Pentax MZ-7 w/ SMC Pentax-FA 28-200/3.8-5.6 [IF&AL]

[mark_pierlot]

<p>I recently "inherited" a Pentax MZ-7 w/ 28-200 superzoom from my uncle, and would like some info as regards the quality and sellability of this camera and lens.</p>

<p>I'm a Canon FD/EOS user and know virtually nothing about Pentax gear. Would anybody use such a body nowadays? (For what it's worth, I have the operating manual.) And is the lens decent optically? I have never used a superzoom, but this lens seems to garner pretty good reviews online. I do realize that the lens is made by Tamron, but it seems to have good build quality and has a metal mount.</p>

<p>I don't really want to "waste" a roll of film testing out the camera (the shutter and meter of which seem to be working fine); I'd rather use that precious Ektar 100 in my EOS-1V or in one of my F-1's. :-)</p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>Although I am a Pentax user I can't help you much. - Pentax AF has never been up to EOS speed. I grabbed 2 used (earlier than your's) AF bodies back in the days. - One survived so far and they were meant to serve me for social snapshots while partying with friends. I never even bothered to get a long AF zoom for film and stuck to older bodies with manual focus. - There seem a few die hard Pentax & film lovers around but in our realm cameras like the MX or LX - Nikon FM & F3 challengers - or the legendary bulky simple K1000 seem more popular. - Going rate - I just did a quick search for a MZ-7 with an ordinary 28-80 zoom seems 75 Euro asked and half of them or 50 pocketed?<br>

I'd sell the zoom seperately. - No clue what it might fetch - check fleabay completed auctions? - I think there should be a market. - The DSLRs take it too and Pentax has the IS built into the bodies so it would be there, not missing like for an EOS.<br>

I'd sell the body on ebay. - Whoever buys it at least wants it. - Quality of the body: Who knows? - It should be comparable to an EOS 500 / film Rebel? - Its 15 years old and you have a guess of the wear it saw. - I can imagine a heavy used body having issues by now, so the repair shop will have grinned and suggested to that one's owner to buy cheap used replacement instead of paying some 150 Euro for whatever needs to be done. - I had a broken AF motor... </p>

[andrewg_ny]

<p>It's a decent body and lens but the large supply of and limited demand for these bodies mean they don't fetch very much money. The ZX-7 is sort of a mid-range consumer body -- has more than the bare minimum but lacks a few things like DoF preview and some features like continuous autofocus are only available when using a 'sports' scene mode, etc. The main bugaboo on these bodies was a plastic gear on the mirror motor that fails a bit too soon and as the price of these bodies has dropped and parts harder to get has made it less likely that people will get them repaired.</p>

<p>Most people who will purchase will seek the better MZ-5 or MZ-6 (or even PZ-1) since they don't cost all that much more now. The lens is still fully usable on Pentax DSLRs (autofocus, all AE modes, stabilized on most bodies, etc.) but 28-200 isn't the most attractive lens for APS-C bodies (42-300 equivalent). I would still expect it to fetch significantly more than the body. </p>

<p>One of the nice things about the MZ/ZX-6 and -7 (yours) is that unlike many Pentax film bodies (including the further upmarket MZ-5 and MZ-S) they don't require lenses to have aperture rings for Av or Manual modes. Pentax was starting to remove aperture rings from lenses around this time, and the made-for-digital lenses don't have them anymore. They're also better than some of the contemporary lower-end bodies like MZ/ZX-30/50/60 that had crippled mounts that wouldn't work with older manual focus lenses.</p>

<p>Another resource for used Pentax gear is the marketplace on pentaxforums.com though I imagine you'll see there that a lot of the film gear doesn't move all that fast.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

The MZ-7 with 28-200 zoom could serve as a nice "walking around" outfit for situations where you don't want to risk you more sophisticated (and expensive) gear.

[mark_pierlot]

<p>Thanks for the Pentax education, guys.</p>

<p>I'm going to be giving the kit to a friend of mine who is engaged in various art projects, such as silk screening, in which he uses his own film images. He could really benefit from a decent film SLR instead of the point and shoot camera he's been using. And of course he'll be able to upgrade to any K-mount lens he fancies.</p>