Taking a Chance on eBay

I needed an MZ series camera for some product shots, so found a long shot on eBay. It advertised an MZ-5N plus 28-70mm f/4 and 80-320mm FA lenses, "untested", which could mean anything. Anyway, for £19.99 it was perhaps worth a bid. And I won, the package arrived within 24 hours and the contents were interesting.

1 small mint Tamrac bag held all the kit
MZ-5N is non-working but in perfect condition for the photos I need
24-70mm shows separation byt again mint condition
80-320mm perfect condition, fully working and clean throughout.

So the package was worth the price, and the 80-320mm is a solid lens that with even a quick couple of shots shows it has great potential.

The Pentax MZ-5N indeed does look mint, have you identified what's wrong with it?

Nice results from the 80-320mm too

It's the infamous mirror mechanism, victim of plastic gearing...Not worth getting it repaired even if someone was willing/able to do it. It's usually better to just find another one that works, which is a shame as I would prefer to keep things in use rather than them ending up as ornaments or even landfill.

Shame about the mirror gearing, it's a pretty attractive camera though given some of the shockers from that period.

I'm now imagining a shelf at the Riley residence with a Pentax camera from each series in chronological order

£20 for the FA80-320 I am jealous of - that would have got me over the frustration of selling the lenses that work on the Z-1p by those that don't (AF-wise), the D-FA.

I'd been eying up a Chinon CP-7m that sold for £7.99 a few weeks back - I hesitated. That would have completed my 1987 trilogy - got a CP-7m then as I couldn't afford the P50 or T70 (was a poor student then..).

The 80-320 is a very capable lens and you now have one in black - very unusual as most of them are silver, so you will certainly get your money back. I use a big Tamron hood on mine that came off an Adaptall 103A 80-210 - cheap as chips.

I was pleased to find a black one I think they look better than the silver finish.

As for that shelf, old cameras don’t disappear they find their way to the Sargasso Sea of Cameras and it’s a bit more than a shelf! 😎

The MZ-5N would be a fine camera were it not for that plastic gear. Capable, small, light, and a pleasure to use.

I had a quote from Asahi for around £100 to fix the plastic gear on a mint MZ series. Pondering. I know I'll not get my money back post repair if I sell it, but I've had the camera from new plus there's the principle of keeping things going if possible. My lenses are silver unfortunately.

That's less than I would have expected given the amount of work it takes to dismantle and reassemble the camera to swap out the gear. As long as it's swapped for a quality part rather than the same cr*ppy plastic I don't think that's too bad. Without that gear failure to worry about an MZ camera could last for a long time.