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New toy and the story behind it
Recently, I've been wanting to get away from all the automation and other helpful features of modern cameras. One can, of course, simply turn most of it off, but as long as it's there, I tend to get lazy and start using it. So I started shooting with manual-focus lenses. Then I started favoring film over digital, partly because film, straight out of the camera, tends to be a lot closer to what I want than digital, but also to avoid the ability to fix exposure and color balance issues in PP. Then I started wanting a camera that didn't even have a meter in it, to force myself to practice figuring exposures out on my own. (At this rate I'll soon be mixing my own emulsions and spreading them on glass plates...)
I was also getting more interested in the M42 screw mount, having used bayonets on every interchangeable-lens camera I'd ever owned. With a bit of research, I identified the Pentax SV (1962-70) as a particularly interesting M42 camera for my purposes. The SV was nearly the last Pentax SLR not to have a built-in meter (the SL, a couple of years later, was basically a low-end Spotmatic with the meter removed); at the same time, the SV was the first Pentax SLR to have a fully automatic aperture. It seemed like a nice balance and a good place to start my exploration of the M42 world. Besides, classic camera enthusiasts talk about the Spotmatics all the time; you don't hear quite so much about the earlier models.
So I headed on down to my local camera store, which has one wall devoted to glass cases containing vintage camera equipment, most of it on consignment. Their Pentax selection that day, sadly, was limited to a few Spotmatics and a handful of K1000s and later models. I left the shop and started to walk down to my car, but suddenly remembered that there was an antiques store on the same block that I'd been meaning to check out, and decided now was as good a time as any.
The antiques store turned out to be a pleasant collection of antique furniture and odds and ends. I met Lynne, the proprietor, and asked if she had any cameras. She said, "Only a couple right now, but they come in now and then. What we have is on the shelf over here..." The two cameras on the shelf didn't look very interesting at first. One was a 1950s DeJur TLR that looked like a CLA might do it some good. The other was a pre-war Weltur folding camera. (I noted its name and ended up buying it a few days later; it's currently in the hands of Jurgen Kreckel for restoration. I'll post about it when it comes back.) That was it for cameras, aside from an old movie camera I didn't examine closely.
As I started to leave, Lynne asked if I was looking for 35mm cameras. She said she had a bag behind the counter that she'd been holding for someone who never showed up, adding, "I think it's a Pentax," and held out what looked to me like a vintage 1960s fake-leather camera bag.
1.
This looked promising. I set the bag on a table and opened it. The first thing I pulled out was a leather "ever-ready" camera case marked "Asahi Pentax," with something heavy in it.
2.
On opening the ever-ready case, what should I find inside but a Pentax SV in beautiful condition! No doubt the ever-ready case has been protecting it for the last 45 years or so.
3.
4.
The lens on it was the Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 55mm f/1.8, which was basically the Pentax "kit" lens in the 1960s. The plastic camera strap is also a very typical 1960s product.
When I first saw the camera, it had an Asahi light meter mounted over the pentaprism. The meter no longer works, which is not really surprising.
5.
Also in the bag were two Pentax lens cases and a small accessory case.
6.
The lenses were both Super Takumars: 35mm f/3.5 and 135mm f/3.5. The 135mm had a metal screw-on hood stored with it (in reversed position, not attached) in its case.
7.
8.
While the 55mm lens has a little dust (not much) inside, the other two are impressively clean. The impression I got is that whoever owned this setup used the 55mm almost exclusively.
Inside the accessory case were a Tiffen color correction filter (very small; I'm not sure how to use it) and an Asahi Pentax accessory clip, which is basically a cold shoe that mounts over the pentaprism.
9.
We haggled a little over the price; Lynne wanted to sell it all together, which was fine with me. I pointed out that I couldn't be sure the camera was in full working order until I had run some film through it, but Lynne replied, "I know whose house it came from. Trust me, it works." I didn't inquire further at that time; the implication seemed clear that the former owner was someone who took very good care of his or her equipment. We ended up settling on $130 for the bag and everything in it.
Once I got home with my new old camera in its vintage bag, I tested it out more thoroughly and found it to be in excellent working order. I also found a receipt buried at the bottom of the bag for a CLA performed in 1992. The receipt noted that parts were not available to repair the light meter.
A bit of online research confirmed what I had suspected: everything in the bag was consistent with a fairly narrow period of time: 1964 or 1965. The camera has an orange R on the rewind knob; before 1964 it would have been green. After 1965, it is likely that one or more of the lenses would be different in some minor cosmetic way.
