Pentax Equipment Review

Pentax MX

Excellent manual camera. Has the sort of quality and feel that I wish was still available. Focus screen was a bit dark but not too bad with a fast lens. Depth of field preview an excellent (and unique amongst the M-Series) feature. This camera is miles ahead of the K1000; it's such a shame they didn't keep making it.

Pentax ME-Super

The smallest 35mm SLR available. Sadly lacking depth of field preview but has everything else: Large bright viewfinder, solid construction, clear LED shutter speed display, good shutter speed range to 1/2000s, manual bulb and 1/125s settings, reasonably quiet.

Pentax Z-20

Noisy autofocus but good features including spot metering and the unique and excellent hyper-manual mode. Better than the Z-70.

Pentax MZ-5

The most interesting camera Pentax have made in a long time. Lacks depth of field preview and flash exposure coirpensation, but is small, stylish, and reasonably quiet with good autofocus. I use mine with an old Pentax M-Series 50mm f/l.4 lens - the sort of compatibility that isn't offered by Minolta, Canon or even Nikon.

Pentax-M 28mm f/2.8

Good.

Pentax-M 50mm f/1.4

Good.

Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4

Very nice lens. Get one before the price rises.

Pentax-M 135mm f/3.5

Good.

Pentax-A* 300mm f/4.0

Not as good as I thought it would be. Very compact and well made though.

Tokina 500mm f/8.0 reflex

Excellent for the price. About twice as good as the equivalent Vivitar lens which is possibly the worst value cheap thing I've ever bought.

Warwick Barnes, 17 September 1996, 9:42am

Home

Last updated: 28 Mar 1999