Pentax ME Super

The eighth camera in my 12 months of film project is the classic Pentax ME Super. Much loved by the many people that used it during the late Seventies and Eighties when in production, it's still very popular today amongst students and people shooting film such as myself.

Pentax ME Super

The construction is solid, typical of the era, and putting many modern cameras to shame. At its core it's probably best designed for shooting in aperture priority mode, where the user selects the aperture and the camera decides on the best shutter speed to use.  There is a manual mode however, where on selecting M on the right hand dial on the top of the camera, allows the user to control shutter speed with the two buttons found next to it. This makes the Pentax very flexible in all shooting conditions, and I found myself using the manual mode on quite a few occasions. Like most cameras of this time, if the battery fails whilst in the field then it can still be used when 1/125 is selected from the top right hand dial. Maximum shutter speed is a useful 1/2000 second.

Top view

ASA dial

Back view

Main command dial

I was shooting with a Pentax-A zoom lens which had a 28-80mm focal length and a macro mode. The lens was good, sharp throughout, but not particularly fast, with a maximum aperture of F3.5-F4.5, depending on focal length. The shutter made a nice positive sound and was quite well damped, but I did find focusing with the camera a slightly unpleasant experience. Sometimes I found it difficult to lock focus with the camera as the central spot of the lens went too dark for me to see. I have a feeling this was more user error than the camera lens combo, but it did slow me down enough to cause frustration. I haven't experience this issue with any of the other cameras so far in this project.    

Bluebells

Loads of grain in the Bluebell image. I was using a Fujicolor 200 ASA film which expired in 2006 so the colours are somewhat interesting.

Discarded bucket

Love the bucket shot. So many items are left on or near the beach. Makes for some very interesting photography.

Gnome in the garden 

Nice view

Private

Fishing pots

The camera uses LEDs to aid exposure through the viewfinder. They do the job well but I have to admit I do prefer needle exposure meters. 

My overall impressions of this camera are a bit mixed. I love the build quality and the look of the camera but I found it slightly frustrating to shoot with, in particular the focusing screen which I just didn't fully get to grips with and I didn't really like the two buttons that controlled the shutter speed when in manual mode. But there is no denying the fact that it is a great bit of kit and for its time, pretty cutting edge. Looking at many on-line film photography sites like http://35mmers.tumblr.com/ it's quite clear to see that Pentax cameras are still going strong and I imagine will do so for many years to come.