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Arcsech posted:I was browsing Craigslist and I found an ME super with lens, flash, tripod, bag, and manuals for $20, which seems like a good deal. It would be my first film camera, is there any way to verify that it works without loading up a roll of film? Open up the back, take off the lens, wind and fire the camera. You'll need to put batteries in it to release the shutter in anything except the mechanical (1/125) speed. If it cycles properly in automatic (shutter opens/closes, mirror returns, etc) and you're getting lights in the viewfinder then all the electronics are working fine. It's probably an 80-200mm type lens or similar (70-210, etc). The cap is Vivitar and it looks like their build style. Vivitar made some of the best old 80-200 type lenses, and they're a fairly hard design to gently caress up anyway, so it's probably somewhere between decent and great, if you like shooting telephoto lenses.
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Jan 17, 2014 18:52
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| # ? May 22, 2024 03:27 |
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If that lens cap matches the lens, it's a [url=http://www.robertstech.com/vivitar.htm[/url]Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm[/url], probably either version 2 or version 3 (if it's a version 3 it's worth about $125). Or it could be some generic 3rd-party 70-210 (or 80-200); almost all of them are around f/4. Even if the camera is kaput, that lens should be worth at least $20.
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Jan 18, 2014 01:12
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Sadly the $20 ME Super thing didn't work out - the seller meant to put $200. Thanks for the help anyway. However, I did just pick up a K1000 for cheap from an estate sale - I'm intending to get a Pentax DSLR soon and it'll be nice to be able to share (some of the) lenses to try out film sometimes.
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Jan 26, 2014 02:43
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Arcsech posted:Sadly the $20 ME Super thing didn't work out - the seller meant to put $200. Thanks for the help anyway. Bear in mind that Pentax has crippled the K-mount so that many of the older lenses don't quite meter properly on DSLRs. You can also use those lenses on a Canon body or a mirrorless like a Sony Nex or a M4/3. Buying into a system heavily is a long-term investment, if you buy the Pentax system it should be on the merits of the system instead of the $50 in glass you have. Focusing will also be a bit tricky, consider buying an aftermarket focusing screen for DSLRs or a mirrorless with focus peaking. The K1000 is a good camera, the ME is noticeably better in several areas. It's aperture-priority, and has a big, bright screen with a split prism (the K1000 SE also has one). You'll come across one eventually, they're pretty common. There's not really a huge amount of improvement to be had in 35mm gear until you spend quite a lot more than some of the old Pentax K/M/A gear. If you see one, you might want to consider a K-mount Pentax 35/3.5 or a Takumar 35/3.5 and adapter, or a 28mm lens. 35/50 or 28/50 is a great two-lens kit. Don't forget to put the lens cap on the K1000, or you'll drain the battery. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Jan 26, 2014 |
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Jan 26, 2014 06:08
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ebay ME super with 3 usable lenses for $70 if no one bids. Might be good for someone starting from scratch providing it works. edit: ended at 
Bud fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Jan 27, 2014 |
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Jan 27, 2014 21:21
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I recently picked up an ME Super w/ 50mm 1.7 for cheap (eBay auction I didn't expect to win). The body itself is in really good condition, mirror and screen are clean, meter and shutter works fine. However, some of the seals are pretty toast, and what looks like deteriorated seal gunk has ended up on two of the four silver film rails above and below the shutter. In addition, the lens has a fair bit of fungus which wasn't visible in the photos.  Is it worth the time/effort to clean it up and replace the seals, or is the gunky interior likely to mean mechanical problems in the future?
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Feb 1, 2014 01:42
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As long as it meters and shoots it's absolutely worth keeping. Light seals are 10bux, and an SMC50/1.7 is cheap too.
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Feb 1, 2014 04:28
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Mr. Despair is the expert, but I'd say have a go at cleaning out as much of the gunk as you can and replacing the seals - there are a couple of options there, I think the cheapest is to get a sheet of the appropriate foam from a craft store and cut out the pieces you'll need. Fungus varies in its effects. It's never good, and you'll want to take care to keep that lens away from your other lenses just as a general precaution, but it might have basically no effect on the photographs you take with that camera/lens combo. And if it really is beyond saving, a replacement 50/1.7 is not an expensive thing. For only a little more you might be able to find a 50/1.4, which is a fine lens indeed.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:01
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I've actually never bothered replacing the foam on any of my ME's, so I can't offer much advice there. Depending on where the fungus is it might be easy to clean though. You can pop off the front beauty ring (the bit with all the lens info) with a rubber stopper or the eraser end of a pencil or a variety of other means depending on how much you care about the cosmetics of the lens, and then you're just 3 screws away from popping the front element off (if it's anything like the 50/1.4 at least). Clean off both sides of that lens and pop it back on, and you might be golding. If it's on the back element, god help you because I don't think I've ever managed to get the screws holding the rear bit on off without stripping something, they are all poo poo on my copies.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:06
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My ME Super's mirror is stuck up and I can't seem to unstick it. The second shutter curtain is fully closed according to this: http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/pentaxmeproblems.html So am I boned? Do I just have to open up the bottom plate and fiddle around in there?
