What is it exactly about the Pentax K1000?

I get it - but not completely. It's a charming yet capable artifact from the 1970s that is simple, rugged, fully manual and useful for beginners and professionals alike. But I don't see how it can sell for three times what it's actually worth! Have a look at this example:

 

Vintage Pentax K1000 35mm Film Camera with 50mm Lens | eBay

 

Pentax makes better cameras that sell for less, and yet... the K1000 is, oddly, a premium camera among low budget models. This is not to dismiss the K1000. Oh, no no no. It is a legend, moreso than many cameras aimed at professionals.

 

I've seen Contax and Nikon cameras sell for less. I dare say that nobody has made a camera like it. Nikon? No - they tried with the FM10 but that's a rebadged Cosina with an F mount. Blah. Canon? Nope. Olympus? Nah. Minolta? I don't think so.

 

It's an enigma that does not seem like an enigma. I guess that's why I don't fully appreciate it. When you're used to the rich mystique of a Leica M, what is a Pentax K1000 in comparison? I guess some things are best left as mysteries and just enjoyed as they are.

The Pentax K1000 made a lot of sense when it was selling for $129 with a 50mm f/2 lens. In the early 80's that kind of money only bought you P&S. But among the 35 SLR's I have to say it's among the worst. I know there are many crazy people who paid good money for the K1000. More money for the K1000 for even the similar but better Pentax KX and KM.

I personally would take the Minolta SRT (any model),, The Nikon FM, The Pentax KX or KM or MX. I have 2 K1000 that I got for free. I gave 1 away and have 1 left that I never use.

Simple Classic Quality.

Without the Leica pricetag.

Comparing a good, mass-market SLR with a premium rangefinder, not a comparison that makes an awful lot of sense.

 

Pentax K1000 still is adviced a lot when people ask for a all-manual film SLR. So that drives up demand and as a consequence price. The Nikon FM/FM2 are also relatively expensive, compared to many other SLRs - same story as they're frequently recommended. That doesn't mean they're the best cameras or anything, just that they're more in demand. Nothing mysterious about that.

I compare the K1000 to the VW Beetle. Simple, not fancy at all, reliable, simply gets the job done and at a reasonable price. It just runs and runs.

 

Rick H.

I compare the K1000 to the VW Beetle. Simple, not fancy at all, reliable, simply gets the job done and at a reasonable price. It just runs and runs.

 

Rick H.

Well I'll be.....I thought VW Beetle as well.

An everyman's camera.....

Now I'll have to load it up.....

Just a well made camera for the masses that wont die.

 

Back in the 70s a kit sold for $300. As the years went on the price went down making it the most affordable quality 35mm camera. Schools recommended it for its reliability, price n ruggedness.

 

Time proven, they are still out there today in perfect working order. The lenses were top notch as well.

 

Ive got 3 K1000s left over from my kid's school days, and my first 35, a black body (brass) spotmatic. Get this.... the only camera that needed service was the spotmatic with a shutter ribbon problem. the 1000s are still working as good as new. The meters tend to die on them... but that's only a corroded wire problem thats not worth fixing since built in meters are never reliable anyway.

 

Gotta love em.

 

 

 

.

"history & teaching culture"

The Pentax K1000 made a lot of sense when it was selling for $129 with a 50mm f/2 lens. In the early 80's that kind of money only bought you P&S.

For that reason teachers / schools must have started to recommend it. And by now supply and demand changed the price tag.

I have one, it takes pictures but some day, when the world went crazy enough, I'd happily swap it against an M2...

The original "re-animation" of the Pentax line did start because of a combination of high supply and low cost for teaching "film" to students.

 

Ironically, that has pushed up prices, as demand often does.

 

Today, the same benefits as the older Pentax can be gained by use of the 'L'-series Prakticas, as well as many other lines.

 

There may even be some Kievs and FEDs that have escaped transmogrification back into "Contaxes" and "Leicas". Shooting with the same sort of cameras as Cartier-Bresson et al. may even inspire..

I compare the K1000 to the VW Beetle. Simple, not fancy at all, reliable, simply gets the job done and at a reasonable price. It just runs and runs.

 

Rick H.

I had a Beetle, back in the 70's........I used to do my own servicing. My current car, a 1990s Toyota, is a far more reliable vehicle, with a fraction of the servicing needs of a Beetle.

We rent Pentax K 1000s to students at the college where I teach. They have all of the controls that you need to make good pictures without any extras to confuse newcomers to photography. They are also extremely rugged and withstand student use and abuse. I agree that they are overpriced in the current market compared to a lot of other cameras in terms of features for a knowledgeable photographer, but they are still a popular choice in a lot of photo programs since many instructors probably had one as their first serious camera.

They have all of the controls that you need to make good pictures without any extras to confuse newcomers to photography.

Well put.

They promote Focus...

K1000, my first SLR – or first camera, if you don't include the Kodak Instamatic I had as a boy. It worked well, but I never thought it was particularly good in any particular wise. I gladly sold it on for an MX when I could afford to. That was a jewel of a camera, although I admit the K1000's match-needle metering was better than the MX's green and red LED dots!

K1000, my first SLR – or first camera, if you don't include the Kodak Instamatic I had as a boy. It worked well, but I never thought it was particularly good in any particular wise. I gladly sold it on for an MX when I could afford to. That was a jewel of a camera, although I admit the K1000's match-needle metering was better than the MX's green and red LED dots!

I used MX bodies for a long time for professional work and like them a lot--they were small, light and rugged and had a great viewfinder. The light meter was a lot better in low light than the K 1000 also, and you could see the LEDs when a needle would have been difficult to work with.

The Pentax LED layout is something that always appealed to me about the ME Super.

