Asahi Pentax ME-F

Pentax were the leading 35 mm SLR cameras through the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, there were a lot of technological advances (not just in photography) and Asahi (the makers of Pentax cameras) were leading the push to develop modern automatic cameras.

The act of producing cutting edge, state of the art cameras necessarily meant also making mistakes. There were a number of innovative dead-ends during this period and the result was that Asahi lost their lead as prime camera makers to Nikon and Canon.

With this particular Pentax model the innovation was auto-focus. this was the first consumer auto-focus camera but using a technique that did not prove to be very effective. Asahi's next auto-focus camera approached the task very differently. As I only have the camera body and not the special auto-focus lens I can make no comment about how well the auto-focus worked in practice.

This Pentax ME F is a development of the Pentax ME Super - itself a development of the Pentax ME. The ME series of Pentax cameras were introduced in 1976 with the ME. The ME Super was introduced in 1980 with the added option of manually setting the shutter speed and this ME-F in 1981. Other M series Pentax cameras were the MG, MV, MV1 and MX.

The M series were smaller and lighter than the Spotmatic and K series cameras - following the lead of Olympus with the OM series of cameras. They also all had aperture-priority automatic exposure (the MX had entirely manual exposure).

lens: none supplied

focal length:  n/a

apertures: n/a

focus range: n/a

lens fitting: Pentax Kf mount

shutter: Seiko metal focal plane

speeds: 4 seconds to 1/2000 seconds

flash: hot shoe and PC connector - X synch

film size: 35 mm

This camera measures 132 mm wide by 87.5 mm high and 50 mm deep not including the lens. It weighs 480g.

The top plate is fairly cluttered resulting in fiddly controls that my rather large fingers struggle to manipulate. On the far right, as usual, is the film advance lever. This moves through about 140 degrees to advance one frame but the first part of the motion - around 45 degrees - is required to engage the advance mechanism. The lever also has a secondary rest position which usually indicates the presence of a light meter switch - I do not know if this is the case with this camera, it could just be to make fast winding possible.

In front of the film advance lever is a window to the frame counter. This counts up from one. Opening the back resets the counter to -2 - indicated by an orange dot - which encourages you to waste two frames to get to frame one. I find I get get an extra frame in by starting at -1. To be honest, I actually ignore frame counters and just shoot until I cannot advance the film anymore which gives me 26 exposures from a 24 exposure cassette in the main.

Next to these is a large black mode dial. This locks in place and it is necessary to depress a (very) small white button to be able to turn the dial. For me, this is a two handed job and is the most awkward part of using this camera. The modes available are L, Auto, M, 125X, and B - more on these later. In the centre of the mode dial is the shutter release button. This fires the Seiko metal focal plane shutter.

Between this dial and the pentaprism hump are two small buttons which alter the shutter speed when in manual mode. These buttons are actually plenty large enough even for my fingers but they are in a rather restricted space. The pentaprism is of the size needed - there is not much scope fore reducing this in size as cameras get smaller as it still has to show the full 24 x 36 mm frame. On top of the pentaprism is am accessory shoe. At this date it is basically a flash shoe and has hot-shoe connections. This is a large central contact  allowing the use of any hot-shoe flash gun. There is also a small secondary contact for Pentax specific flash guns with added functionality. It is also possible to use a cold-shoe flash as there is also a PC (Prontor-Compur) connector on the front of the camera.

On the left of the pentaprism is a switch to activate the auto-focus function. This is useful even without the dedicated auto-focus lens as the camera has a focus confirm function with any lens. This switch has three positions - off, 2.8 and 3.5 The last two relate to the maximum aperture of the lens being used. Behind this switch is a second switch which turns the audible focus-confirm on or off.

To the far left of the top plate is the folding rewind crank. Around this is the film speed setting for the light meter. This ranges from 12 to 1600 ASA (ISO). 12 ISO seems very slow by modern digital standards but films available in 1980 were very slow. This setting is set be slightly lifting the outside of the ring and turning. This ring also sets exposure compensation from x4 to x1/4 (that is, +2 stops to -2 stops) which is set by turning the ring without lifting. Pulling up on the rewind crank itself unlocks the door.

