Customer Reviews

Magic Lantern Guides: Pentax Classic Cameras: K Series M Series Lx Series Spotmatic Series

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The book includes a brief history of the company that made the classic, and some say, best cameras to come out of the 1960's. A sincere attempt to provide detailed coverage of the Spotmatic, K, M and finally, LX series of cameras is moderately successful for those who are familiar with these cameras. A good portion of the book is given over to general photography concepts and techniques. This provides a good refresher course and a handy reference. In many instances, tie-ins are made with various Pentax models, and overall, Pentax owners will find this book very useful. Collectors with considerable experience, both in making pictures and with these cameras will, however, be disappointed by the broad strokes used to describe the details of individual models. Many details, important to serious collectors and those making purchasing decisions, are overlooked. For example, the Spotmatic II is described merely as a Spotmatic with a hot shoe. Significant differences exist and are ignored. If you need every book written about the early TTL SLR Pentax cameras, then this book is a "must-have". If you need a book that is useful from a general standpoint and discusses early Pentax cameras too, this book comes with a good recommendation. If however, you want a definitive work about one of the most influential camera manufacturers and their products, you will do well to look elsewhere.

This book has alot to offer. First of all if you don't have your owner's manual for your classic Pentax this one covers the operation of your camera in great detail (btw, you can download the manuals from Pentax's website for free). It also gives you detailed specifications about your camera, it's history and comparison between models, information about new batteries (since the original Mercury ones are not available anymore), and so on.
The book has detailed pictures of each camera and uses the pictures well to illustrate the particular feature the book is discussing. The book also provides information on accessories which were made for these cameras. It is written in very easy-to-understand language (not overly technical) so it is comfortable to someone new to photography, and it even explains a bunch of photography terms in the back of the book. The great thing about this book is that it tells you how to use your camera and take pictures with it as if you were new to using SLR's. For very experienced photographers, this book may have less to offer, but the history and camera specs for so many cameras in one handy book may be especially useful nonetheless.

Back in the days of film cameras it was a great book, but those days are gone.