K1000 production?

Hi guys,

I aquired a K1000 a while ago and have a question about which version it may be. I know these were made in Japan, Hong Kong & China, but don't know when 'Asahi' was removed from the prism.

Mine doesn't have the Asahi above Pentax on the front, the prism front is sractched, it doesn't look like it had the 'AoCo' logo but I can't b sure. it has metal top/bottom plates and simply 'Asahi OPT. CO.' on the base (no 'made in...' at all). The serial number starts 510****. The film speed goes to 3200. Any ideas where/when it may have been made?

John.

At least I think the top/bottom plates are metal, having compared it to my S1a I'm not sure now!

These were made over such a long period of time and at so many different factories it's hard to be sure. The later one's would have been plastic.
The words "Made in" aren't usually on Pentax cameras. Just Asahi Opt. Co. Japan.

There are dedicated sites and Wikipedia that have more information.

Useful link for Pentax related information, in this instance the K1000:

http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/bodies/film_K/K1000.html
http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/bodies/film_K/K1000_SE.html

Looks like the film speed goes to 3200 on all variants and all had the 'AoCo' logo if his information is complete. What does change though is the low end ISO from 32 to 20.

John

This looks like a very informative page, hopefully you should be able to trace your K1000:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-film-slr-discussion/51190-k1000-serial...

Bjørn

Hi. My K1000 bears all logos (ASAHI PENTAX & drawings) in the front of pentaprism. SN: 7332547. I bought it about in 1987 (but I'm not completely sure). By the way: it's a wonderful TANK but fast like a SPITFIRE. GCP