The front of the camera is uncluttered. Right of centre (looking at the front) is the Pentax K mount bayonet fitting. this is an adaptation of the original K mount known as Kf mount as it has four sprung electrical contacts and one unsprung contact. These allow the camera to communicate with the special auto-focus lens. This is the only camera with this version of the K mount. There were later variations on the K mount with electrical contacts in other parts of the mount ring. All these are backwards compatible. I am successfully using a lens with the later version of the K mount with this camera. I lose the later functionality of the lens but it still works fine as a fully manual lens.

On the right side of the mount is a PC connector which allows the use of flash off-camera. On the left of the lens mount is a delay action lever. This is not connected to the shutter release button. First  you wind the mechanism by turning the lever down in an anti-clockwise direction. Second, you start the process by pushing the lever back up very slightly. The delay is about eight seconds.

On the back of the camera (which is made from painted steel) are three items. most obviously is the viewfinder eye-piece. This is nice and large and works well for those of us who wear glasses. When looking through the viewfinder you get the expected ground glass screen. In the centre is a ring of micro-prisms and a split-image centre to aid focussing. On the left of the viewfinder image is a vertical list of shutter speeds. These range from 4 seconds to 1/2000 seconds. The selected speed is indicated by a small green or orange LED. There is also a reminder at the top of the list if you are in manual mode. At the bottom centre of the viewfinder is a green hexagonal LED flanked by two red triangular LEDs. The red LEDs light when the lens (any lens) is out of focus and the green LED lights when the lens is in focus. There is also a noise if the switch mentioned earlier is on.

On the right of the rear of the top plate is a small window revealing vertical red and black bars. These 'dance' when you advance or rewind the film. The idea is that if the film is not properly loaded the bars do not dance saving you taking pictures with no film in place. Personally, I always watch the rewind crank turn for the same reason. However, the dancing bars do work.

In the middle of the back is a device that all film cameras should have - a holder for the end of the film carton. If, like me, you have more than one camera on the go at a time, it is easy to forget what film is in which camera. Below this holder are two more electrical contacts for the optional data back.

On the base plate there are a number of items. on the left under a round cover is a mechanical connection for an electrical film winder. Next to this is the button to release the rewind mechanism. In line with the centre of the lens is a 1/4 inch UNC threaded tripod socket (the old standard was 1/4 inch Whitworth which is as near as dammit to the modern standard). To the right of this is the battery compartment. This holds four button batteries which are still available today. Beyond the battery cover is a release button to undo the battery cover catch.

In use.

Loading film is as easy as it can be made short of full automation. The back is opened by pulling up on the rewind crank - as was usual with cameras of this age. The film cassette goes on the left - the rewind crank is pushed back down to hold the cassette in place - and the film is pulled across the camera and the leading edge is pushed between any two of the many white bars on the take-up spool. Very simple and hard to go wrong.

Above the white bars on the take-up spool is a fairly loose plastic ring. As the film moves past this ring when advancing the film, the movement in the loose ring is transferred to the red and black dancing bars. visible through the window on the back of the top plate. Once you have loaded the film and closed the back you need to 'waste' two frames as these have been fogged while the back was open. At this point, the frame counter should read '1' - remember to put the end of the film carton in the memo holder and you are ready to go.

The photographer needs to set his choice of aperture and focus the lens and the camera does the rest. The viewfinder is nice and clear and the split-screen centre works as it should.

This is a delightful camera to use. My only real niggle is turning the camera on. this involves pressing a very small white button on the black mode dial and turning the dial to Auto or M or 125x. The L position is off and this switches off the meter and locks the shutter release button - the shutter can still be fired in this position by using the self-times lever.

Auto reads the aperture from the lens and selects the most appropriate shutter speed - this is not restricted to the displayed speeds, any intermediate speed can be selected. The M mode requires the user to set both the aperture on the lens and the shutter speed using the two buttons next to the pentaprism - in this case only the displayed speeds may be selected.  The 125x speed is used to synchronise the shutter and the flash at 1/125 seconds. There is also a B setting which leaves the shutter open as long as the shutter release button is depressed. I find using this dial very difficult and have to use both hands. Once the mode dial is set, I leave it set until I have finished for the day.

