The Bare Bones

Horrible isn't it, John? esp. as it's very much a buyer's market rather than a seller's one!

I've got a few items that I really ought to sell but I don't want to let them go and I'll probably end up virtually giving them away - at least they'll be getting some use I suppose

John,

I'm watching you closely! Nothing escapes me.

Actually, I just happened to notice that there was a 55mm going on Ebay for not much money, and saw your name as the high (and only) bidder.

Hope it's OK.

G

Depends where I am going as to what gear I take out.

If it is town, then I take FAJ 18 - 35 or just 40mm limited.

For parks, zoos sometimes just 100mm and others 100mm and 200mm

I try and work out beforehand, what I think I will need then pack accordingly.

Rarely go out with all lenses.

I used to quite often use a setup of an MZ5 plus the FA* 24mm and FA* 85mm lenses. That was reasonably small and light but still capable of fantastic quality results.

Now I expect if I had to go with a single body and lens it'd be the DS and Sigma 10-20mm. Adding a second lens it'd have to be the 80-200 F2.8.

My most common system these days packs into a Lowepro Slingshot 200AW and consists of the following:

DS, Sigma 10-20, FA 50mm F1.7, Sigma 24-135 F2.8-4m Tokina 80-200 F2.8, Kenko MC7 2x, 77mm circular polariser, Cokin ND grads and IR filters. Sometimes I stick a macro lens in their as well, but I find that covers the vast majority of my photography.

less is more...

Spotmatic F and 55 1.8, I cant think of anything purer

Just thought I'd post a vote for the much maligned ME - I know the ME Super is a better camera, but I love my ME. It was my first proper camera (only 3 years ago, mind you!) and I've had some fantastic results with it. Despite its limitations it's my most often used camera, paired with a 50 1.7 A lens. I'll use other cameras if they're more suited to specific purposes, but there's something about using the ME that I love. Obviously it can't do everything (& if I had magic powers I'd give it a spot meter & an exposure lock), but I like shooting aperture priority anyhow, and it's only very rarely that I can't use the exposure compensation/film speed dial to get the exposure I'm after.

So, 80% of the time "the bare bones" is what I use. And I love it, and it only cost me £38!

Jonathan

I bought an ME in New Orleans the year they came out. It, and the MX, took the photographic world by storm, being the smallest SLRs ever made. I sold it to a friend a year or two later to fund getting the ME Super. The friend still has the ME.

It seemed like a little jewel compared to the comparatively large Spotmatic and the K2 which it replaced in my bag.

G

Hi George,

Nice to see you mention the K2 - I also own one of these, & it's a fantastic camera. It seems to be much less common than the KX, but is more versatile (though it's not fully mechanical at all speeds). It has none of the limitations of the ME and has features that lots of more recent cameras lack, but, for some reason, I find myself using the ME more. That's not to say I don't love using the K2, but like you said there's something more jewel-like about the ME. And, in keeping with the thread, the ME's slight limitations perversely appeal to me & make it the basis for my ideal "bare bones" kit.

Jonathan

I seem to recall that the K2 was considerably more expensive than the other two K camera bodies, and this may explain their relative scarcity - plus the fact that some may have fallen by the wayside with irreparable electronic faults.

But I never let trivial matters like cost come between me and a good camera (which is why I am poor today), and as I had been hankering after an ES/ESII, the K2 proved irresistable.

Sadly, it was stolen, and at about the same time the ME appeared.

G

I'd definitely like to get hold of a KX one day (& an MX!) as I love the idea of a camera that's fully operational without batteries. The K2 & ME can be used at X-speed, which is a nice fall back, though I've never run out of batteries at an inopportune moment.

