I've just won these 2 Pentax S1a bodies from ebay this eveing... £15 for both of them delivered! They seem like a bargain but, well, we'll see what they are like when they arrive. Cosmetically they both seem in very good condition -

[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/BWZClsCGkKGrHgoH-DYEjlLl4iEBKNH63jj.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/BWZCqoQBGkKGrHgoH-DkEjlLly9hRBKNIK5.jpg[/IMG]

The advert states that both have the same problem, the Film Advance Lever is moving freely but wont engage. From what I can find out on the web, a lot of these models and also spotmatics seem to suffer from the lever sticking or not moving, would this be realted to a similar problem?

I want to get stuck in an try and learn how to repair an old camera such as this, for the price it seems it wouldn't really matter if something goes wrong - rather than attempt my first repair on something more expensive and it all going competely wrong!

Obviously i'm new to this, although i'm not affraid to take something apart but I want to try and do this properly. To repair something with your own hands and get it working again I find quite rewarding, any advice / help would be very much appreciated.

I understand that this model, the S1a is a lesser model - but the main difference that I can see is that it lacks a self timer and only goes up to 1/500 of a second with the 1/1000 of second speed hidden one click after. Is there any other major difference between this model and the others?

It does look really neat with that lens

Nice When did you get that then? I've been checking back there now and again & I didn't see that. The black ones do look nice, personally though i'm not sure if I like it as much as the chrome body... I'm not sure!

As for the 40mm, depending what camera you use it on, it might make the camera a bit awkward to hold as you can't support the camera properly, or as you usually would. Having not used one I can't really say!

Ffordes have got one here for sale - link

It seems like a good price, they say its 'As New' which, from my experience with them so far means it really will be. This is where I got my MX from, the last few weeks I've given it a bit of hammering and its working perfectly

Tescos did a good job with my prints, charged £6.36 for 36 7x5 prints and 97p to put them onto disc at the same time, its probably not the best place to get them done but I'm happy with them, the first roll I took there, the prints came out with a pile of dust marks on them - i've been told its carelessess with the developement, 2nd time around though 3 rolls came out fine

I wouldn't mind some recommendations on a good place to send them off to have developed.

The MZ that you bought looks like a bargain!, i just bought this Mz-7 off ebay for £39 2 weeks ago - not tried any film though it yet though but its all working and feels like it will be nice and easy to use.

Why is it that the MZ-6 seems to have a much better spec than the the MZ-7? you'd think it would be the other way around

[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/_IGP3942.jpg[/IMG]

! thats alright then

I've just sent you a link, not sure why you can't see them

Just ordered a couple of rolls they are cheaper than ebay

I had some more prints done at tescos a couple of days ago, a different bloke there this time and he seemed to do a much better job, all the pics came out fine

[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/Photo06_3Acopy.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/Photo08_5Acopy.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/Photo39_36A.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/Photo08_5copy.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/Photo40_37copy.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/Photo19_16copy.jpg[/IMG]
This time i got them to put the prints onto cd, and this is where these are from - if you look at the last shots i posted on here, those were scanned from my scanner and look better. The shots i've posted above from the CD, look a little washed out but the prints don't.

How much do they charge to have it serviced? and how often do you do it? Having not owned it long, I already know im not going to be very happy if its breaks

I was being impatient on saturday, and the only place I could get the prints done on the same day was tesco, and the spots appeared mainly on the first few prints that I took - like you say I think its down to carelessness when the printing was done. I went to a Welsh Pony & Cob breed show yesterday [my girlfriend shows horses] and I would normally have been bored out of my mind but I took the MX and Km and took some shots with each to compare, so the day turned out to be quite useful as it gave me a chance to test my skills and take some fast moving objects

When looking for film, ebay seems like a good place to find it but is there anywhere else that would be recommended? and why is it that on ebay they've got 'negative' film & 'standard' film - do I need to be carefull about which one I choose?

I can see John that you much prefer the change over to Digital - I love my Digital SLR, even though it might only be a 'entry level' camera, I feel it gives me plenty of control and more than good enough pictures for what I need, and if I feel lazy I can just point it and click. When you look at them side by side the amount things have advanced over the years is quite a lot - and given mostly everyone the ability to take really nice pictures easily.

Here are some -

[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0002.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0003.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0005.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0006.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0007.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0004.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx15/PENTAX-PLANET/SCAN0001.jpg[/IMG]

Can you see the white marks that I mean? Does anyone know what the cause of this is? It's not from the scanner its as they were when I picked them up.

I'm really pleased almost every shot came out good - except for a few - user errors!