Pentax H1A / S1A
The Honeywell Pentax H1a, aka the Asahi Pentax S1a as it was known outside of the U.S. market, was one of the last Pentax SLRs produced in that family of pre-Spotmatic cameras. Between 1957 when the original Asahi Pentax was released, until the Spotmatic hit the markets in 1964, Pentax released a whole series of SLR cameras that used the M42 screw mount lenses. These cameras showed a steady progression of design refinement with features such as automatic apertures, geometric progression of shutter speeds (1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, etc), higher top speeds of 1/1000 and self-resetting frame counters. It makes these early Pentax cameras very, very similar to one another with only slight differences to set them apart.
For example, the H1a, released in 1962, is more or less identical to the SV but with the addition of a "hidden" 1/1000 shutter speed. The dial on the H1a tops out at 1/500, but there is an unmarked setting one click beyond 1/500 that is 1/1000. Like the SV before it, the H1a added a self-zeroing frame counter, something that is so common on later film cameras as to be hard to imagine it missing. But here it was for one of the first times on a Pentax SLR!
In general, the H1a, like all its contemporaries and its successor Spotmatics, is a solid camera. The biggest difference you will note between an H1a and a later Spotmatic is the lack of a TTL light meter... or any light meter, for that matter. But other than that, this camera is solid as anything built in this era and even over half a century later are often still found in total working order.
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