What I like about the K2 (and also the ME) is its ability to do much longer shutter speeds (I think the KX can only go up to 4 seconds) - I guess that's something to do with having an electronically controlled shutter, which obviously, the KX doesn't have. Another thing I love about the ME (I realise I might sound stupid here, as I’ve never heard anyone mention this in relation to any camera) is that it’s got a great shutter release button. By this I mean that I can fully depress the shutter button to within a whisker of firing the shutter, without actually firing it until I want to. This I can’t do as easily with any of my other cameras. This clearly isn’t usually that important, but sometimes I do a bit of macro stuff where a tripod & cable release are impractical. I usually end up hunched over some kind of flower or bug, waiting for a lull in the wind & trying to regulate my breathing – this is when I’m thankful for the tiny bit of extra control I can get out of the ME’s shutter release button. I know it’s just a little thing, but…

Both my K2 & my ME must have had very careful previous owners, as they're both still going strong & are in very good cosmetic condition.

Another very underrated camera is the P30n (&t). This is not as aesthetically appealing as the other two, but is a great fully manual camera with aperture & shutter priority, plus an exposure lock. I don’t love mine as much as my other cameras, but it’s pleasingly solid, and, like the ME, was fantastically cheap!

Jonathan

You are absolutely right that the electromagnetic shutter release of the ME series cameras is superb. It needs to be experienced!

The MX and KX like most mechanical-shutter cameras have speeds from 1second to 1/1000 second. Of these, I prefer the more compact MX by a large margin.

For most of my (several) years as an amateur photographer I used a Super-A with Winder MEII + Takumar (couldn't afford the 'proper' Pentax version at the time) 70-210mm zoom. Of course, the 'standard Pentax-A 50mm 1:1.7 and AF280T flash tagged along most of the time too. That combination was compact enough to fit into a small, go anywhere, bag and catered for all of my limited photographic needs during that time and produced outstanding results.

My bare bones system now comprises a *istD + battery grip + 16-45mm DA Zoom + FA 28-200mm zoom + FA 100mm macro (I never go out without it now - superb lens) + AF360FGZ + . . . . a shed load of batteries. Not so compact, but gets a lot more use as the cost per shot is next to nothing if you disregard the hours spent post-processing in Photoshop.

In the days of film, I mostly used just an MX + M 40/2.8. This was great for travel as it was so small, yet robust.

These days I tend to use the *ist D + FA* 24/2 for the same purpose. Unfortunately, this combo is quite a lot bigger and heaver than the MX & pancake (and a lot more expensive)!

I took this bare-bones kit on a recent trip to Egypt where it performed very well, but was probably a little too bare, as I was wishing I had brought a telephoto and/or the kit zoom as well.

Cheers,
Reuben0

Greetings from a minimilizing campist
All I own is the DS and a DA40mm Limited. And life tastes sweet

Going to spend, though, when the DA21mm Limited comes out... Wonder how it'll feel then, being able to switch lenses...

Cheers,
Leena

Early days (pre teens) I was happy with my Zenith B and standard 50. I went via Praktica BCA & BC1 to a Chinon CP7m with 35-70 when I started earning and used that combo for about 10 years (now on long term loan to my Dad and still going strong)

Now in the digital age and more in to my photography I find it hard to leave the full kit bag behind, but if I must the *istD and 16-45mm DA is my minimum kit and a great combo.

Most of the time though I try and break my back by carrying a lowepro photo trekker around with the following:

*istD
Battery grip
MZ-6/ZX-L
AF360FGZ
50mm f/1.4 F
16-45mm DA
28-90mm FA
80-320mm FA
Sigma 135-400 APO f/3.5-4.5
Kenko extension tubes
Kenko 1.5x converter
58 & 67mm Circular Polarising Filters
Cokin ND 4, ND Grad and IR filters
Manfrotto 055PROB with 488RC4 Ball Head
4GB of Flash Cards
Usual assortment of cleaning products.

Paranoia figures strongly in my psychological make-up so I would rather lug everything around than find my self in a good situation without the equipment to exploit it.

Probably planning, a less opportunistic approach a body and 2 lenses would be fine, but I need the exercise anyway!