Which Spotmatic to go for?

Matt
Shooting the Welsh Wilderness with K-m, KX, MX, ME Super and assorted lenses.
No known problems that I know of. I still have my original one from 1977 - battered with a mint case because I never used the case and a mint one from ebay a couple of years ago that has a pretty worn case. It came with all paperwork including Dixon's invoice for £29.
The usual lens is the excellent SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8
Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -
Boxed,soft case,strap,body cover,battery,instruction manual and sales leaflet,original receipt card,my receipt from 1991......................... let me know if you are interested please.
Also got a black SP as an alternative !
Tony
K20D,*istD ( now a dedicated M42 digital ),K100D,MZ5N,P50,ME Super,Spotmatic 1000,Spotmatic,ESII,ES,H2.18-55 II,18-55,75-300 FAJ,35-80 FA,80-200 F,28-105 FA,Sigma 24-70 AF Aspherical,Sigma 28-300 Hyperzoom , Praotor II 500 M42,Centon 500mm mirror,and a few Pentax M42 Taks,super-Taks,smc Taks,A and M lenses.Benbo trekker,7dayshop monopod and a Lowepro rucksack.
I am now on Flickr which is nice !
Matt
Shooting the Welsh Wilderness with K-m, KX, MX, ME Super and assorted lenses.
I've a couple and use them occasionally.
Just as an after thought, have you considered a K1000?
It's a Spotmatic F with a K mount, just as good but a little more expensive, still they're readily available.
As an after thought these are mine.
Cheers, HG
K110+DA40, K200+DA35, K3 and a bag of lenses, bodies and other bits.
Mustn't forget the Zenits, or folders, or...

I've some gallerieshere CLICKY LINK! and my PPG entries.
I have an H2, S1a and a SPII but the ES gets the most use from my M42 cameras.
K.
Kris Lockyear
It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head. Henri Cartier-Bresson
Lots of film bodies, a couple of digital ones, too many lenses (mainly older glass) and a Horseman LE 5x4.
My website
From my recent experience:
I was worried about being able to see the meter needle with the lens stopped down, this isn't actually a problem in daylight although I haven't tried any indoor shots with it.
The back part of the ever ready case is handy. It makes the camera a bit comfier to hold especially in cold weather, and also protects it from minor scrapes (such as when you rest it on a rock). The front part tends to be removed before use and left in the car as it's a pain - I do fit it but only for transport or storage.
I've no idea how skewed the metering is, it behaves differently to a KM or K1000 but I think it's about on the money. Given how tolerant Ilford HP5 is I'm expecting usable results, but I won't be risking colour slide on this one.
Matt
Shooting the Welsh Wilderness with K-m, KX, MX, ME Super and assorted lenses.
Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -
Finding original leather straps for them can be a bit hard too - currently on the hunt for one for my SV, best I can find is £18 including post from the USA which is almost as much as I paid for the camera. Think I'll keep looking...
Matt
Shooting the Welsh Wilderness with K-m, KX, MX, ME Super and assorted lenses.

The open aperture metering is a real bonus though IMHO, makes operation that little bit slicker. I will agree though they look better without the flash hotshoe, I was looking to swap out the upper case on my F for this very reason (its called being a tart) but decided it would be happier left alone with a new home.
Only problem I have had is the silvering on the back of the prism de-laminating, you get a ragged dark line in the lower 3rd of the view finder than doesn't affect the pictures. If you can find a new prism they are fiddly but not THAT hard to replace.
I have some some long exposure stuff on the film in there (5-10min exposures) so I should soon see how accurate the metering is on the real dark stuff
Don't be too surprised if they don't work out. The film will almost certainly suffer from reciprocity failure at those exposure times.
Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -

TBH I'm surprised the ESII would do an exposure that long anyway. I had no idea the exposure would be that long (due to lack of thought) I was aiming for about 30sec to a minute.
Chris
TBH I get ok images, but still have quite a bit to learn with photography in general! SO not perfect but often showing some interesting character in comparison to the dSLR.
Both cameras probably need a service but are still really nice to use and the open aparture metering really makes a difference......
K5, K200 and several film Pentax cameras!
mayday
Member
Weston-super-Mare UK
As you can see nor research done (at all) yet...
Regards
David
Retired at last - now all that time for photography - you would think: wink: