Features
The K1000 is an almost all metal, mechanically (springs, gears, levers) controlled, manual-focus SLR with manual exposure control. It was completely operable without batteries. It only needed batteries (one A76 or S76, or LR44 or SR44) for the light metering information system. This consisted of a center-the-needle exposure control system using a galvanometer needle pointer moving between vertically arranged +/– over/underexposure markers at the right side of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in full-scene averaging, cadmium sulfide (CdS) light meter versus the actual camera settings. The meter did not have a true on/off switch and the lens cap needed to be kept on the lens to prevent draining the battery when the K1000 was not in use.
The viewfinder also had a focusing screen with a microprism spot focusing aid. The Pentax K1000 SE substituted a split image rangefinder plus microprism collar focusing screen. The K1000 SE is otherwise identical to the regular K1000, except that the SE's from the first few years of production used brown leather instead of black.
The K1000 was often sold with a version of the SMC Pentax 50 mm f/2 lens. The K1000 accepted all manual focus lenses with the Pentax K bayonet mount, introduced in 1975 with the Pentax K-series SLRs. This included the K-A mount lenses introduced in 1983. Manual focus lenses made by Asahi Optical were the SMC Pentax, SMC Pentax-M and SMC Pentax-A types.
In addition, almost all lenses with the Pentax K-AF and K-AF2 autofocus lens mounts (introduced 1987 and 1991, respectively) would also work in manual focus mode. The exceptions are Pentax's newest SMC-Pentax FA J (1997) and SMC-Pentax DA (2004) types, which lack an aperture control ring. They will mount on the K1000, but have restricted functionality. Asahi Optical sold the Mount Adapter K to allow their older Takumar screw mount lenses (see below) to be used on K mount cameras (with limitations). In 2006, Pentax said that it had manufactured more than 24 million lenses over fifty years that could provide at least some functionality on the K1000. The number of independently manufactured Pentax-compatible lenses is also huge, but indeterminate.
Except for having an enormous variety of lenses with the popular K mount to choose from, the K1000 had fewer features compared to higher level SLRs of the mid 1970s. It had a flash synchronization speed of 1/60th second, a sleeve-bushing equipped shutter and film advance mechanism, no self timer, no depth-of-field preview, no mirror lockup, no interchangeable focusing screens, no motor drive option, and no autoexposure. It was an all-manual camera.
The K1000 did accept any non-dedicated hot shoe mounted or PC terminal X-sync electronic flash for guide number manual or flash mounted sensor automatic exposure control. The Vivitar 283 (guide number 120, ASA 100/feet; 37, DIN 21/meters), favored by many photographers for the same reasons as the K1000, had an even longer life span of 1974-2004. The K1000 was also old enough to use flash bulbs, with a maximum synchronization speed of 1/30th second.
Overall, the K1000 can be described as the reincarnation of the landmark Asahi (Honeywell in the USA) Pentax Spotmatic SLR of 1964 with open aperture metering in a K-series body.
Read more about this topic: Pentax K1000
Famous quotes containing the word features:
“The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Art is the child of Nature; yes,
Her darling child, in whom we trace
The features of the mother’s face,
Her aspect and her attitude.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)