Today was another uneventful day. First breakfast, then lunch, then dinner, then Netflix and now I am off to bed. For dinner, I grilled the red snapper filets that I ordered from Whole Foods last Friday. Bhavna quickly made mango salsa, and I made a petit punch. I did a terrible job with the composition of the dish. I deleted all the images.
Sometime in the early months of 2019, I acquired a Pentax Spotmatic II for purely emotional reasons. My father had recently passed away, and I had his non-functional Pentax Spotmatic II, which he had given to me many years prior. Having my dad's camera brought back a lot of fond memories of afternoons at the beach or road trips to the countryside. My dad documented the adventures on his Spotmatic II.
On 5 May 2020, I purchased an Asahi Optical Co. Pentax ES II on eBay due only to the frustration of using the metering system on the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic II. With my digital interchangeable lens camera (ILC) I shoot mostly in aperture priority mode and/or shutter priority mode, trusting the camera to choose an optimal ISO. Finding a working “not-for-parts” ES II was challenging. I wanted it in silver, but after a few frustrating weeks of looking, I settled on this black covered tank. The ES II came with a Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 MC Telephoto lens which I immediately swapped out for my Asahi Optical Co. SMC Takumar 55mm f/2
But before I succumbed and bought the Pentax ES II, I had already acquired a few legacy M42 lenses.
- Asahi Optical Co. SMC Takumar 55mm f/2
- Asahi Optical Co. Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 28mm f/3.5
- Soligor Wide-Auto 35mm f/2.8 M42
The highlight of the day was that I loaded a roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 film into my newly acquired Asahi Optical Co. Pentax ES II 35mm film camera. This 35mm film camera has through-the-lens aperture-priority auto exposure, a considerable improvement over the metering system in my Asahi Optical Co. Pentax Spotmatic II.
Submitted as part of the 100DaysToOffload project.
I had the ES, one of the most handsome cameras I've yet owned...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/danjamesphotography/17212486216/
I love the purple carpet treatment. I guess I'll need to upload a proper "hair and makeup" portrait of my Pentax ES II at some point. ?
Khürt, because I used to buy quite a few lenses and cameras, and didn't want a huge collection, I sold most of them again. I came up with a quick way of displaying and photographing the gear in a way that was more appealing than the average eBay seller, and it usually involved that purple cover (an old duvet cover!) draped over a couple of books. I quite like looking at pictures of cameras, just not when they’re surrounding by daily clutter, I think if a camera is handsome enough it deserves a bit of a stage to be presented on at its best!
Hi Dan, I agree. I try to remove as much visual clutter when photographing my things. A few days after I saw your Flickr I tried photographing the ES II with a white cloth. It does not have the royal treatment as yours did.
Ah, still looks good though! Love the brassing on the corners.