Win A New (Old) OG K-Mount Camera
Enter our two raffles celebrating the K-Mount 50th Anniversary!
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter June 11, 2025
It’s a K-Mount Birthday Party!
Pentax launched the K-Mount on June 1, 1975, so we’re celebrating the Big Five Oh all month here at Pentax Forums with two raffles! First up: We’re giving away one K2, one KM, and one KX! OK, we can’t do that, since they’re not made anymore. But we can give away enough to buy them used! Or whatever the winners like, really. So here’s the deal: we're running a raffle that runs through June 30th, with a 1st prize of up to $200; a 2nd prize of up to $150; and a 3rd prize of up to $100 toward whatever the winner wants to get. That way, the winners can be in charge of placing their own orders if the desired item exceeds the prize value. Check out the details here!
One contest is great; two are even better! So we’re having a K-Mount 50th Anniversary T-Shirt Design Contest! Submit your design for a commemorative shirt; it must include the anniversary. The contest runs through June 18th; afterwards our members vote for the winners, with the winning designs available soon after that. All winners will receive two free shirts and a Site Supporter forum account upgrade. Click here to enter the K-Mount 50th Anniversary T-shirt contest!
Elsewhere this week, what’s the best Pentax K-Mount camera family? Do you love the OG K2 and K1000? Or does your heart beat digitally with the K-1? Vote in this week’s poll, and tell us why your selection is the best in the comments! Speaking of the three OG cameras that started it all, Site Supporter jersey has a review of the K2; Veteran Member K David puts a Pentax KM through its paces; and Junior Member Barabas has the lowdown on the Pentax KX.
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, please take a moment to join the more than 1,500 Pentaxians who have subscribed to our free curated compendium of the hundreds of great images and post shared each week in our Pentax community. Please let us know your thoughts here in the comments and on our Pentax Forums, and have a perfect Pentaxian week!
Threads of the Week:
Timeline of influential film camera brands (1750-2025)
June 7, 2025 • Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras • 11 replies • 605 views
kindakaa said — Apologies for the frequent posts lately! I’m currently on vacation—my wife and kids are away for a while, so I’ve got some free time on my hands. I’ve conducted a personal research project on the contributions of various companies to the film camera industry. Read more »
June 6, 2025 • Welcomes and Introductions • 6 replies • 239 views
Murdoc1905 said — I got a Pentax MX a few months ago from a pawn shop for $15. It had a non-firing shutter and I figured for that cheap it was worth it just to take one apart and see how it works. After a short search it was a 2 min repair job and now I have a fully functional camera! Read more »
Pentax’s long road: The evolution of Japanese camera brands
June 7, 2025 • Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras • 19 replies • 837 views
kindakaa said — I want to show the results of one of my stupid research projects. Perhaps meaningless, but I think some conclusions can be drawn from it. I have always noticed that in the photo equipment market, the companies that survive are those that have managed to rename themselves fairly quickly in accordance with their most famous brand. Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Cameras
Editor’s Note: In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the K-Mount, here are Pentaxian reviews of the three cameras Pentax introduced 50 years ago on June 1, 1975
Pentax K2
Reviewed by Site Supporter jersey
Review Date: March 21, 2024 Recommended | Price: $100.00 | Rating: 9
Pros: Quite a looker, sturdy, good light meter, automatic mode, great exposure compensation ring, accepts modern batteries
Cons: ISO settings
It is one of better 35mm film cameras I ever hold in my hand. There were some more modern ones, more valuable ones etc. but this one has something special and comparing to LX which replaced it K2 is really, really underappreciated.
It is solid, old school solid. Metal brick you could use to kill someone and then document the deed. Operation is great and intuitive (other then ISO). If you are using automatic time settings then exposure compensation is great to use and really intuitive. You can just set it without moving your hand away from the lens. I find it lots better then standard one, even if you forget the setting, it is move it fully downward (for -) or upward (for +) and then you are at -1, one click for half less/more, another one and you are on zero. No need to look at it, check, it is just so nice.
Viewfinder is great, I like exposure needle, it is nice and easy to read. Though LED from other cameras are better in dark I suppose. Exposure is great, always spot-on, never had any complaints. It also accepts modern batteries so step upward from Spotmatics. There is mirror lockup and DOF preview, so nothing to complain on this front either. Shutter sound is great, old school, even if bit loud. But I like it, it has this nice mechanical clank, not the soft dampened one from more modern cameras.
I think only con I have with this is ISO ring. It is easy to unstick with some good lube so no complains there but I often forget to change it when I switch film. Classic position at film rewind or shutter settings was somehow not creating this issue.
I highly recommend anyone this piece of gear. With Pentax-M lens is great, cool looking, great operating film camera. And for tiny slice of LX price.
I am proud owner, I must say:
Pentax KM
Reviewed by Veteran Member K David
Review Date: September 11, 2013 Not Recommended | Price: $40.00 | Rating: 8
Pros: Simple to Use, Easy to Learn, User-friendly
Cons: A bit of an odd child in the lineup
This camera is basically a K1000 with a DoF preview and self-timer. Honestly, there's no reason to get this instead of a K1000 and an add-on self timer. Those old clockwork self-timers that screw into the shutter release button are pretty awesome anyway.
I like my KM. I leaned "no" for my recommendation to suggest it, but would have answered "maybe" if that were an option. If this and the K1000 were the same price, I dunno, get either one. They're the same camera anyway.