To use this camera with the full complement of shutter speeds requires working batteries. If they are flat, the camera can still work in mechanical mode but this restricts the camera to 1/125 seconds shutter speed. This is clearly less than ideal but does mean that you can continue to take photographs if you have no spare batteries.

I do not have the auto-focus lens but the auto-focus system will give focus confirmation with any lens. this is in the form of a green LED indicating focus and two red LEDs which indicate the direction you need to turn the focus ring on the lens to obtain focus. I found these to be completely useless - they did work but the audible confirmation is rather more useful - actually, my eyes offer a faster focus confirmation.

Test photographs - Agfa Vista colour negative film.

Hand held, indoors 

A nosey of twitchers

Mamiya EE Super merit (AKA Mansfield Eye-tronic)

Mamiya made cameras both for themselves and for re-badging by other companies.  This camera is re-badged by the USA company of Mansfield. It is badged as a Mansfield Eye-tronic but is actually a Mamiya EE Super Merit. This model was also available in the USA as a Honeywell Electric Eye 35 and in the UK as the Vulcan.  The camera is well designed and well made as I would expect from the Japanese in 1962 (the year of this model's introduction, in September).  That makes this camera 50 years old (give or take a year) - and it is in very good condition. It all functions as it should, the only real deterioration being the foam light seals - as is usual on Japanese cameras of any age, these are reduced to a sticky goo and I have partially replaced them. The seals I have replaced are the two ends: around the hinge and around the catch. The long seals top and bottom of the back look to be recessed enough not to cause any trouble - I shall see for sure when my test film is completed (12 exposures of Fomapan 200 Creative).

lens: Mamiya-Kominar badged as Mantinar
focal length:  40 mm
apertures: f/2.8 to f/22
focus range: 1 m to infinity
lens fitting: fixed
shutter: Seikosha
speeds: 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250
flash: PC socket
film size: 35 mm

Front view - lens with a Petri UV filter in place

This camera is about the standard size and weight for a fixed-lens Japanese rangefinder camera of the period. it measures 130 x 60 x 80 mm and weighs xxxg. Of the three Japanese rangefinders I own, this is the most thoughtfully designed. 

The top plate is spare. On the left is the rewind crank which is slightly proud of the top plate when not in use. In the centre is the accessory shoe - a cold shoe as it has no flash contacts. In front of then accessory shoe is stamped the name "Mansfield" - this would say "Mamiya" on a non-re-badged version or "Honeywell" or "Vulcan" for the other brands of re-badged Mamiyas. On the right of the top plate is the frame counter - this counts down to zero so needs to be set at the film length when you load the film. I don't usually bother with frame counters - I just keep using the camera until the increased tension in the film advance tells me the end has come. With this camera it is, if not essential, then very useful to set the frame counter as when the film is finished the film advance lever keeps moving with no change in tension. What this camera does is when the frame counter reaches zero the word "END" appears in the viewfinder. You can keep winding the film and pressing the shutter release but the film is not moving and you are repeatedly exposing the same last frame.

Top view

The front has no surprises. The viewfinder bezel is at the top. This is black plastic with a very worn (on my camera) chrome outline. The viewfinder is slightly to the left of the lens and the rangefinder window is slightly to the right (both as when using the camera).

The viewfinder has bright-lines and the display for the light meter. There are no parallax markings for close-ups as the viewfinder physically moves as you focus the lens. This is quite a sophisticated facility for a mid-range camera. The viewfinder also includes the word "END" when the frame counter reaches zero.

The rangefinder spot is yellow (as is usual) but is an undefined blob which makes using the rangefinder harder than it should be. Having said that, it does work in good light - test photos will tell me how well. Both the light meter and the rangefinder are coupled.