I was also curious as to where this camera had come from. My guess was that someone had bought the whole setup together: the camera, the light meter, all three lenses, the accessories, and even the bag. The CLA receipt gave me the customer's name and address: a woman named S.... K.... (I reduce her name to initials to protect the family's privacy) on a street in Hillsborough, California (immediately west of San Mateo, where I live). Google turned up some interesting facts: A man named J... K.... (same last name), a veteran of World War II, had died in 2007 at the age of 90. S.... K.... of Hillsborough was listed among his survivors, along with a daughter named T...., described as a real estate agent. What's more, S.... K....'s house in Hillsborough was currently for sale, with T.... listed as the selling agent. All this suggested a picture: S.... K.... bought or was given the camera in the 1960s (Hillsborough is a wealthy neighborhood, so folks there probably don't usually buy their stuff used) and kept it until... well, perhaps until her death. If her brother died at 90 just a few years ago, she would likely be getting on in years herself, and her camera and her house both being sold suggested relatives liquidating her estate.
A couple of days later I went back to the antiques store to buy the Weltur folding camera, and mentioned my theory that the Pentax SV and all its accessories had been purchased together originally. Lynne surprised me by saying, "Yes, about 1964 or '65. The family was moving to Thailand, and they bought a new camera at that time." This also explains why the camera is labeled Asahi (Pentax products distributed in the USA in those days were branded Honeywell Pentax). The camera was presumably purchased abroad and came here when the family eventually returned to California. It would be interesting to see the pictures they took during their time in Thailand.
To conclude this rather long story, here are a few pictures I have recently shot with this camera and its Super Takumar lenses. Kodak Tri-X 400 film was used in all cases, and exposures were guesstimated based on the Sunny 16 rule.
10. Oriental rug shop, Palo Alto, CA
11. Building, Palo Alto, CA
12. Sunset flower
C&C welcome.
I was also getting more interested in the M42 screw mount, having used bayonets on every interchangeable-lens camera I'd ever owned. With a bit of research, I identified the Pentax SV (1962-70) as a particularly interesting M42 camera for my purposes. The SV was nearly the last Pentax SLR not to have a built-in meter (the SL, a couple of years later, was basically a low-end Spotmatic with the meter removed); at the same time, the SV was the first Pentax SLR to have a fully automatic aperture. It seemed like a nice balance and a good place to start my exploration of the M42 world. Besides, classic camera enthusiasts talk about the Spotmatics all the time; you don't hear quite so much about the earlier models.
So I headed on down to my local camera store, which has one wall devoted to glass cases containing vintage camera equipment, most of it on consignment. Their Pentax selection that day, sadly, was limited to a few Spotmatics and a handful of K1000s and later models. I left the shop and started to walk down to my car, but suddenly remembered that there was an antiques store on the same block that I'd been meaning to check out, and decided now was as good a time as any.
The antiques store turned out to be a pleasant collection of antique furniture and odds and ends. I met Lynne, the proprietor, and asked if she had any cameras. She said, "Only a couple right now, but they come in now and then. What we have is on the shelf over here..." The two cameras on the shelf didn't look very interesting at first. One was a 1950s DeJur TLR that looked like a CLA might do it some good. The other was a pre-war Weltur folding camera. (I noted its name and ended up buying it a few days later; it's currently in the hands of Jurgen Kreckel for restoration. I'll post about it when it comes back.) That was it for cameras, aside from an old movie camera I didn't examine closely.
As I started to leave, Lynne asked if I was looking for 35mm cameras. She said she had a bag behind the counter that she'd been holding for someone who never showed up, adding, "I think it's a Pentax," and held out what looked to me like a vintage 1960s fake-leather camera bag.
1.
This looked promising. I set the bag on a table and opened it. The first thing I pulled out was a leather "ever-ready" camera case marked "Asahi Pentax," with something heavy in it.
2.
On opening the ever-ready case, what should I find inside but a Pentax SV in beautiful condition! No doubt the ever-ready case has been protecting it for the last 45 years or so.
3.
4.
The lens on it was the Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 55mm f/1.8, which was basically the Pentax "kit" lens in the 1960s. The plastic camera strap is also a very typical 1960s product.
When I first saw the camera, it had an Asahi light meter mounted over the pentaprism. The meter no longer works, which is not really surprising.
5.
Also in the bag were two Pentax lens cases and a small accessory case.
