We could spend the rest of this week debating about the most beautiful camera ever made.  But for today we are going to pretend that we all agree it is the Pentax Spotmatic.  It is so easy to look past this camera because it is so familiar to many of us.  But the Spotmatic has an understated elegance to its design.  The body is full of clean and simple lines.  There is barely anything to clutter its face or top plate up.  And when you get the uncommon black version in, the camera is even more pleasing to hold, and behold.  This one recently came through our inventory and it got us, if just for a few minutes, with its beauty.  Enough so that we wanted to share it with you as well.

Evaluating equipment is a large task for our sales staff here at Blue Moon Camera.  The internet is full of information, sometimes too much information, and sifting through it all can be quite the chore.⁠

⁠Lucky for us, we have a small collection of camera literature to guide us through different models, variances between models, and production years. ⁠

⁠These books came in handy when we want to refresh ourselves on the difference between the Pentax Spotmatic, the Spotmatic SP II, the Spotmatic SP IIa, or the Spotmatic SPF.

We do our homework.⁠

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We have three gifts for you today.⁠

⁠Let's start with the most obvious, the weird contraption on the front of this Spotmatic.  This is one of the old school Asahi Pentax Stereo Adapters, an incredibly cool device that affixes to the front of your lens and splits the image vertically into two offset stereo images.  One convenient aspect to this adapter is that it remains within the standard 24x36mm negative, allowing printing or scanning to occur like normal.  Historically, you would shoot slide film and then pair it up with the matched stereo viewer, but these days there are a variety of options for converting your exposures into 3D images including various stereoscopes, phone apps, and the like.  This adapter is meant to be paired with the legendary Super-Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens, but we imagine it'd work just fine on various other optics as well.⁠

⁠And what about that 55mm f/1.8?  This lens has earned quite a reputation.  It is commonly sought after by those looking to adapt m42 lenses to their modern film and digital cameras because it is a near perfect combination of quality vs price.  You could almost say it is a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-all-trades kind of lens. 

Last but not least is this Spotmatic SP, re-coated in dark gray by our camera repair tech, Mike Knight.  The Spotmatic SP is part of a legendary family of cameras.  Its chassis remained the keystone for Pentax cameras for decades, it commands an arsenal of m42 lenses that numbers over 1,600, and it also helped usher in integrated TTL metering, at a time when Nikon was using their Photomic meter prisms that were nearly as large as the camera they went on.  The Spotmatic is simplicity perfected and utterly reliable - the kind of camera you'd trust with your life.⁠

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If you are poised to purchase a new camera and were stuck deciding between a Pentax K1000 and this Pentax Spotmatic SP, you would have a hard decision to make, indeed.  The Pentax K1000 has a well-earned reputation, the foundation of which was originally set by Pentax's Spotmatic cameras. 

The Spotmatic is simple and light, easy to use, and incredibly reliable as an all-mechanical camera.  Unlike Pentax's later cameras, the Spotmatic SP was a member of the M42 thread mount family.  This was a universal thread mount used the world over, but made most popular by these Pentax cameras, so much so that many now call it the Pentax thread mount. ⠀ ⠀

We like these cameras a lot. They are neither too complex nor unwieldy, and they are perfect examples of cameras to grow with.  There is a huge variety of inexpensive lenses to choose from and, given the fact that they have already been around for 50 years, you can bet that they will last many years longer.⠀

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If you are a Pentax M42 user you should know about the Auto-Takumar 35mm f2.3. It is what many call a "character" lens. While having only above-average sharpness, the 35mm f2.3 does produce very distinctive bokeh that is described as swirly, bubbly, and unique.

In fact, in our research of this lens we discovered that a somewhat common technique is to remove the front optic and reverse it, further exaggerating the look of the bokeh. We haven't given that trick a try but have to admit we are intrigued by the idea.⠀

The Auto-Takumar 35mm f2.3 was in production from 1958 until 1962 and at the time was the fastest prime 35mm focal length in the world. It was an advancement over earlier manual aperture lenses that required the photographer to stop down the aperture prior to exposure. The Auto-Takumar did that for you but did require the aperture to be manually reopened after each exposure. ⠀ ⠀

Then again, if you are keeping this lens wide open to really take advantage of the bokeh, you won't even notice this feature.⠀ ⠀ 

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 Famous for having little distortion despite its wide angle focal length, the Carl Zeiss Jena 20mm f/4 Flektogon also has the signature character of Zeiss Jena optics. Anytime you have a chance to get your hands on a Carl Zeiss Jena lens, we recommend you at least try it out.  They generally have distinct looks to them, especially when used wide open. 

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