Inside

Below the viewfinder bezel is the shutter assembly. The shutter is made by Seikosha and is a leaf shutter. the camera offers a choice between automatic and manual exposure control. In auto, the required shutter speed is set and the diaphragm set to auto - the camera selecting the aperture. See the notes on the test film to see how well this works. If you want manual control of the exposure, you can set the aperture as well as the shutter speed. the light meter display in the viewfinder will tell you the required aperture for the set shutter speed (the only time you need to look at the light meter display) or you can use a hand-held light meter to gauge exposure (see below where I have tried all three methods on one picture).

back

On the bottom of the shutter housing is the selector for the film speed. this shows the camera's age as it goes as low a 10ASA/11DIN but only as high as 200ASA/24DIN. The lens itself is surrounded in common Japanese fashion with a circular selenium light sensor. This means it is always pointing the same way as the lens and gets covered by any filter used. In turn, this means that no exposure compensation is needed with filters - as good as you can get without TTL metering. Incidentally, selenium means that no battery is required for the light meter to work.

Underside of lens showing DIN/ASA selector

To the right of the shutter housing is the shutter release button. Personally, I do not like face mounted shutter releases but I have to admit that this one is fine in use. There is a screw socket for a cable release but this is on the top plate. On the opposite side of the shutter housing is a PC socket for flash. There is no means of synchronising  the flash so I assume it is intended for FP bulbs or electronic flash.

The back of the camera is very plain - just the viewfinder eyepiece and the film advance lever. Inside, film attachment is very simple and is about the easiest I have ever come across. There is a generously wide slot with a prominent tang to fit into a sprocket hole. Most 35mm cameras have a shaft with top and bottom sprocket wheels. Not here. There is a single large sprocket wheel below the film gate. This does nothing with the back open making it easy to secure the film to the take-up spool - the film advance will keep moving the film without the user having to repeatedly press the shutter release. Once the back is shut, this sprocket wheel will only allow one frame to advance at a time.

Shutter set to shutter priority automatic exposure

The base of the camera is also bare - just the tripod boss (1/4 inch) and the rewind button.

Shutter set to manual exposure.

Test film results.

The results are good. In the pictures, the horizontal bars to be seen in the sky in some pictures are a scanning artefact due to the negatives being a bit thin (i.e. under-exposed). Overall, both focus and exposure are as they should be producing usable negatives. Although not all the negatives have scanned well, they would produce reasonable silver -prints.

Derelict factory, Stamp End, Lincoln

Social housing estate, Lincoln

River Witham, Lincoln

Footpath

 This next photograph is a test of the rangefinder. I focussed on the nearest pale ball on top of the black steel fence. It is not quite in focus - focus being just a bit closer than it should be (look at the black top rail of the fence just this side of the pale ball).

Rangefinder test

Stamp End lock, Lincoln

River Witham, Lincoln

 This is what happens if you continue to take pictures after the film has ended. The camera does nothing to stop you (apart from displaying the word "END" in the viewfinder) and you end up with multiple exposures on one frame.

The last frame of test film - multiple exposure

 These last three show the effects of 1) using automatic exposure, 2) manual exposure using the built-in meter and 3) manual exposure using a separate hand held meter. All three are exposed well enough to be usable with the automatic exposure perhaps being the best exposure. it is a bit surprising that using the built-in meter automatically differs from using the same meter manually, but the difference is there.  This is possibly due the the camera being able to select in-between aperture values while with manual exposure you have to use one of the marked aperture values. The last exposure, using my trusty (and trusted) Ikophot meter is of more concern as it is clearly rather underexposed.

Child's bike - auto exposure

Child's bike - manual exposure using built-in meter

Child's bike - manual exposure using Zeiss Ikon Ikophot hand held meter.

Olympus μ Zoom 115 (also Mju Zoom 115)

This is a sophisticated point-and-shoot camera. It is clearly a development of Olympus's XA series. The camera opens by sliding a cover to the right, exposing the lens and switching on the electrics. Controls are minimal making it very much a point-and-shoot camera. In fact, it is quite possible to ignore the few controls provided and then you have a basic point-and-shoot with a 38 mm lens (and autofocus).