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Feb 10, 2014 21:00
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If you can't drag the curtain down a tall (grabbing it with your fingernail and giving it a tug is a good idea even if it looks closed, it might be stopped *just* short) then yeah, the next thing I would generally do is pop the bottom plate off, hold the wind lock open, and wind the lever to try and reset it.
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Feb 10, 2014 21:46
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Thanks. I bought a light seal kit and (barely) managed to replace the seals and cleaned it up where I could. Still couldn't get rid of the gunk/black marks on the film rails, despite multiple attempts attacking it with solvent. Hoping that it won't be an issue, running a test roll through now to see. The fungus is just around the edges, but it is on a couple of the elements, so I won't bother to try to fix it and will see if there's any visible impact in photos. Given that this is my first film camera (apart from when I was a kid), and my first manual focus camera, I suspect that fungus won't be to blame for my photos being a blurry mess. Is it really possible for fungus to spread from lens to lens, or from camera to lens? I understand that the fungus can produce spores, but unless you're keeping all your gear in a dark, damp room, surely that would be unlikely?
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Feb 11, 2014 01:51
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Yeah, it's probably extremely unlikely. The spores are certainly ubiquitous anyway, it's a matter of them landing on the right substrate - which means the humidity, darkness, and nice cosy temperatures that opportunistic fungi seem to generally prefer. Don't leave your lenses in wine barrels, you'll be fine.
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Feb 12, 2014 06:00
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pantsfree posted:Is it really possible for fungus to spread from lens to lens This is certainly a thing that can and does happen although I have no idea how readily. Probably not as readily as paranoid greybeards would have you think.
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Feb 12, 2014 06:08
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i have literally kept lenses that had growth on them with other lenses for years and years without issue. It really depends on the climate.
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Feb 12, 2014 06:10
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Aw, gently caress. I was halfway through a roll when advancing the film started to feel kinda grindy, like it wasn't properly gripping the sprockets anymore, and the film advance indicator wasn't working either. Decided to just rewind up the film to salvage what I could and take a look at what was happening. After taking the film out, it seems to be functioning correctly, but now my film advance indicator seems to be broken.  How hard is it to fix this on my own?
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Feb 16, 2014 02:15
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Finally found one! The lens, that is. Geektox fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Feb 21, 2014 |
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Feb 21, 2014 07:34
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That 40 pancake is on my radar, mind telling us how much it cost and what it's like to use? If one comes up in my bored-at-work searches for a reasonable price, should I go for it?
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Feb 23, 2014 23:57
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ExecuDork posted:That 40 pancake is on my radar, mind telling us how much it cost and what it's like to use? If one comes up in my bored-at-work searches for a reasonable price, should I go for it? I still haven't shot a full roll with it yet, but Mr. Despair says it's great and I trust him to know what he's talking about at least. Mr. Despair posted:Spend the night scanning in my last roll of film. First time shooting hp5+, and first time using the 40mm pancake lens. He says his cost 40 bucks, but the price on KEH for BGN grade is 100 and I got mine locally in Vancouver for 110.
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Feb 24, 2014 01:54
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Geektox posted:I still haven't shot a full roll with it yet, but Mr. Despair says it's great and I trust him to know what he's talking about at least. My copy was UG grade, hence the price. Fun lens though! Goes real well with the belt clip attachment.
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Feb 24, 2014 04:44
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404notfound posted:Aw, gently caress. I was halfway through a roll when advancing the film started to feel kinda grindy, like it wasn't properly gripping the sprockets anymore, and the film advance indicator wasn't working either. Decided to just rewind up the film to salvage what I could and take a look at what was happening. After taking the film out, it seems to be functioning correctly, but now my film advance indicator seems to be broken. Update on this: I decided to just scrap the roll I had half shot and use it as a "test" roll, so I picked up a film leader retriever from B&H and tried reloading the roll a few times to troubleshoot the problem. It looks like the problem was only occurring when the leader slipped loose from between the white plastic slats. I guess out of the 10 or so rolls I've put through the camera so far, I've been lucky on all but the last, where it finally came out mid-roll. I just need to insert the leader a little deeper when loading a roll, and I should be good to go. So, I guess let this be a lesson: make sure the film is seated securely when loading a fresh roll. 
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Mar 1, 2014 06:30
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I took my MX out last night and this afternoon because it's the coldest it's been a for a while and my MX is my "winter camera". The light meter never missed a beat, but the mirror stayed up after a couple of shots, and came down again when the camera warmed up inside. Could the cold weather be messing with the mechanism that pushes the mirror back down?
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Mar 2, 2014 00:19
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ExecuDork posted:I took my MX out last night and this afternoon because it's the coldest it's been a for a while and my MX is my "winter camera". The light meter never missed a beat, but the mirror stayed up after a couple of shots, and came down again when the camera warmed up inside. Could the cold weather be messing with the mechanism that pushes the mirror back down? Grease getting cold somewhere maybe?
