ME Super stuff

I have invested in a Pentax ME Super in the last day or so, and would be interested to know when it first came out, original price, reviews, how it compared functions wise with other stuff on the market at the time. All that stuff... Were the 2 shutter speed buttons all that revolutionary??? If anyone knows of a website that would have that sort of stuff on I'd be grateful.

Also, I haven't had a film processed yet, and I've never had an SLR before. Will there be a quality increase from my Optio 33L digital (at 7x5 or 10x8 prints)? Or is that a naive question?

The ME Super was a camera of choice in its day and, yes, the shutter buttons were revolutionary. The camera performed extremely well, delivering shutter speeds of a new standard of accuracy right up to 1/2000 sec. The silvered pentaprism gave a superb bright view. The camera was small, light and remains today a very useable high quality instrument.

You will get better absolute quality than with any digital camera at any size, but assuming you use fine grain film and high quality processing. For the best results, use fine grain black and white film and process and print yourself. Or Fuji Velvia and make stunning colour transparencies!

I bought my ME Super fairly soon after they were introduced, in 1980.
From memory I paid £139.

grahamwalton

The ME Super did not cause as much of a stir as its predecessor, the ME, which came out in 1976. This was tiny compared to other SLR's and quickly became enormously popular. I bought one within a month of their introduction, having bought a K2 when they first appeared a year earlier. The ME had a jewel-like quality compared to the heavy cameras of the time.

The Super was a logical development of the ME, with manual as well as auto exposure, selected by the famous buttons, and faster speeds. I got one of those pretty promptly, too.

To get an idea of how popular the ME & ME Super were, you only have to look at how many are sold each week on Ebay. They have such a good name that they sell for much the same as the Super A, which is a superior camera, built on the same basic body. In fact, the Super A is really an ME Super with shutter priority and TTL flash metering.

For real street cred, you now have to buy the famous 40mm pancake lens, which makes the whole combo not much bigger than a classic III series Leica.

The pancake lenses are invariably sold as "rare", and "much sought after", or "sort after" to quote some Ebay nitwits. This doesn't quite fit in with the fact that they sell at the rate of one a week, though at surprisingly high prices. I suspect that there are actually three lenses that are constantly re-circulated. Once the novelty has worn off, people find that 40mm is very close to 50mm, and that the lenses are difficult to focus because the focus ring is so thin.

Anyway, enjoy the ME Super. It is a classic, and deservedly so.

George

Actually, I like my pancake 40mm. Just a little tighter composition than the 35mm and quite sharp. I have had no trouble focusing it.
Just me, but when I go wide, I like to go very wide.
Cheers,
Bob

Thanks for your replies, people. I got my first film back the other day. Yes, I think I need better processing than Boots 1hr!! I was impressed with lots of shots I took. However I need a bit of practice with the focussing and metering systems.

I used Fuji Superia 400 as I don't have flash. On Auto setting, I managed to shoot a rose bush and blur the background. And a still life of some colourful umbrellas is great. But I found the focussing bit a tad different from the "Auto focus lock and recompose" system on my digital compact. A picture of my dog sitting in the doorway to the dining room ended up with items in doorway in great focus, but dog is quite blurred, although he is dark brown and black, so that may have had something to do with it! Also, a couple of ones I took to try out the reds did not come out at all, in fact, they weren't even returned!! Is it illegal to shoot post boxes?

Also, many shots have a tiny black area in the left hand corner. It looks a bit like a dog-eared photocopy. Is this the camera or the processing? I had a job winding the film back. So maybe this is it.

I am a bit disappointed overall. On my digital, I'd have re-shot the unclear ones, but I didn't know that they would be so unclear, if you see what I mean! I will try a Kodak black & white. I have a C41 process anywhere type of film loaded. I'll try an independent processor, and if that is not OK I'll get the camera looked at. If anyone has any hints I'd be grateful. I have not used an SLR before (let alone a wind on one!!!!), but I have got one of my digitals published in Amateur Photographer, so I am not exactly thick!! I suppose I'm the opposite from those people who "go digital" and have problems. I wanted a cheap way to "go film" and work with apertures & shutter speeds. I have a long way to go I s'pose....

Thanks for your time folks,

Mark

I hope you won't feel too discouraged - there is a lot to absorb about photography and it takes time and practice. At our camera club (ADAPS) we have lots of excellent digital photographers who know very little about photography in the traditional sense. We are running a new set of beginners digital nights, and I have been including in that some snippets of pure photographic theory (depth of field, hyperfocal distance, perspective, etc.) and hopefully this will enhance their knowledge. It's worth working at, as it will help to develop the means by which you can take the pictures you want to and improve your expression in those images. You end up making photographs instead of just taking photographs!

But most of all, enjoy the process!

The fact that some of your shots were OK suggests that the camera is functioning properly, and the focus problems are probably down to you. You're not used to having to focus! Practice will make perfect.

The small mark in the corner is more of a worry. First, take your next film to a different processor. If the mark is still there, it's probably the lens. If it's not, it's the processor or film. I doubt if it's the camera.

Persevere. Photography takes time to master. Many of us haven't got there yet!

Thanks again gang. I have started my B/W film and am using the aperture priority mode, and just practising focusing. Will let y'all know how I get on. By the way, my pic should be in next week's Amateur Photographer, in Mike Maloney's page. I hope. Look out for flowers and fruits in a bluey green vase!

Sounds as though you're getting there Mark.
To maximise the depth of field and help ensure that critical areas are in focus, stop down to the smallest aperture available (larger number on aperture ring - think in terms of fractions!) and consider shorter focal lengths as wide angles have better depth of field characteristics.
I don't think the Me Super has a depth of field preview button (sold mine to a friend years ago) but you can see the effect if you carefully begin turning the lens as if to remove it, this will stop the lens down to the aperture set. The image will darken but you'll notice that areas that appeared slightly out of focus, infront of and behind the subject, will become sharper and this is how it will appear on the finished print.
Having partially released the lens, take care not to let it fall from the camera
I found that using this technique and relating what I could see through the viewfinder to the depth of field scale on the lens, helped me to visualize the effect I wanted to achieve - it's all too easy with digital these days