Closed/off

All of the controls are on top of the camera. On the far right of the camera is the zoom control. This defaults to the shortest focal length of 38 mm. This is slightly wide for a 35 mm camera but not excessively so. 'Normal' for 35 mm (the diagonal of the negative) is 43 mm. Pulling the control will zoom the lens to 115 mm (hence the name of the camera). A nice touch is that the viewfinder also zooms so the viewfinder image always matches the lens image.

Open/on

Next to the zoom control is the shutter release. This is a fairly large chrome plated button. This is easy to find by touch which is as it should be.

Next to the shutter release are two small chrome plated buttons. The front one sets the delay timer and the rear one sets the flash mode. There are six flash modes. Default is the flash firing when there is insufficient light without it. The first selectable mode is red-eye reduction where the camera fires a few low intensity flashes to make the subject's pupils contract before the main flash. The second mode is no flash - this allows you to take moody pictures in poor light. 

Third mode is the flash always on. This is for fill-in flash when the background is brighter than the subject. The fourth mode is night-portrait mode - this restricts the flash to illuminating the subject while leaving the background dark. The fifth mode is a combination of the first and fourth modes - night-portrait with red-eye reduction.

Next to these controls is a small LCD display. This gives minimal information: frame number, flash mode, delay on/off. To the left of the LCD display is a small pop-up flashgun.

Telephoto position (115 mm)

On the back is the viewfinder eyepiece. This has a dioptre adjustment so us spectacle wearers can use this camera without our glasses. Also on the back is a small window to allow the user to see what sort of film is in the camera - or, indeed, if there is any film in there at all. This is a simple but very useful facility for those of us with several (!) cameras as it is very easy to forget which camera is loaded with which film.

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Blog (c) John Margetts 2014
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On the base is a standard (1/4 inch UNC which is just about the same as the old standard of 1/4 Whitworth) tripod boss. This is right on the right-hand end of the camera. This is not a good place to have this (in the centre is better and under the lens node is ideal) but I doubt this camera ever gets used with a tripod. 

Also on the base is a recessed button to allow for rewinding the film before it is finished. When the film is finished, rewind is automatic.  The battery chamber is on the right-hand end of the camera. The battery is a CR123 lithium battery which is still readily available.

Back

I currently have a film in the camera and I will report on using the camera and the image quality when the film is finished.

20 September 2014

I have my test film back from Snappy Snaps and here are the results.  This camera is rather easy to use - the only real awkwardness I have experienced is that it is a bit small for my hands - then again, this is a compact camera!

Image quality is certainly good enough for snap shots, which is what the camera is really for.  I would not use it for serious photography, but I might carry it on those occasions when I do not want to be encumbered with kit - a night out, perhaps.

The first few are of a herd of cows/calves at Frampton Marsh RSPB nature reserve, Lincolnshire (near to Boston).  I am quite pleased with these - I like cattle - but the close-ups show a design weakness.  The camera is happy to take a picture when it cannot focus.  At the least, a warning would be nice.

This flower was blowing in the wind outside the visitor centre at Frampton Marsh. It has been captured fairly well - indicating that the automatic exposure system has selected a fast enough shutter speed. I have added a crop of the top flower to show how well the camera has captured detail - quite well, I think.  The graininess of the magnified picture will be a mix of the grain of the Agfa Vista + film and the medium quality scan I asked the lab to do.

Crop of the top flower.

This next picture was taken in poor light with mist in the distance. It is the British Sugar sugar beet processing factory at Bardney seen across a field of wheat stubble.

 

The next three are close-ups taken in a wood. The first is not very impressive - I cannot make out what the white blobs are although I suspect they were fungi of some sort.  The third picture is exposed quite well, but the first two show the limitations of the camera in challenging conditions.

The next is Lindum Hill in Lincoln. A bright but not sunny day - all seems to be well.

The rest are of Wells (in Somerset, not Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk I usually photograph). The camera has done well here - I could use this camera for street photography as it is quite discrete in use and works well in an urban situation.