I just don't really feel like the KM has a reason to exist in the K lineup. The K2 and KX I get, totally, and the K1000 as well. But adding the fourth is kind of like having three thoroughbreds and, for fun, then getting a musk ox. It's a fine camera with nothing whatsoever wrong. And I love the DoF preview, but I always find myself asking "what's the big whoop?" when I use it. I like my K1000 more, and the KX, too. The KM does double duty with the K1000 but not enough to be a viable in-between for the K1000 and KX.
Pentax KX
Reviewed by Junior Member Barabas
Review Date: April 4, 2014 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 10
Pros: solid, black & beautiful, mechanical shutter Cons:
Got the camera together with K105mm 2.8 lens, they were bought by my mum on a second hand street market for under 10 euro... it is my first Pentax and I consider myself to be very lucky, since it indeed (see all the other reviews) is an excellent camera. I used some Nikkormats in the past (20 years ago) and the KX reminds me of them; very solid build quality.
I very much like the fact that it works without batteries, and that the batteries it uses are silveroxide types and not mercury types. No fuzz with adapters. The focussing screen (in my case) has a split-screen focus aid, which I also like. Switching on the lightmeter by pulling the advance lever a bit is marvelous! I never forget to turn it off that way. With my Olympus OM2n it happened more than once that I forgot to turn the switch to off, resulting in an empty battery after some time (often exactly at the moment you want to make photos again...). Might have to change the light seals after a while but the camera is completely reliable and going strong!
Comment of the Week:
Loyal Site Supporter mlag on Which Pentax K lens family was the absolute best? Best of Pentax Forums June 4 Poll: I voted for the DA XS....because apparently I seem to prefer more compact lenses, my collection of lenses seems to consist of mainly M, DA & Limited lenses. And yes, also DA XS. When looking at it:
- I use DA 15, 21and 40 XS for my compact kit (one lens pocket K-3II kit) and the retractable(!) 18-55 zoom.
- several M lenses, to go with my ME super, the very compact film camera. Indeed a compact lens series for a compact camera...
Including the M green star 300mm lens (and successor A*) which i am using with a AFA 1,7x as compact 510mm tele.
- I do have some hefty 500mm lenses for wildlife , but as compensation also a series of mirror lenses (300...900mm), including the pentax 400-600mm zoom mirror and a 300mm spotting scope.
- I have also quite some Limited lenses, including FA’s, but hey, these Ltd’s have also the reputation of being compact (especially when compared to the latest modern * lenses).
Small is beautiful.
The Best of Pentax Forums June 11 Poll
What’s the greatest Pentax K-Mount camera series? Are you a fan of the OG K-Mounts, like the K2, the KX, and the SLR that launched a million photographers, the K1000? Do you prefer the M Series, such as the MX? The *ist film series? The *ist digital series? Or the K Digital Series with the K-1 and K-3 III Monochrome? Vote in this week’s poll, and then tell us in the comments why you do that voodoo you do so well!
This poll closes June 17.
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Point and Shoot Competition #207 - Windows This is meant to be broadly interpreted. Is a window visible, or the effects of one? Are you looking through a window? The window does not even need to be the main thing, but it should be integral to the image in some way. You can be straightforward or imaginative in the interpretation. Have fun with this! Cameras permitted:
Mobile phones, tablets, any camera with a sensor smaller than or equal to 1".
Pentax Q, Nikon 1, Ricoh GR. Any 110 film cameras (e.g. Pentax Auto 110) or point and shoot cameras that use 35mm film (e.g. Pentax PC35AF and Pentax 17).
Cameras you can take with you in a coat pocket. ANY CAMERA BRAND ALLOWED. Entries will close at the end of June 30, 2025 at Midnight your time.
And here is Site Supporter kwb’s entry: A selfie using Q7 with Q 02 standard zoom at 8.7mm f/5.6, ISO100 and 1/100 sec.
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Here’s the oldest K-Mount camera In Depth Review on Pentax Forums: the August 27, 2011 Pentax K-5 Review: The PentaxForums.com staff is happy to be bringing out our first full-scale camera review! In this review, we'll cover just about all aspects of the new Pentax K-5 DSLR. Enjoy! On September 20th, Pentax officially announced the release of the K-5, confirming the many rumors claiming that it would feature a new 16.3 megapixel sensor, increased framerate, expanded ISO range (80-51200), and full-HD video recording capabilities. The camera started shipping in late October, and by the end of the month, we had acquired the body, as had dozens of our forum members. We quickly proceeded to evaluate it and conduct our tests, and to our great surprise and the surprise of many others, we found that the K-5 is much more than it seems on paper. The K-5 may well be the best DSLR that Pentax has delivered to date. Read on to find out why!
PentaxForum Front page stories June 4-10:
Join the Raffle to Celebrate 50 Years of Pentax K-Mount!
Participate on the forum to enter our month-long giveaway
By PF Staff in Giveaways and Events on Jun 7, 2025
June 1 was the 50th Anniversary of the Pentax K-Mount, and we’re celebrating all month long! 🎉To commemorate five decades of K-Mount magic, Pentax Forums will a special raffle from Monday, June 9th through the end of the month! Three lucky winners will receive:
"K2" Grand Prize: Up to $200 (or local currency equivalent)
"KX" Prize: Up to $150
"KM" Prize: Up to $100
We've chosen these amounts to roughly correspond to the cost of a Pentax K2, KX, or KM: the first three K-mount camera bodies launched 50 years ago. However, each winner can use their prize money to purchase camera gear wherever they like, giving them full control over their rewards! (subject to the availability of gift cards at the chosen retailer)