Pentax ESII batteries?

I've just snagged an ESII on ebay, it looks ok but is minus the battery cover. I should be able to fix that by making a part, but I need to know what sort of batteries I should use? I know some of the pre-K series SLRs can be a bit picky about what batteries they'll work properly with.

Assuming I can get it behaving reliably I plan to reunite it with an SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8, as according to the manual this was one of the choices of kit lens.

Ebaying on Christmas day!... Shame on you!

ES2 takes 4 1.5 volt silver oxide batteries. Just about the cheapest and easiest to find camera batteries.
Do let us know if it works. - I had a look at that myself.

Well, I made an offer on it yesterday and had it accepted today...

Not as bad as the MX with a 50mm f1.7 lens that I saw in a feeding frenzy. It hit £103 with over an hour left. The MX is probably one of the best Pentax have ever made, but that's still silly money for a camera that isn't particularly rare and is over twenty years old.

I caved in and ordered a brand new Industar 50mm pancake a week or so ago (£16 including postage) so I'll use that to test the camera and buy a 55mm f1.8 Takumar when I know it can be trusted. I don't own any other M42 kit, but I know the black versions of most Pentax SLRs are more desirable so thought it worth a go, as it looked in decent condition apart from the battery cover.

'More desirable' is almost always the more unusual variants. In the case of the ES/ESII most were black, the chrome versions are much rarer.

Kris.

Ah, ok! I thought that most were chrome and the black versions were more unusual, as per the K and M series. Oh well, I'll still have an interesting old SLR to tinker with!

I am very fond of my ES so I am sure you'll have fun with the ESII.

K.

Well, it's here - and it works! Just needs a battery door, the meter powers up if I jam some batteries against the terminals. Not in bad condition either, the rewind crank is bent (the knob part, not the shaft going down into the camera) but it still works and apart from some slight brassing it's a pretty tidy example.

Does anyone know if the battery door from another Pentax M42 camera would fit? Just thinking this would make it easier to find one.

If it works, You got a great camera for a tenner. - Well done!

No other Pentax camera has a similar battery cover, but some Praktica screw thread models like the EE2, LLC, PLC etc, that took an AA sized 4.5 volt battery, have a similar, rectangular plastic battery cover. You may be able to trim one of those down to fit.
The rewind knob is the same as those used on all the Spotmatic cameras. You should be able to find one quite easily.

I've just made a replacement door from a bit of plastic sheet (Plastikard, for any other modelmakers out there) and a couple of bits of adhesive copper tape. It also relies on a couple of bits of gaffa tape to stay put but doesn't look too bad and it seems to work.

I know that the ES series were the final M42 Pentaxes, with a bayonet-type thing to avoid stop-down metering that was offered by the SMC Takumars. However, I've also seen an early Auto Tak with what sounded like a very similar system - are they compatible or would it be stop-down metering only?

Auto Takumar lenses will refer to auto diaphragm action (stop down) and will work with stop down metering. They will fit your camera though.

You use an Auto Takumar lens by metering at the stopped down apoerture. Then press the lever to open the lens to full aperture for focusing. When you release the shutter a pin closes the aperture to the value set. You then repeat the process for each shot.

Fully automatic diaphragms are found as Super Takumar lenses, where the lens is always at full aperture until the moment of exposure. After exposure it opens up again. Metering is still done stopped down though.

To make the most of this camera, you should use the SMC Takumar lenses that had a little square peg on the mount that allows open aperture metering with the ES, ES11 and Spotmatic F.

Thanks for that chaps - I'll keep an eye out for one of the SMC Taks. I'm planning to shoot a roll of film with the Industar 50mm first though, to check the camera is metering correctly. Takumar M42 lenses seem to be fetching silly money at the moment so I'm in no hurry.