The local shop where I hang out sells "student" SLRs by the bucket load every fall. Most of them are $100 with a 50mm f/1.8 or equivalent out the door, include a warranty for the entire time the student is taking the course(including batteries, although not damage like dropping the camera) and a guaranteed $40 buy-back.

 

By far and away the Canon AE-1/AE-1P are the most popular, but there are plenty of K1000s that sell also along with other good, reliable cameras like the Canon FTb.

 

They also sell a lot of Nikon FMs, but understandably sell those for $150 instead of $100. As someone who's bought a whole lot of Nikon SLRs in the past year and a half, there's very much a "halo" effect around older Nikon products, and especially the FM/FE series cameras. It's also hard to get around the fact that really the FM is a different class of camera than the K1000 or AE-1, and arguably has a much better shutter. They rarely sell FM2s to students as the advantages of one(1/4000 top speed, 1/200 or 1/250 flash sync) won't necessarily be realized by the typical student photographer and they are a fair bit more expensive. BTW, the FMs are mostly sold to students of one particular high school teacher who REALLY wants her students to buy an FM-10 but grudgingly allows FMs. Funny enough, last year when the store was running low on FMs and the teacher was in to complain about it, I suggested allowing F2 Photomics(a relatively inexpensive option) and was shot down although she wouldn't give an explanation as to why....

Referring to 1981 Adorama ads

The K1000 body only was $94.95 and $137.95 with the 50mm f/2 lens.

The Nikon FM body was $169.95 and $229.95 with the 50mm f/1.8 AI lens.

BTW, the FMs are mostly sold to students of one particular high school teacher who REALLY wants her students to buy an FM-10 but grudgingly allows FMs. Funny enough, last year when the store was running low on FMs and the teacher was in to complain about it, I suggested allowing F2 Photomics(a relatively inexpensive option) and was shot down although she wouldn't give an explanation as to why....

Some people have bees in their bonnets for no good reason. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, no? I'm all for fanaticism when it comes to good things (like quality control) but this high school teacher really ought to be embarrassed.

 

I know someone whose lecturer demanded that all assignments be printed in Arial, for goodness sakes. Helvetica I can understand, but Arial? Some people have poor taste and stubbornness to go with it.

Helvetica I can understand, but Arial?

Lol.

I know someone whose lecturer demanded that all assignments be printed in Arial, for goodness sakes. Helvetica I can understand, but Arial? Some people have poor taste and stubbornness to go with it.

 

I had a professor in graduate school who demanded 12 point single spaced Arial with half inch margins. Since I HATE Arial on principle(plus it's an ugly face in general), I started giving him assignments in Helvetica and he never noticed the difference...

 

I've had students "complain" over my use of Adobe Garamond on virtually everything-fortunately they are few and far between. Aside from being one of the most beautiful typefaces ever drawn, it's also pleasant to read both on screen and on paper and saves ink/toner. Where I can't/shouldn't use Garamond, I use Helvetica.

 

And yes, I don't quite understand the teachers fanaticisms over the cameras. She REALLY wanted her students to buy new FM-10s(you could still get them last year) but grudgingly allowed the FM. When the local store ran short on FMs(I even sold them one or two) she gave in and allowed Nikkormats-something that made even less sense considering that she wouldn't allow the F2 Photomic.

 

BTW, for whatever reason this teacher didn't like the local store. She told her students that they should avoid buying from them because "they recharge batteries and sell them." As I explained to a customer in the store more than once, you can't recharge an LR44, there would be little point in messing with it since this store pays like 10¢ each for them in bulk, and they don't gain anything since they offer free replacement batteries for the duration of the course...

In 1978 I went to the photography class with an F2AS and a 50mm f/1.4 lens. The teacher didn't complain. He was a photographer self taught and I don't think he had a degree but since it's a small community college they hired him.

Nothing is more detrimental to a society's educational system than ignorant teachers.

Nothing is more detrimental to a society's educational system than ignorant teachers.

 

I don't know. Ignorance in a teacher seems less harmful than uncaringness; a teacher may be somewhat uninformed in their subject, and still impart a passion for learning it.

 

At any rate, the amount of harm an ignorant photography teacher can do to society is probably limited. ;)

On one hand, with the photography teacher example I gave, I would argue that there's some value to "standardizing" the class on the FM, FM-10, and FM2. The reason for that is that the meter read-out works the same in all of them, although on the FM-10 it's on the left side of the viewfinder instead of the right.

 

She also didn't want her students using cameras with any kind of "auto" mode-again something understanding although I find cameras like the Nikon FE series and Canon New F-1 to be quite easy to use in manual mode. They both use a "match needle" or "match flag" system, although I don't like the FE display as well as I do the Canon(also used in the FTb, F-1, AT-1, and TLb). BTW, I'll just throw in a mention of the fact that I find the AE-1, AE-1P, A-1, T70, and T90 a royal pain to use in manual mode. The reason for that is that the camera doesn't know what aperture is actually set, so you have to manually transfer the reading from the display to the aperture ring.

 

The standardization on meter read-outs starts to break down, though, if you allow students to use a Nikkormat FTN since it uses a center-the-needle system. If that's okay, why is an F2 Photomic(or F2A) with the same type of meter read-out not okay? Also, I didn't bring it up, but the F2SB and F2AS have essentially the same meter read-out as the FM series cameras(FM3a excepted). I prefer the viewfinder displays of them, though, since everything(shutter speed, aperture, and meter) is BELOW the image and not splashed around the focusing screen as on the FM.

I don't know. Ignorance in a teacher seems less harmful than uncaringness; a teacher may be somewhat uninformed in their subject, and still impart a passion for learning it.

I disagree.

The premise is flawed.