Pentax ME Super review ---------------------- Last month (really??? it feels like longer ago) I wrote[1] about my positive experience with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic that I bought cheaply on a whim from a Stockholm fleamarket, and outlined some vague future plans for ending up with an advanced Canon SLR and a very primitive Pentax. Hahaha, plans. As mentioned I did quite a bit of reading on the history of Asahi/Pentax and have become somethong of a fan - a "Pentaxian", as they say. I've never really had anything against Pentax, but aside from thinking that the Spotmatic (along with Minolta's SRT line!) was one of the prettiest classic SLRs, I've also never really paid them much attention. Back in New Zealand, the local Craigslist equivalent was awash with cheap P30s, which seemed widely regarded as a solid and affordible beginner's camera, but I always thought they were ugly (they are). So, I was quite surprised to learn that they have more than few impressive historical feathers in their hat: Asahi made Japan's very first SLR, at a time when Canon and Nikon were still cloning German rangefinders; they made the world's first SLR with an instant return mirror; the Spotmatic was not *quite* the world's first SLR with through-the-lens metering, but it was the first which was made and sold in large numbers; the Pentax ME-F was the first 35mm SLR with autofocus (not that I think much of autofocus at all, but I recognise the engineering achievement). In short they were a really innovative player in the golden years, and made some really good gear - gear which is now considerably cheaper than stuff from the "bigger" brands. One achievement of Pentax caught my eye in particular, but I'll set the scene first. As mentioned in my Yashica 35-ME review[2], with my Canon AE-1 I had fallen into the classic trap of buying a bunch of lenses (instead of accepting that you're *never* going to be able to take every possible photo you might like to take no matter how many lenses you have, so instead it's better to stick to just one or maybe two and get really good at using them) and then buying a dedicated bag to lug all my stuff around in (this bag[3], because I quite enjoyed reading that website at the time). By the standards of how far camera geeks can go this was still a very small and light kit. But it was enough of a kerfuffle that I eventually stopped bringing it with me at all whenever I travelled, even when doing things like travelling up to Finnish Lapland in winter. The hassle of taking that bag with me was definitely contributing to my much decreased rate of shooting in recent years. The little Yashica was an attempt to remedy this by getting a camera that I could comfortable take everywhere. It didn't end up being the camera for me, but I remained, lazily, on the hunt for something smaller and lighter than my Canon AE-1 with just the one 50mm lens on it, without compromising on build quality, user experience or control. I always kind of assumed that this would end up coming in the form of an old rangefinder; a Canon Canonet, or a Minolta Hi-Matic or a Yashica Electro 35, or something along those lines. I was aware, of course, of Olympus' famous OM line of super-compact SLRs from the 70s. But I didn't think they would necessarily be small enough, and I was already invested in a set of Canon FD lenses. Besides, the OM cameras are weird - shutter speed and aperture control are *both* via rings on the lens, with the top plate knob only controlling the speed setting for the meter! What I was *not* aware of was that a few years after Olympus debuted the OM cameras, Pentax, having figured this would definitely be a bandwagon worth jumping on, released their own line of compact SLRs, the M series, which were actually even smaller and lighter than the OM cameras. To date, these Pentax M models are the smallest and lightest 35mm SLRs anybody ever made. Despite this, they have fully metal bodies and totally classic aesthetics. They immediately caught my interest. As I wrote in my Spotmatic entry, I was excited that the Spotty would give me a chance to a try one of the legendary Super Takumar lenses, with have a definite cult following. My local camera store which sells quite a lot of used stuff had a "vintage weekend" sale a while back with 20% off all analogue gear, so I went there to get a good deal on a 55m f/1.8 Super Tak (I finished my first roll shot with it yesterday and will be dropping it off at the lab tomorrow. Exciting!). As it turned out they had some M series cameras there, too - an ME with a 50mm f/1.7 lens on it, and an ME Super without a lens. I took the lens cap off the ME and held it up to my eye and knew, immediately, that I *had* to get one of these cameras. The viewfinder was bigger, brighter and clearer than anything else I've ever seen. It was a genuine revelation. I fired the shutter once and everything felt and sounded fantastic. I gave in to a crazy impulse: I sold them *all* my Canon gear on the spot, bought the ME Super body and then bought a lens for it off eBay. Now I'm an all-Pentax shooter! I finished my first roll through the ME Super yesterday as well. It's a really fantastic camera and superior to my AE-1 in just about every single way I can imagine. Without any film but with batteries *and* a lens on it, the ME Super clocks in at 600g, which is about as much as either the Spotmatic or AE-1 weigh with batteries and no film *or* lens. So the whole kit is probably a