Pentax ME Super 35mm SLR Camera Package

Product Information

How to change the ISO? This can be confusing if you aren’t accustomed to it being called ASA, ISO = ASA, you can see your ISO number in the small white window next to the green letters ‘ASA’. To change your iso you need to pull upwards on the outer silver ring and rotate, this will change this ISO for you. If you’re struggling to change the iso it may have become stiff over time, you will just have to be persistent. On the same ring is 1/4x – 1/2x etc, this is exposure compensation, so you can either under or overexpose your image slightly by choice. Features. It has an ‘auto’ mode, but you have to set the aperture on the lens, and the camera adjusts the shutter speed, which shows up in the viewfinder. You can use ‘bulb’ or ‘M’ and ‘125x’ for all manual use. With no batteries or dead batteries you can keep on shooting, however, the camera defaults to a shutter speed of 1/125 so you’ll need to compensate via aperture for correctly exposed pictures. You can also use ‘bulb’ mode without batteries, but obviously you’ll need a support for the camera. Big and bright ground glass 0.95x viewfinder makes it easy to compose and focus. Speaking of batteries, the ME Super takes two LR44 batteries, which are still cheap and readily available today, so you don’t have to worry about the camera becoming obsolete any time soon. I like being able to watch the little computer decide aperture and shutter speed as I look around metering.

Somebody says the top plate is made of metal, this is incorrect as it's polycarbonate: you can notice because when it "debrasses" (for instance, on the corners close to the strap) you see a base material which looks copper red, not yellow. With time the copper red also worns out and you see the real base material, white plastic. Button plate is as traditional in these camera made of brass for durability, but it's not a camera completely made of metal like the MX. For a trip I would bring the MX (fully mechanical joy to use) and the ME along with me. Together with some fixed lenses. Hi Gerard Thanks. As well as two spellings, the terms does seem to be applied in various situations. I believe…Let me add two of my favourite ME (Super) features. One is the superb loading system: a bundle of white, flexible rods on the take up spoil grabs the film leader first time, every time. A great way to understand how good the Pentax ME Super is is to compare it to another Pentax Titan, the K1000. The K1000 being a cult classic SLR, it’s hard to overstate how brilliant the K1000 still is. In the hands, the ME feels great. It gives the shooter the kind of casual yet focused shooting experience that we love here at CP. It allows the photographer to explore and engage with his or her surroundings, without interposing unnecessary complexities. It’s a camera that stays out of the way while enabling the shooter to make fantastic images all the same.

Macro lens choices for the Pentax ME Super suffer from supply problems. The supply of Pentax K mount options is small, which increases prices higher than you will pay for equivalent Canon FD mount or Nikon F mount options. SMC Pentax 100mm f/4 Macro SMC Pentax 100mm f/4 Macro The Super Program was first Pentax with Program and Tv auto exposure and it also had TTL flash control, but even with the added electronics and mechanics the camera body is just about as compact as the original Pentax ME. Not the best option, the SMC Pentax-M 28mm f/2.8, is still a good choice. The truth is, many people might not actually consider it a wide angle lens. However, it is substantially less expensive than any wider option. I genuinely really like the Pentax ME Super, I think I like it so much because I learned to shoot on a camera very similar, the Nikon EM. The fact that the ME Super is an aperture priority camera that can house great lenses is why I think it’s so great. Photography has been a constant in my life. I grew up burning through disposable cameras and whatever film I could stuff into the cheapest Vivitar point and shoot in existence. There was something oddly satisfying about the ratcheting of the little dial winders, the snap of releasing the shutter, and getting to see the final product days (or weeks) later.If all fails read the manual Dep’t: two batteries inserted upside down. The self-timer lever needs a push to activate, unlike normal cameras that pressing the shutter activates the timer. I would start by shooting a straightforward scene of some plants and whatnot on my front patio. The lighting was ok. The camera metered the scene at 1/250 sec and f/8. I set it to manual after metering and took some shots, using a tripod to ensure the camera didn’t move while I swapped out lenses. Let’s call this Scene 1. The best vintange macro lens I have owned, the 90mm Vivitar, was made with a variety of camera mounts. Unfortunately, it will be tough to find a copy that’s got a Pentax K mount.

I love this camera, and it is by far my most used manual focus Pentax body. It has all the modes you could want (I use Av 99% of the time), it's compatible with every single K mount lens (FAJ and DA in P and Tv only), is light and compact enough while still feeling solid and handles very well with its little grip. Hi Massimo, I'll answer your questions since you asked, but I'm actually working on a better (and I think simpler)… Both of the Vivitar macros were manufactured by Komine and were sold under several different brand names. If you search for one also look under the Panagor, Elicar, Quantaray, Spiratone, and Rokunar brand names. That’s a purely subjective comment and, in my subjective opinion, is an example of post modernism that serves no one well. The quality of lenses and how that is measured has been largely understood and accepted for decades. There may be one or two criteria that people might argue about – whether high resolution or high contrast is more important to the final image, for instance – but it’s most definitely not the case that “everything is in the eye of the beholder”. The important parameters can be empirically tested and measured. Putting it bluntly, Leica lenses are expensive because they are recognised as the best or, at least, right up there with the best. Crappy lenses are much cheaper because they’re crappy.This small size is something I really appreciate now too. It is slightly smaller than the Pentax MX, or at least it’s slightly narrower whilst also being ever so slightly taller. Neither dimensional difference amounts to much, and in the hand you wouldn’t really notice, but proportionally speaking it looks more right than the MX somehow, which I think looks a little wide/squat. This review assumes that the ME Super is in good working condition - the vast majority of those still around today are not. Since I originally wrote this the light meter in mine has become completely unreliable, a typical problem with the electronics of these cameras. Learn or discover a new technique, build on your skills, or be inspired to have a go at a bit of DIY. Read more... I went through two copies of the SMC-M 50/1.4 and even had one CLA’d before deciding that, for the cost and size/weight, it doesn’t perform very well in terms of wide open sharpness, compared to the SMC-M 50/1.7 which I’ve always been happy with. Bokeh may be more interesting with the 1.4 though, I’ll give you that. It seems there is maybe some sample variation with the 50/1.4’s as I never found stopping down to make it a more pleasant lens. And yes, one of mine had some mechanical problems.