Pentax K1000

My analog Project 2011 comes to a close in December with my Pentax K1000. The K1000 was the workhorse for school and universities students world wide due to it's high quality, rock solid performance, reliability, and most importantly it's basic features. The Pentax K1000 offered the very basics of camera operation - manually set your ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focus.....and shoot. Outside of the TTL metering there was nothing automatic about this camera which meant that there was nothing to distract the user from learning the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, focal distance, and composition. The Pentax K1000 was my first "real" camera and will always remain in my heart, and collection forever. I remember one of my favorite things about the K1000 was it's big beautiful viewfinder. It's crisp. clean, clear, and bright - offering an unobstructed view of whatever you were shooting....my feelings about that still hold true today after decades of being apart. I shot only a single roll of 400 speed color for the project due to time constraints, I don't even remember which brand I used but it didn't matter because I was just glad to have a K1000 again. I now have several rolls of Kodak Portra 400 Professional waiting to be used in my K1000....happy shooting and good times will ensue. The Quantaray 28mm f/2.8 I spoke of in the video seems to be a tight fit but once mounted worked great and may end up being the most used lens on my K1000. I don't plan on buying anymore lenses for this camera so whatever I have will have to do......and I'm ok with that. Some of the photos pictured within this post were taken by me back in the 70's with my original Pentax K1000. Back then I only shot B&W Ilford (sometimes Kodak) film including self processing and printing of my own photos.

I want to thank everyone for visiting my blog to view this year long photo project, and welcome you all back next year for more. If you have time please check out a short video slide show on my flickr photostream featuring images from my Pentax K1000 or jump over to my YouTube Ch. to learn a bit more about my K1000.

Thanks again and I hope you all tune in next year.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Dred242
• BokehImage
• Pentax
• PentaxK1000
• VintageCamera
• SLR
• 35mmCamera
• Single-lens Reflex Camera

[AdrianM54]

My dad had this camera in the 90s and now i wanted 2 use it to take a couple of nice pictures with film but stupid me didn't know that you weren't sopose 2 touch the shutter curtain and i did and now wen i cock the camera the shutter doesn't work and the left curtain is not stock but it won't go back 2 normal....do u have any idea how i could fix this myself ?

[Dred242]

@AdrianM54 Wow....you're in a very unfortunate situation. Shutter curtains are very delicate and tricky to reposition once knocked out of place. I've never had to adjust or attempt to repair a shutter curtain, so my best advice is for you to seek the services of a camera repair shop. In my opinion the cost of repair ($50-$60) plus shipping might be greater than the cost of a used fully functional Pentax K1000 (body ONLY) from eBay. I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you.

[dogblessamerica]

I enjoyed your story about how you got your first K1000. I wonder how many photographers started off with one of these?

It was nice to hear you use a modern Pentax too, so do I!

[Dred242]

@dogblessamerica Pentax was my first and only true love when it comes to cameras. I remember when I was shopping for my first DSLR - I had the pick of the litter. I tested every brand available but I kept going back to Pentax....I guess I always will.

[edtural7]

do you know were online i can get the camera and a flash ?:)??

[Dred242]

@edtural7 Give eBay a try, and don't spend too much. If your goal is to use the camera (I mean really use it) then stay away from the cameras selling as mint or near mint condition.....they're extremely overpriced for what you're getting.

[Doud92]

Nice camera mate, made me want to have one!

[afrocubanita1969]

Nice vid man...!

[ganzonomy]

@AdrianM54 Agree with Dred. UNLESS it's an early Japanese-made K1000. if you touch the curtain, you can throw it out. Even worse is when people stick their finger through the curtain and *POW* the curtain wrinkles on the finger, that's a jammed shutter, at MINIMUM. Perhaps you should stick to digital point and shoots, you won't have the temptation to be such a pikey since it requires tools to get to the shutter.

[Dred242]

@trickster7474 Thank you very much!

[Dred242]

Give eBay a try, it's your best bet!