Pentax ES

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Well-used ES with 105 mm f/2.8 Takumar image by csaveanu (Image rights)

The Pentax ES was announced by Asahi in 1971, as the world's first SLR with 'fully-automatic electronic shutter'. It offers what has since become familiar as aperture priority automatic exposure (shutter priority AE was already possible with other cameras, such as the Canon F-1, at this time). Electronic shutter timing makes aperture-priority AE possible because it allows the shutter speed to be essentially continuously variable, not restricted to stop or half-stop values. The camera also makes an early use of a memory circuit in exposure control.

Asahi's literature emphasises the advantage that, since the mechanisms involved in this mode of AE were in the camera body, not the lens, the camera could be used, in AE, with almost all existing Takumar lenses.

The shutter was manually controllable between 1/60 and 1/1000 second; in AE the shutter speed range is 8 - 1/1000 second. Stopped-down metering can also be used.

Pentax ES, advertised April 1973 image by Nesster (Image rights)

Links

• History of Early Pentax Cameras at Nanites Camera Services