Pentax SP1000

Hello, friends!

This week's dusty friend is the Pentax SP1000. This one was given to me by my fiancé's father, although I think it was primarily his mother's. There's a cute and mysterious sticker on the bottom of some orange and purple shapes.

The SP1000 was produced between '73 and '76 and was a cheaper version of the Spotmatic. It has manual exposure control, with a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 sec (hence the name... the earlier SP500 had a max of 1/500). The centerweighted meter has a switch, which is resourceful unless you forget to switch it off. The batteries for this baby were Mercury based so no more of those... although of course there are always ways around that. And, of course, it has the old school M42 mount.

There isn't much that sets this camera apart from other SLRs. The Spotmatic was the solid go-to Pentax model before the K1000 was released, but this budget version doesn't have a self-timer. It would be a great student camera, except that the batteries are hard to get, and K-mount lenses are a lot easier to find as well. I guess this is one camera that will just be lost in time...

That being said... It's not a bad camera! When this was given to me there was an ancient roll of film in it, so here are a couple of shots featuring the love of my life.

xoxoxo
-C