Pentax K1000

Picture by the other Martin Taylor. (Image rights)

Overview

The K1000 was introduced in 1976 as an affordable camera for the amateur photographer. It was a totally mechanical camera designed without any program modes. It survived much longer than originally intended and became the archetypal "students' camera." The K1000 was equipped with all accoutrements required for manual photography: a TTL metering system, wide-ranging shutter speeds from 1s to 1/1000th, and the ability to use all the available K-mount lenses made by Pentax and licensees such as Ricoh and Cosina.

Despite its great popularity and longevity of the same basic design, Pentax finally ceased production of the K1000 after more than 20 years in 1997.

Omissions

The K1000 lacked any program modes — it provided neither aperture nor shutter priority modes. There is no depth of field preview button, self timer, or mirror lock up.

Links

• Photoethography review of the K1000
• Matt Denton's K1000
• Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page
• Manual available for download from the Pentax site
• Manual Cameras: K1000
• The Other Martin Taylor: In praise of the humble K1000
• Wikipedia K1000 entry
• K1000, K 1000 Post, K 100 SE on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand
• Camerarepair.com K1000 Page