Simple Pleasures! Praise for the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic!

Yes, yesterday I said gear was not important!

And yes, it’s not…. really!IMG_0598

But then again it can make you feel good and help you make nice photos. Last example for ‘feel-good-gear’ is my Asahi Pentax Spotmatic.

True, I already praised it some weeks ago, and it has not changed from then, so you can read up about it’s qualities there. But it’s never said enough for such a great camera! It has now made it’s way onto my ‘My Gear’ page, which I rarely update, the cameras having a strange habit of coming and going.

But this one will stay, so it’s got it’s spot in my ever smaller camera stable, with the Olympus XA2 and the Leica IIIa.

What makes it great is not only the wonderful, solid feel of this camera, reminding me of my long gone Nikon F in solidity and pure ‘tool-like’ feeling. It’s the great Takumar lenses too.IMG_0599

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos yet, so you’ll have to wait a bit for those, but the feel of those solid chunks of metal and glass alone gives me the goosebumps.

I have a very limited number of lenses for the moment, though they are among the cheapest you can get for any camera system. Strange for such great glass.

I have the gorgeous, radioactive 55mm f:1.8, subtly yellowed lenses and all. I’ll have to set it out in the sun to get the colour tint to fade one day…. only we lack a lot of sun those last days.

Then I have the slowish but very good 28mm f:3.5. Supposed to be sharp as tack, but that remains to be proved.IMG_0600

That’s it! My whole Spotmatic system! I might add a 105mm or 135mm to it at a later point though.

Always following my credo: Few is More!

So that brings my camera count to three (not really counting the iPhone and Polaroid) and, apart from the XA2’s built in 35mm f:3.5, I have three lenses, the 50mm f:2.0 Summitar for the Leica and the 50 and 28mm Takumars.

Pretty frugal, I think!

OK, that’s all about gear. Soon you’ll hear more about photography, the real stuff.

Thanks for stopping by.

3 thoughts on “Simple Pleasures! Praise for the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic!

Add yours

  1. Hi Frank. I found your blog through casual photophile. Although a newcomer to film, I’ve been using digital cameras for about 2 years, both with modern and vintage lenses. Radioactive lenses unfortunately have ill connotations. Speaking to experts, I’ve been told that chances of radioactive poisoning are comparatively low using these. I would not put them out in the sun as these lenses would get damaged . As in balsam separation and other problems. If you’re interested in using them, accept them for they are and make your peace. The yellow tint would undoubtedly contribute to higher contrast in black and white images perhaps. Keep safe and take care Frank

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