New Camera Day, The Pentax Spotmatic F

You may or may not know that my beloved old Pentax SV recently bit the dust. You also may or may not know that I'm more of a rangefinder guy than an SLR guy. Still, SLRs definitely have their place in my little world, notably for taking close ups or any really any photographs where it's helpful to know pretty much what you're really shooting.

I've always read that the SV was pretty much the pinnacle of Pentax M42 (screw mount) SLRs, not in terms of technology, but in terms of build quality and that ever ineffable "user experience". Contrary to that, I have to say that the Spotmatic F seems, if anything even more nicely executed than the SV was.

One thing that I didn't find endearing about the SV was the thunderous KER CHUNK! sound every time the mirror flapped up. Sometimes the sound almost made me jump, thinking the camera had broken itself.The Spotmatic F just has a moderately loud and somewhat satisfying ka chunk to it's mirror flapping.

This Spotmatic came with two lenses: a 28mm f/3.5 Super Multi Coated Takumar, which seems to be in perfect condition and a 200mm f/4 SMC Takumar that I'm not envisioning a lot of use for, but who knows. All this was pretty much dirt cheap and shipped from Japan in just a couple days. Now to go out and shoot it!