Pentax ME Super review
Last month (really??? it feels like longer
ago) I wrote[1] about my positive experience
with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic that I bought
cheaply on a whim from a Stockholm
fleamarket, and outlined some vague future
plans for ending up with an advanced Canon
SLR and a very primitive Pentax.
Hahaha, plans.
As mentioned I did quite a bit of reading on
the history of Asahi/Pentax and have become
somethong of a fan - a "Pentaxian", as they
say. I've never really had anything against
Pentax, but aside from thinking that the
Spotmatic (along with Minolta's SRT line!)
was one of the prettiest classic SLRs, I've
also never really paid them much attention.
Back in New Zealand, the local Craigslist
equivalent was awash with cheap P30s, which
seemed widely regarded as a solid and
affordible beginner's camera, but I always
thought they were ugly (they are). So, I was
quite surprised to learn that they have more
than few impressive historical feathers in
their hat: Asahi made Japan's very first SLR,
at a time when Canon and Nikon were still
cloning German rangefinders; they made the
world's first SLR with an instant return
mirror; the Spotmatic was not quite the
world's first SLR with through-the-lens
metering, but it was the first which was made
and sold in large numbers; the Pentax ME-F
was the first 35mm SLR with autofocus (not
that I think much of autofocus at all, but I
recognise the engineering achievement). In
short they were a really innovative player in
the golden years, and made some really good
gear - gear which is now considerably cheaper
than stuff from the "bigger" brands.
One achievement of Pentax caught my eye in
particular, but I'll set the scene first.
As mentioned in my Yashica 35-ME review[2],
with my Canon AE-1 I had fallen into the
classic trap of buying a bunch of lenses
(instead of accepting that you're never
going to be able to take every possible photo
you might like to take no matter how many
lenses you have, so instead it's better to
stick to just one or maybe two and get really
good at using them) and then buying a
dedicated bag to lug all my stuff around in
(this bag[3], because I quite enjoyed reading
that website at the time). By the standards
of how far camera geeks can go this was still
a very small and light kit. But it was
enough of a kerfuffle that I eventually
stopped bringing it with me at all whenever I
travelled, even when doing things like
travelling up to Finnish Lapland in winter.
The hassle of taking that bag with me was
definitely contributing to my much decreased
rate of shooting in recent years.
The little Yashica was an attempt to remedy
this by getting a camera that I could
comfortable take everywhere. It didn't end
up being the camera for me, but I remained,
lazily, on the hunt for something smaller and
lighter than my Canon AE-1 with just the one
50mm lens on it, without compromising on
build quality, user experience or control. I
always kind of assumed that this would end up
coming in the form of an old rangefinder; a
Canon Canonet, or a Minolta Hi-Matic or a
Yashica Electro 35, or something along those
lines.
I was aware, of course, of Olympus' famous OM
line of super-compact SLRs from the 70s. But
I didn't think they would necessarily be
small enough, and I was already invested in a
set of Canon FD lenses. Besides, the OM
cameras are weird - shutter speed and
aperture control are both via rings on the
lens, with the top plate knob only
controlling the speed setting for the meter!
What I was not aware of was that a few
years after Olympus debuted the OM cameras,
Pentax, having figured this would definitely
be a bandwagon worth jumping on, released
their own line of compact SLRs, the M series,
which were actually even smaller and lighter
than the OM cameras. To date, these Pentax M
models are the smallest and lightest 35mm
SLRs anybody ever made. Despite this, they
have fully metal bodies and totally classic
aesthetics. They immediately caught my
interest.
As I wrote in my Spotmatic entry, I was
excited that the Spotty would give me a
chance to a try one of the legendary Super
Takumar lenses, with have a definite cult
following. My local camera store which sells
quite a lot of used stuff had a "vintage
weekend" sale a while back with 20% off all
analogue gear, so I went there to get a good
deal on a 55m f/1.8 Super Tak (I finished my
first roll shot with it yesterday and will be
dropping it off at the lab tomorrow.
Exciting!).
As it turned out they had some M series
cameras there, too - an ME with a 50mm f/1.7
lens on it, and an ME Super without a lens.
I took the lens cap off the ME and held it up
to my eye and knew, immediately, that I had
to get one of these cameras. The viewfinder
was bigger, brighter and clearer than
anything else I've ever seen. It was a
genuine revelation. I fired the shutter
once and everything felt and sounded
fantastic.
I gave in to a crazy impulse: I sold them
ME Super body and then bought a lens for it
off eBay. Now I'm an all-Pentax shooter! I
finished my first roll through the ME Super
yesterday as well. It's a really fantastic
camera and superior to my AE-1 in just about
every single way I can imagine.
