In depth history and review of the iconic Pentax K1000, one of the longest running and best selling cameras of all time.
In 2010, two years before the peak of Digital camera sales, the TIME magazine All-TIME 100 Gadgets list had 11 cameras in the list. This can be seen as a wrap-up for the Camera history at that critical time. The nominations were the 100 greatest and most influential gadgets from 1923 to 2010.
Only two of them were Film SLR cameras. Nikon F and Pentax K1000. We saw in this video what a breakthrough Nikon F was. But out of the thousands of innovative models from 1920’s to 2010, Pentax K1000 is the one that makes it to the TIME Magazine list along with Nikon F.
For a lot of people who grew up in the film camera era, and still with us today, Pentax K1000 was their first “real” camera.
The Pentax K1000 by Asahi Optical Company of Japan was introduced in 1976 and continued the longest unbroken production run for this style of camera over 22 years until 1997. That’s the same length as Pentax LX and one year more than Nikon F3.
K1000 sold over 3 million units which would make it one of the best-selling cameras of all time. Therefore, it is historically important to our technology heritage.
K1000 did not achieve those results with long feature lists or bleeding edge technologies but by solid build, mechanical reliability and Simplicity. It doesn’t dumb down the process of photography like point and shoot cameras or today’s phone cameras. It delivers all the basics of the art and science of photography in a clean, uncluttered and useable way, which is excellent for learning.
It gives full control to the user. Its manual operation is not fake or an add-on feature like some cameras that came later in 1970’s or 80’s. One can actually grow with this camera and not necessarily see it as a passing phase towards something serious. This camera is serious enough for the vast majority of the users.
K1000, is part of the K series cameras which were based on the first Pentax Bayonet mount called the K mount.
The Asahi Pentax K1000 is an all metal, all mechanical, all manual camera. It has a battery only for the light meter. As we all know by now, those are the desirable vintage film cameras which outlast their owners by one or two generations.
Some later K1000 SE models made outside Japan in Hong Kong and Mainland China removed the name Asahi. These replaced the top and bottom plates with plastic, finished to look like metal. A similar technique used in Canon AE-1, which we also reviewed on this channel. The most sought-after ones are the original Asahi Pentax K1000 made in Japan.
As millions were made, there are thousands available for purchase today in mint condition and you should not hesitate to buy one today with a compatible K mount lens.
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4 окт 2024