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Mar 2, 2014 02:54
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SoundMonkey posted:Grease getting cold somewhere maybe? Yeah that and tight tolerances probably. I recently shot my Rolleiflex in what I'll liberally call a snow-storm. There were icicles hanging off the camera. I was using no gloves, because I smart man. In the freezing cold, I lacked patience and fine motor control, so I took lots of bad pictures, but that's besides the point. Anyway things got pretty squeaky, as in emitting squealing, high pitched noises during focus, film transport etc. Also everything became kind of stiff hand hard to move. So I guess it was a combination of the grease hardening up, and different metals contracting differently pushing the tolerance limits (for gears, cams etc. I guess) explaining the squealing noise, which stopped immediately after the camera was warmed back up.
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Mar 2, 2014 05:23
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ExecuDork posted:I took my MX out last night and this afternoon because it's the coldest it's been a for a while and my MX is my "winter camera". The light meter never missed a beat, but the mirror stayed up after a couple of shots, and came down again when the camera warmed up inside. Could the cold weather be messing with the mechanism that pushes the mirror back down? Not trying to be all stalkery or anything, but are you in Vancouver right now? I've never had problems with the mirror locking up in any Vancouver weather and I took it out when it was like -8 with wind chill a month or so ago.
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Mar 2, 2014 10:12
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Geektox posted:it was like -8 with wind chill 2. Nope, Saskatoon. Air temperatures were reported as -30, wind was variable but generally weak. I was hoping we'd break -40 but 'twas not to be.
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Mar 3, 2014 00:42
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ExecuDork posted:Nope, Saskatoon. Air temperatures were reported as -30, wind was variable but generally weak. I was hoping we'd break -40 but 'twas not to be. Dork. Jesus, that's what you get for living in the boonies. I think I might've encountered -40 weather once when I was living in Montreal. But good to know I can count on this thing to be semi-reliable if I ever got the urge to take pictures of kilometres of flat fields in the priaries 
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Mar 3, 2014 02:01
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Mar 11, 2014 06:24
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Really, the sexiest part of that picture is the "SE" marking. Because a diagonal split prism rules.
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Mar 11, 2014 06:40
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Everything about that pic is just so right.
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Mar 11, 2014 07:02
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Mar 11, 2014 16:20
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Everything about that picture is perfect. Everything - the lens, the lightly-mangled box, the yellow bits... perfect.
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Mar 12, 2014 02:44
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I already had my 40/2.8 pancake and a 50/1.4, but then I went to a camera show recently and picked up a 135/3.5 for cheap. And then I figured I might as well round out the prime kit with a wide-angle 28/3.5... Went shooting with the kit today, but I really need to figure out a better way to quickly swap lenses on the go. It's not as easy to remove a lens with one hand as with my D7000, so I was fumbling around in my bag for about 30 seconds just to change focal lengths. I also had some trouble telling the 28mm and the 50mm apart, since they're almost the same size. On the plus side, all these manual focus primes are just so drat small. Even the telephoto is barely longer than my smallest Nikon lens, and still considerably slimmer. 
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Apr 7, 2014 02:31
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 Was wondering, what is the favourite 35mm-ish lens people use on their ME supers???
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Apr 19, 2014 12:43
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Anti-Derivative posted:
The SMC Takumar 35/3.5 is great. Looks like KEH only has the uncoated version (which is good but not as good if you're going to be shooting color film mostly), but keep an eye out on ebay or keh in the future and you should be able to find one for fairly cheap, and an m42 adapter is dirt cheap. There's a k-mount version of the lens, but it's rarer and more expensive and all it gets you is auto aperture. http://www.ebay.com/itm/937-PENTAX-SMC-TAKUMAR-35-3-5-LENS-MINT-M42-/151278032632?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item2338df96f8 is what i'm talking about, but that price seems high.
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Apr 19, 2014 14:18
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Thanks, found one on the UK ebay, and got it for less than that.
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Apr 20, 2014 20:17
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I bought my first DSLR, a k-50 with the 18-135 kit lens; should arrive tomorrow. I've never tried photography but I'm reading through Understanding Exposure. I plan on taking lots of photos while camping and offroading so I was attracted to the weather sealing but apparently it's a good starter DSLR in other regards too? edit: oh I guess I meant to post this in the other Pentax thread!
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Apr 21, 2014 02:19
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We don't want the D in here! (If I was to get a DSLR again, I'd go for Pentax too)
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Apr 21, 2014 02:26
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Doublepost but I wanna join the Pentax Pancake Party!
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Apr 22, 2014 20:29
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I am an idiot who hadn't used his ME in a while and accidentally popped the back open while trying to rewind the film. Developed it anyway but as you might expect it was completely blank. Probably didn't lose any stellar shots but there were a few that I quite wanted to see.
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Apr 30, 2014 21:33
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