New K-Mount Film Camera

Cosina has brought out a new manual Pentax body with kit lens under their

Voigtlander label: http://tinyurl.com/fqmok In terms of function, it's the

basic sort of body that I prefer, though I'm not crazy about the styling.

Cosina is always fun to watch.

Interesting. It looks at least as good as the MZ-M (ZX-M) I bought in haste when my wonderful Super-A (Super Program) had to go for service just before I went on holiday a few years ago.

 

With those two working Pentax film bodies though I am waiting to see what the 10MP Pentax digital has to offer when it comes along. That and the film bodies should really be a way of maintaining value in the investment in K-mount lenses, and encourage the purchase of excellent cheap Ms and As in the future.

Ugh... That is one ugly camera, indeed. One kind of wishes they hadn't put the Voigtlander name on it, especially in such a poorly laid out manner. Stylistically, it's a far cry from the company's Bessa RFs, or even the Bessaflex. It looks somewhat like those Vivitar K and MD mount SLRs of recent years.

 

Still... It does have a pretty nice feature set, doesn't it? 1/3000s top shutter speed, and an "A" setting. Mount something like a 31mm f/1.8 Ltd. on it and suddenly the body doesn't seem to matter so much...

May I just say that although I am a huge fan of Cosina, and indeed I do own the Bessaflex TM, Bessa R (rangefinder) and even several Cosina-made but otherwise-branded film SLRs such as the Canon T-60, I am underwhelmed by the 'new' Voigtlander-branded Pentax P/K mount camera.

 

For many years, Cosina made cameras for Vivitar, among others. These all had the Pentax P/K mount (there may have been one made with the Minolta MD mount, but I've never been able to confirm that with a live sighting). These are all built on essentially the same chassis as all the Cosina SLR & rangefinder cameras, and offer different levels of enhancement in terms of AE and top shutter speeds.

 

I bought an essentially unused Vivitar V2000 on eBay for $10. It does not offer AE and has a top shutter speed of 1/2000. Just what I wanted. And much less expensive.

 

I agree that Cosina is always fun to watch - one of my favorite companies! I think this Voigtlander-branded SLR is a bit over the top, though. Not only has it 'been done' but they did it. For decades. The Voigtlander nameplate on it doesn't bring $200 more value to the party that I'm aware of.

 

Just FYI...

The website linked to is selling it for $225 with the 35-70 zoom, which is about right for the product.

As opposed to $10 for the same camera with a different badge on it. Takes all kinds, I guess.

Are you sure it's a Cosina Voigtlander and not the German Ringfoto Voigtlander?

Just look at it - it is a Cosina-made camera. They're all basically the same.

It may well be a Cosina made camera, but it has the packaging consistent with Germany's

Ringfoto Voiglander brand.