Personal Blogs

Or perhaps better, the first camera I bought myself in 1981 from a huge photo warehouse on the edge of London. The Pentax MX was a classic manual camera (with TTL metering) and precious little else. Solidly built, it could be dragged out in all sorts of weather. The control seems so limited now, but the light meter was pretty accurate and quick to check. The lights in the clear viewfinder allowed easy viewing, so it was just a matter of experience to nudge the exposure over or under as required to compensate for the local conditions: the cost of film restricted the number of shots and even though I rolled my own from 100m lengths of Ilford FP4 or HP5, I still didn't want to waste any shots. This was my second camera (once I had bought a 'pro' LX) for 20+ years. I miss the simplicity. Now I struggle to remember where the million features are hidden (though I'm still, for the present, using a Pentax); even worse when I switch from one camera to another and everything changes a bit.