You're correct about them being all black - at least the few I've seen are.

Have a great weekend.

They were made in Rolls Royce/Lamborghini numbers. For the same reason.

G

PS: Have a good weekend yourself. Mine doesn't start just yet.

Hi Mac,
The ES's are not that uncommon. As George says they were automated and as such some consider them to be an advance on the Spot's. However, they only have a limited manual functionality. The meter only works in the auto mode and the only speeds available are 1/60 and faster. Add to this, the fact that particularly on the earlier models, the elctronics are not very robust and you find that many Spot users tend to avoid them. If you do intend to get one, it is worth getting it checked out before commiting yourself, they are a pain and expensive to try and get fixed.

Kim

Kim,

I asked a local Photo Shop about possible repairs to Spotmatic and ESII. He grinned from ear to ear when I said Spotmatic, but gave me the title for this post when I said ES.

I'm sticking with my search for an SP F. I'm not THAT much of a masochist - er, collector.

Thank'e for all the info and heads up.

Cheers

Hi Mac,
No problem, You might find my website helpful for info. It's at www.pentax-manuals.com. A very good forum for all things Spotmatic is the Spotmatic forum on Yahoo. I will try and send a link when I get home. The PC at work won't let me access it. You might also like to help the M42 database project by registering your kit at http://www.m-fortytwo.info/

Kim

Kim,

Thanks 1:

For YOUR wonderful site (check it out members!)

and 2: for linking me up to the M Forty Two database (have entered my pitifull little inventory).

Now I'm going back to order zee book.

Ooohhhh this just gets better n better!

Cheers