Those that know Meghan and I know that we have what appears to be an on going camera acquisition problem. To remedy this but continue to try out ALL of the cameras we have decided to start borrowing cameras from our fellow camera enthusiasts instead of trying to purchase or hoard them all to ourselves. Not all are winners though and some are just easier or more fun to use but you have to shoot with them first to find out! Thus, we decided if we run a roll through every camera we are interested in, not unlike going on a 5 minute date with a bunch of strangers at a singles night, we can quickly see which are worthy of being added to our collection (or put on our list of “must haves.”) Camera speed dating!
Here is most recent camera I had the pleasure of a quick date with…. the Pentax K2 DMD 35mm SLR.
A few facts about the Pentax K2 DMD, released in 1976 it is a K2 with slight improvements added for the professional market. In my opinion pointless features now a days; motor drive capabilities and a data back option. It has a high shutter speed of 1/1000 and ISO setting of 6400. I feel like that is way higher than other cameras of that era.
I love this camera. Mostly I just like looking at it. I got lucky, mine is extremely glossy and black. However, to say what I enjoy mechanically about the camera I’d have to say I liked its light meter, it has the shutter speeds listed up the right hand side of the viewfinder with a indicator needle. I find this method much easier and more informative than the light meter in the K1000. The only thing I found tricky to change was the ISO dial, but once I clued in fully on how it worked it became easy. Well it was still a little stiff compared to the ones we had up for sale in the store, but I used a pencil-eraser end to move it and it was much easier than hurting my fingers. The K2 DMD does not rely on a battery for anything but the light meter which is very handy considering the age of these cameras — the more mechanical the easier to fix them.