good 200g lighter, in the ballpark of a 25% weight saving. This thing is actually lighter than all those classic fixed-lens rangefinders I mentioned earlier. More importantly, it's also smaller than the AE-1. If I'm wearing a jacket with large pockets, I can slip it in without too much effort. It's also small enough to easily fit in one of the zippered pouches on my backpack. It's certainly not in the same league as the little Yashica, but it's a big step up in portability, and I think it's portable enough for me. Compared to the Canon AE-1, the Pentax ME Super: * Is smaller * Is lighter * Has a nicer viewfinder, with 0.95x magnification instead of 0.86x. * Takes two LR44 batteries instead of four * Doesn't become a brick if those batteries die, but can still be shot purely mechanically at 1/125s * Has a faster maximum shutter speed of 1/2000s. * Has a slower minimum shutter speed of 2s. * Can be shot with aperture-priority semi-automatic exposure, which is much more useful (for me) than the Canon's shutter-priority semi-auto mode. * Has a considerably more usable manual override mode. * Has a proper exposure compensation knob, from 2 stops under to 2 stops over, compared to the Canon's 1.5 stop over button, which is a bona fide ergonomic nightmare to use. Are there no negatives? Well: * It lacks the Canon's DoF preview function * It has a shutter lock, but it's so incredibly user unfriendly (involving turning a knob at the same time as pushing in a tiny button on that same knob) that I will not use it habitually. * The lens release lever feels comparatively under-built and I don't know how it would stand up to heavy use over many years. I do prefer Canon's system of having the release button be part of the lens rather than the camera body. But I'm really struggling to think of anything else. On the whole I think it would be very hard to convincingly argue against the Pentax being the superior camera. Specs and feature list aside, I can't emphasise enough how great the ME super feels and sounds to use. The film advance lever throw is relatively short, with a firm but smooth feel that is consistent throughout the entire travel. It feels better than the AE-1 or the Spotmatic and even though I've never actually had the need to do so, it almost *invites* you to just crank out shots as fast as you can. The shutter is quiet and soft but still gives you the clear impression that a mechanical operation has happened completely and correctly. It's just a sensory joy to use. The meter readout in the viewfinder is a series of LEDs arranged vertically up the left-hand side, with shutter speeds next to each one. In aperture priority mode, when you half-press the shutter, the selected aperture lights up. Brilliantly, the meter stays active after you take your finger off the shutter for 25 seconds (or until you fire the shutter), so you don't need to keep the release carefully half-pressed with one hand while adjusting the aperture with the other. Some people would prefer the aesthetics of a needle over the LEDs, and I definitely understand that, but needle meters are hard to read in low-light. The ME Super very cleverly uses green LEDs next to shutter speeds of 1/60s or faster and yellow LEDs next to 1/30s or slower. So, with a 50mm lens, you know immediately if your speed is fast enough for hand-held shooting even if it's dark or something black is in your frame behind the numbers. When shooting in manual mode, shutter speed is adjusted not with the traditional knob but by two small push buttons for increasing or decreasing the speed by one stop. People online love to hate these buttons. Again, aesthetically speaking, I totally get this and I would prefer a traditional knob. They are the ME Super's biggest aesthetic failing by far. They look like they belong on one of the black/grey plastic highly automated SLRs of the late 80s or 90s. I understand people's concerns about their reliability, too. If I was looking for a camera to shoot in manual mode all the time, I probably wouldn't enthusiastically recommend this camera. But for me, that's what my Spotmatic is for. I will use aperture priority mode most of the time on this thing, using the compensation knob to deal with backlit subjects. Manual mode will only be used "in emergencies" for very tricky metering situations. Many people have written that the buttons are too small to use comfortably, but I actually find them very usable, and I have big hands. So, my *new* "big picture" plan is that the ME Super with just a 50mm lens will be my travel camera, small and light enough to easily take anywhere with me without needing a dedicated bag, and easy enough just grab casually when popping outside if the mood takes me. With semi-automatic exposure I can rely on it to take good shots quickly when something catches my eye. Meanwhile, the Spotmatic will become my vehicle for slower, more deliberate photography, in fully manual mode. Being bigger and heavier I'll limit it to photography closer to home. If I find myself getting lens GAS, I'll direct it toward relatively cheap and interesting m42 lenses for the Spotmatic, so that the ME Super always remains a simple grab 'n go system. Well, hahaha, plans. More on that in a later entry. [1] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/asahi-pentax-spotmatic-sp-1000-review.txt [2] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/photos-yashica-35-ME-review.txt [3] https://lewiscollard.com/cameras/lowepro-nova-1-camera-bag/