Pentax ME Super

Pentax ME Super

For the tech specs, I'll refer you to Ken Rockwell's site, which is where I do the majority of my online research before I spring for a new camera. But this is just a quick walk through my first two weeks with the ME Super.

There's a lot to love about this camera, which is great because it's quite easy to get hold of and if you stick to auctions can be had for a steal on eBay. I wound up bidding on two untested ones, and landing them both for around £20 each. One was a dud (shutter issues) and the other was in perfect working order.

Most of these cameras will come with a 50mm prime lens, 1.8 or 1.7. Although a decent enough piece of glass, I was pretty disappointed with how the kit lens performed indoors in what I considered to be good enough light and on ASA 400 film.

I wound up trading in the 50mm primes from both the ME Supers at a local camera store and paying £50 on top to bag a Pentax 1.4mm prime, and the difference was HUGE. I can now shoot outside in poor light, and in every dimly room in my house with usable shutter speeds. If you can afford to, pull the trigger and grab this lens. It turns a good camera into a great one without breaking the bank.

The main reasons I went for the ME Super are its size and its 'auto' mode, which is actually AV or aperture priority mode, my preferred shooting mode. The light meter is great on these cameras, and through the viewfinder you get a really useful green/amber/red LED indicator and a shutter speed scale showing you what settings the camera is choosing for you in real time.

It's a small, very light camera (although the 1.4 lens will add some bulk) that looks and feels amazing. I picked up a leather Pentax branded fitted case for £3 from a bargain bin in a used camera shop, which can also be found on eBay.

It has a handy lock mode to ensure it doesn't fire in your backpack, and a really gorgeous viewfinder (one of the biggest of any consumer camera ever made, apparently). I've been shooting Ilford 400 B&W with great results.

You can pick up replacement batteries cheaply on the high street easily enough (Boots if you're in the UK), and although the camera does require juice to shoot in most of its modes, there's an emergency mode that you can switch to and shoot at 1/125 without needing a battery.

It's taking me a while to get used to manual focus, but thats not an issue unique to the ME Super of course. I find myself missing photo opportunities of moving subjects because I'm fine tuning the focus ring, but I'll get better over time I'm sure.

It's a great looking camera that gets a lot of attention when I take it out, a real classic design and the shutter release gives a super satisfying click. On the front of the camera you'll find a self-timer leaver (which looks a little tacky, but works well enough). It's nothing like those flimsy, plasticy obscure brand SLRs I've come across in a lot of antique/thrift stores while shopping for an SLR; it feels like it was engineered to last.

It has aperture priority mode (camera chooses the shutter speed while you can get creative with aperture), full manual (but with the help of the light meter) and the dead-battery 1/125 mode.

If you're after a very affordable, well built, aperture priority (or manual) SLR I'd certainly recommend the ME Super, which is cheaper and easier to use than a lot of the other Pentax SLRs people rave about.