Pentax Pair – Two ME Supers – Do they still work?

One camera was mine, bought new around 1985/6 and with a near final serial number according to the net. It was used by my wife for some years then she said the back was coming open exposing part-taken film inside. So one day wandering around London I saw another ME Super for sale and very cheap (this was the days when people were dumping film cameras), condition was good so I bought it for her. But after a while interests changed so, like Puff the Magic Dragon, the cameras sat in a cabinet unused for years.

The featured image shows “my camera” with the 50mm f1.7 lens (used for all shots), and the “2nd camera”.

I have a soft spot for the ME Super; it’s the camera I used on many holiday trips with my family, also taking photos of the children, dog and garden, so I feel it deserves using occasionally. Time to check it still works! I loaded my camera first with some outdated SFX – my least favourite film (why waste good film if the cameras don’t work?) – shooting half the roll plus a few blanks before rewinding and loading into the second camera body. After exposure the film was developed in the dregs of 7 year old Rodinal at 50:1 for 10 minutes. It was a dull day so images are generally low contrast (corrected in post, within reason) but the aim was simply to check functionality and meter accuracy of the cameras.

From the start I noticed the meter on my camera was behaving oddly – whenever sky was in the image the meter wanted to underexpose by several stops; for scenes without sky the meter was close to my sunny 16 estimate. Later with the second camera (using the same new battery) I noticed the same behaviour but then metering settled down to more sensible behaviour. Suspicion turned to the battery – checking the voltage it was a little low (2.8v – unused but old battery) but not enough to cause a problem I thought. Ideas anyone?

I encountered a problem with the second camera after loading the film, winding on and firing several shots (lens cap on!) the film then continued to wind on but the shutter stopped firing. This was an easy fix: if the film sprocket holes comes off the sprockets then the film will wind but the shutter doesn’t cock. Reloading the film fixed the problem.

Looking at the (uninteresting – sorry images weren’t really the point) negatives there was a problem on two frames from my camera where there was some double exposure affecting those two consecutive frames but no others. The mystery image extended into the space between one intended frame and the next. I find this hard to explain – the best I can come up with is the lens cap partly came off when I was winding on after loading the second body and then miraculously reattached itself before I reached the end of the first camera’s images.

Conclusions: probably both OK but use a fresh new (not old) battery and keep a check on the camera’s exposure for the first film. Plus take care loading film to make sure sprocket and holes are fully engaged before closing the back.

Incidentally the viewfinder gives excellent coverage (95%) but it is hard to see wearing spectacles unless you consciously look around the frame.

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