Pentax Spotmatic
 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Maker | Asahi Optical Co |
| Type | SLR |
| Lens | |
| Lens mount | M42 screw mount |
| Sensor/Medium | |
| Image sensor type | film |
| Image sensor size | 24 x 36 mm |
| Film format | 35 mm |
| ASA/ISO range | 20 - 1600 |
| Film speed detection | No |
| Focusing | |
| Focus | Manual focus |
| Exposure/Metering | |
| Exposure | Manual exposure |
| Exposure metering | Average, through the lens (TTL) |
| Flash | |
| Flash | FP or X |
| Flash synchronization | 1/60 |
| Shutter | |
| Shutter | Mechanical |
| Shutter speed range | 1000 - 1 , B |
| Viewfinder | |
| Viewfinder | pentaprism eye-level viewfinder with a microprism focusing screen |
| General | |
| Battery | Mallory RM640, but 1.5 V silver oxide batteries can be used |
| Made in | Japan |
| Released | 1964 |
The Pentax Spotmatic refers to a family of 35mm single-lens reflex cameras manufactured by the Asahi Optical Co. Ltd., later known as Pentax Corporation, between 1964 and 1976.
All Pentax Spotmatics used the M42 screw-thread lens mount which was developed before WW2 by Zeiss and Praktica. Asahi Optical used the name Takumar for their lenses. These were high-quality, progressively improved lenses, later versions of which featured multi-coating and were called Super Multi Coated Takumars.
The cameras allowed to focus the lens at maximum aperture to give a bright viewfinder image, then a switch at the side stops the lens down and switches on the metering which can be determined by a needle located on the side of the viewfinder. The use of stop-down light metering was at the time revolutionary, however it limited the capability of the lightmeter specially on low light situations. Later models Spotmatic F, Electro Spotmatic, ES, and ESII were capable of open-aperture metering when used with Super Multi Coated (S-M-C) Takumar lenses with an aperture coupling prong in the lens mount.
Honeywell was the U.S. importer of the Spotmatic. Cameras officially imported by Honeywell were labeled Honeywell Pentax, instead of Asahi Pentax. The Spotmatic IIa was only available as a Honeywell Pentax; it was sold exclusively in the USA and had an electronic interface for specific Honeywell Strobonar electronic flash units.
The original 1964 Spotmatic was one of the first SLRs on the market to offer a through-the-lens (TTL) exposure metering system. The camera was presented as a prototype at photokina 1960, and was originally designed to use spot metering. Shortly before production Asahi decided that spot metering would be too difficult to use, and so the metering system was altered to use center-weighted average metering. The change took place too close to production to change the name, and so Spotmatic stuck. The camera had a mechanical shutter with speed range from 1000 to 1 and Bulb. The lightmeter is activated by a lever on the side of the camera, which also stopped down the lens. Mercury battery (1.35 V Mallory RM640) was used to power the light metering system; however due to the way the circuit is designed, silver oxide batteries can be used instead.
...
Wikipedia