Without any film but with batteries and a
lens on it, the ME Super clocks in at 600g,
which is about as much as either the
Spotmatic or AE-1 weigh with batteries and no
film or lens. So the whole kit is probably
a good 200g lighter, in the ballpark of a 25%
weight saving. This thing is actually
lighter than all those classic fixed-lens
rangefinders I mentioned earlier. More
importantly, it's also smaller than the AE-1.
If I'm wearing a jacket with large pockets,
I can slip it in without too much effort.
It's also small enough to easily fit in one
of the zippered pouches on my backpack. It's
certainly not in the same league as the
little Yashica, but it's a big step up in
portability, and I think it's portable
enough for me.
Compared to the Canon AE-1, the Pentax ME
Super:
magnification instead of 0.86x.
die, but can still be shot purely
mechanically at 1/125s
1/2000s.
semi-automatic exposure, which is much
more useful (for me) than the Canon's
shutter-priority semi-auto mode.
override mode.
from 2 stops under to 2 stops over,
compared to the Canon's 1.5 stop over
button, which is a bona fide ergonomic
nightmare to use.
Are there no negatives? Well:
incredibly user unfriendly (involving
turning a knob at the same time as pushing
in a tiny button on that same knob) that I
will not use it habitually.
under-built and I don't know how it would
stand up to heavy use over many years. I
do prefer Canon's system of having the
release button be part of the lens rather
than the camera body.
But I'm really struggling to think of
anything else. On the whole I think it would
be very hard to convincingly argue against
the Pentax being the superior camera.
Specs and feature list aside, I can't
emphasise enough how great the ME super feels
and sounds to use. The film advance lever
throw is relatively short, with a firm but
smooth feel that is consistent throughout the
entire travel. It feels better than the AE-1
or the Spotmatic and even though I've never
actually had the need to do so, it almost
as you can. The shutter is quiet and soft
but still gives you the clear impression that
a mechanical operation has happened
completely and correctly. It's just a
sensory joy to use.
The meter readout in the viewfinder is a
series of LEDs arranged vertically up the
left-hand side, with shutter speeds next to
each one. In aperture priority mode, when
you half-press the shutter, the selected
aperture lights up. Brilliantly, the meter
stays active after you take your finger off
the shutter for 25 seconds (or until you fire
the shutter), so you don't need to keep the
release carefully half-pressed with one hand
while adjusting the aperture with the other.
Some people would prefer the aesthetics of a
needle over the LEDs, and I definitely
understand that, but needle meters are hard
to read in low-light. The ME Super very
cleverly uses green LEDs next to shutter
speeds of 1/60s or faster and yellow LEDs
next to 1/30s or slower. So, with a 50mm
lens, you know immediately if your speed is
fast enough for hand-held shooting even if
it's dark or something black is in your
frame behind the numbers.
When shooting in manual mode, shutter speed
is adjusted not with the traditional knob
but by two small push buttons for increasing
or decreasing the speed by one stop. People
online love to hate these buttons. Again,
aesthetically speaking, I totally get this
and I would prefer a traditional knob. They
are the ME Super's biggest aesthetic failing
by far. They look like they belong on one of
the black/grey plastic highly automated SLRs
of the late 80s or 90s. I understand
people's concerns about their reliability,
too. If I was looking for a camera to shoot
in manual mode all the time, I probably
wouldn't enthusiastically recommend this
camera. But for me, that's what my Spotmatic
is for. I will use aperture priority mode
most of the time on this thing, using the
compensation knob to deal with backlit
subjects. Manual mode will only be used "in
emergencies" for very tricky metering
situations. Many people have written that
the buttons are too small to use comfortably,
but I actually find them very usable, and I
have big hands.
So, my new "big picture" plan is that the
ME Super with just a 50mm lens will be my
travel camera, small and light enough to
easily take anywhere with me without needing
a dedicated bag, and easy enough just grab
casually when popping outside if the mood
takes me. With semi-automatic exposure I can
rely on it to take good shots quickly when
something catches my eye. Meanwhile, the
Spotmatic will become my vehicle for slower,
more deliberate photography, in fully manual
mode. Being bigger and heavier I'll limit it
to photography closer to home. If I find
myself getting lens GAS, I'll direct it
toward relatively cheap and interesting m42
lenses for the Spotmatic, so that the ME
Super always remains a simple grab 'n go
system.
Well, hahaha, plans. More on that in a later
entry.
[1] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/asahi-pentax-spotmatic-sp-1000-review.txt
[2] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/photos-yashica-35-ME-review.txt
[3] https://lewiscollard.com/cameras/lowepro-nova-1-camera-bag/
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