Chris Bennett
Well-Known Member
I tried to avoid mentioning earlier in this thread that, in my bid to clear out a number of cameras, I managed to divest myself of one, but somehow acquired three. One of those was a little Sony that has been converted to full spectrum. The second one was the fulfilment of a long held wish.
When the postman came to our front door, I told him that I had been waiting to hear that particular knock since 1987, because that's how long it is since I first decided that I wanted to own a Pentax LX.
My wife has owned a beautiful Pentax MX, which I bought for her in the early 1990s and I am able to use this almost any time I please but I find it too small for me - despite having fairly small hands, I like my cameras to be a bit larger than that.
I managed to get hold of this LX for a very nice price. It was serviced last year and had spent its life as a little used spare body owned by a retired professional photographer.
For those who don't know, the LX is the only professional 35mm slr that Pentax made and it was stuffed full of innovation as well as most of the things that people expect from this level of camera. It has full weather sealing on all of the controls, interchangeable prisms and focussing screens, a body finish that is almost indestructible (black paint over black chrome!), mirror lock-up, a massive and bright viewfinder, brilliant metering system etc, etc.
One thing you find out pretty quickly as the owner of an LX is that, although Pentax made a bewildering range of accessories for the camera, the prices they now fetch are pretty eye watering. One of these was a grip that attached to the accessory studs on the front of the camera, which sold for the price of £14 back in the 1980s. They are just a moulded plastic construction with a steel plate screwed to the rear, which are slotted to accept the studs and there is a screw fastening near the bottom. These are commonly priced between £60 and £100, which is clearly madness, so the grip shown in the photo above is a 3D printed device that was made for me by some enterprising soul in Poland.
The camera is everything I hoped for. The size is perfect for me and it has a reassuring density without being too heavy. It feels utterly intuitive to use and the results I have got from it are great.
Very happy!
When the postman came to our front door, I told him that I had been waiting to hear that particular knock since 1987, because that's how long it is since I first decided that I wanted to own a Pentax LX.
My wife has owned a beautiful Pentax MX, which I bought for her in the early 1990s and I am able to use this almost any time I please but I find it too small for me - despite having fairly small hands, I like my cameras to be a bit larger than that.
I managed to get hold of this LX for a very nice price. It was serviced last year and had spent its life as a little used spare body owned by a retired professional photographer.
For those who don't know, the LX is the only professional 35mm slr that Pentax made and it was stuffed full of innovation as well as most of the things that people expect from this level of camera. It has full weather sealing on all of the controls, interchangeable prisms and focussing screens, a body finish that is almost indestructible (black paint over black chrome!), mirror lock-up, a massive and bright viewfinder, brilliant metering system etc, etc.
One thing you find out pretty quickly as the owner of an LX is that, although Pentax made a bewildering range of accessories for the camera, the prices they now fetch are pretty eye watering. One of these was a grip that attached to the accessory studs on the front of the camera, which sold for the price of £14 back in the 1980s. They are just a moulded plastic construction with a steel plate screwed to the rear, which are slotted to accept the studs and there is a screw fastening near the bottom. These are commonly priced between £60 and £100, which is clearly madness, so the grip shown in the photo above is a 3D printed device that was made for me by some enterprising soul in Poland.
The camera is everything I hoped for. The size is perfect for me and it has a reassuring density without being too heavy. It feels utterly intuitive to use and the results I have got from it are great.
Very happy!
