The next camera I got was a hand me down from my grandfather. The Pentax Spotmatic II. Released in 1971, this camera was most famous for its super-multicoated takumar lenses that were fast, inexpensive, well built, and sharp. It is the quintessential vintage manual slr camera. Shooting this was a really nice contrast from my autofocus elan 7, getting to manually set apertures, shutter speeds, and focus distance before pressing the nice spring loaded release and winding forward to the next frame. Unfortunately the light meter was broken as are many of the selenium based vintage meters. To account for this, I use a Reveni Labs light meter in aperture priority mode.
This camera utilizes an m42 mount, allowing for compatibility with a wide variety of lenses. Below, I’ve included an image with each lens I own for this camera.
This lens is the most famous of the m42 mount takumar series, and it came with the camera when I got it. It has a super fast aperture allowing for some great subject separation and more flexibility in low light situations. An interesting fact about this particular lens is that most copies have a distinctive yellow haze to the glass. This is due to the radioactive thoriated glass lens element, sometimes used in high end vintage lenses for its high refractive index and low dispersion properties. As a result, I tend not to sleep with this lens next to my head or other cancer prone organs like I do with my other lenses. In all seriousness, it is absolutely safe to use, but perhaps should be carefully disposed of if the entire lens shatters.
This lens also came with the camera when it was given to me. The Super Albinar SC Auto 28mm f2.8 is known as a very low cost lens with pretty poor optics, in line with the rest of the series. As seen in the picture, there is loads of barrel distortion and fringing. When using this camera, I am never expecting perfection anyways, so the decent build quality and wide angle still make this a great lens that I often use.
This is the first lens I’ve actually purchased for this camera, as I saw it at a local camera store on a shelf for $60. The Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135mm f3.5 was not a very popular lens in the series with its rather slow aperture. Fortunately, it still has great sharpness when stopped down a bit and great colors just like the other 50mm I have. I don’t use telephotos too much as they are pretty limited in use compared to 50mm and 28mm focal lengths. I still try to bring it every once and a while when on hikes just to mix things up.
I really enjoy this camera as it has a great ritual to shooting. It taught me to worry less about how the final picture looks and just enjoy the time shooting the camera itself. There is also something so special about using the same camera that’s been in my family for many years. My father told me stories about how he took this camera to college in order to take a photography class, taking portraits of his fraternity brothers. My grandpa used this camera in trips to Spain and Bolivia, in his work as an architect at IBM. I feel honored to continue cementing this camera as a heirloom in the Pacheco family.