6.
The lenses were both Super Takumars: 35mm f/3.5 and 135mm f/3.5. The 135mm had a metal screw-on hood stored with it (in reversed position, not attached) in its case.
7.
8.
While the 55mm lens has a little dust (not much) inside, the other two are impressively clean. The impression I got is that whoever owned this setup used the 55mm almost exclusively.
Inside the accessory case were a Tiffen color correction filter (very small; I'm not sure how to use it) and an Asahi Pentax accessory clip, which is basically a cold shoe that mounts over the pentaprism.
9.
We haggled a little over the price; Lynne wanted to sell it all together, which was fine with me. I pointed out that I couldn't be sure the camera was in full working order until I had run some film through it, but Lynne replied, "I know whose house it came from. Trust me, it works." I didn't inquire further at that time; the implication seemed clear that the former owner was someone who took very good care of his or her equipment. We ended up settling on $130 for the bag and everything in it.
Once I got home with my new old camera in its vintage bag, I tested it out more thoroughly and found it to be in excellent working order. I also found a receipt buried at the bottom of the bag for a CLA performed in 1992. The receipt noted that parts were not available to repair the light meter.
A bit of online research confirmed what I had suspected: everything in the bag was consistent with a fairly narrow period of time: 1964 or 1965. The camera has an orange R on the rewind knob; before 1964 it would have been green. After 1965, it is likely that one or more of the lenses would be different in some minor cosmetic way.
I was also curious as to where this camera had come from. My guess was that someone had bought the whole setup together: the camera, the light meter, all three lenses, the accessories, and even the bag. The CLA receipt gave me the customer's name and address: a woman named S.... K.... (I reduce her name to initials to protect the family's privacy) on a street in Hillsborough, California (immediately west of San Mateo, where I live). Google turned up some interesting facts: A man named J... K.... (same last name), a veteran of World War II, had died in 2007 at the age of 90. S.... K.... of Hillsborough was listed among his survivors, along with a daughter named T...., described as a real estate agent. What's more, S.... K....'s house in Hillsborough was currently for sale, with T.... listed as the selling agent. All this suggested a picture: S.... K.... bought or was given the camera in the 1960s (Hillsborough is a wealthy neighborhood, so folks there probably don't usually buy their stuff used) and kept it until... well, perhaps until her death. If her brother died at 90 just a few years ago, she would likely be getting on in years herself, and her camera and her house both being sold suggested relatives liquidating her estate.
A couple of days later I went back to the antiques store to buy the Weltur folding camera, and mentioned my theory that the Pentax SV and all its accessories had been purchased together originally. Lynne surprised me by saying, "Yes, about 1964 or '65. The family was moving to Thailand, and they bought a new camera at that time." This also explains why the camera is labeled Asahi (Pentax products distributed in the USA in those days were branded Honeywell Pentax). The camera was presumably purchased abroad and came here when the family eventually returned to California. It would be interesting to see the pictures they took during their time in Thailand.
To conclude this rather long story, here are a few pictures I have recently shot with this camera and its Super Takumar lenses. Kodak Tri-X 400 film was used in all cases, and exposures were guesstimated based on the Sunny 16 rule.
10. Oriental rug shop, Palo Alto, CA
11. Building, Palo Alto, CA
12. Sunset flower
C&C welcome.
0
Comments
and procure a silicon photo sensor to replace the dead one.....then you will need to calibrate probably.....or just go to the sunny 16 and leave it at that.
I have an Asahi Pentax H1a, manual everything, camera that almost still works. (Shutter is a little borky.) Mine was an 8th grade graduation present. (My brother got a leather jacket for his graduation.)
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
Very nice captures as well. I really enjoy shooting film when I'm simply ambling about, something very simple and cathartic about it.
There was a store about five miles from me that had heaps of old gear mainly used as decoration. I mean they had brownies to large format and everything in between, if it shot film they pretty much had all body styles covered including stereo. I would always ask what they wanted to sell and they would never sell any of it. I went to try again a couple of weeks ago and the stores bare, displays, wall shelving, counters, even the carpet, just gone with no new location info anywhere. I went to the store across from them and the guy said they were there open and doing business the day before and when he got to work in the morning it was all gone, even the sign out front was missing.
A real shame in it was such a cool place to go in an hang out for a bit looking at the old gear. I was hoping to trying to get a RF from them this time around.
5D2/1D MkII N/40D and a couple bits of glass.