Pentax MX: A Small Wonder of the 70's

It´s built like a tank and can survive the worst places in the world. The Pentax MX was a small wonder of the 70´s Japanese optical and mechanical engineering.

My father was a photographer and taught me many things, and one thing, in particular, was that the Pentax is the best! He is a great fan of these Japanese cameras and he got one for us when I was in high school. And the Pentax MX has been with me since then.

It´s a light and compact SLR camera introduced in 1976 (my year of birth too) and produced until 1984, but it´s power are greater than it´s size. The Pentax MX was a mechanical camera, with a horizontal cloth focal plane shutter from 1s to 1/1000, synchronized at 1/60 with Bulb setting. Compact and light, equipped with a 50 mm 1:14/ SMC PENTAX-M lenses, this camera was my “take everywhere” camera until I owned a legendary Lomo LCA. I shot film with this camera since 1994 and it´s yet in good shape and working condition, ready for action. Its f1.4 lens is perfect to low light indoor shooting or beautiful shallow DOF photography.

A professional photographer said this camera can go from desert to the pole and would still be reliable for work with 135 films.

The Pentax MX is a great compact SLR camera to take everywhere. If you like the SLR way of photography, with manual controls, real-time manual focus and the beautiful sound of shutter + mirror-movement that define analog photography.

This article was written by Community member dux_x.

written by dux_x on 2009-03-17 #gear #film #review #slr #dux_x #pentax #135 #asahi-pentax