Pentax ME-F
Firstly yes this is expired film once again and it shows but that’s not what this post is about I wanted to try out the Pentax ME-F a camera that has a special place in camera history because of what the F stands for, Focus. Inside the ME-F is a ‘focus assist’ module that provides a viewfinder confirmation when focus is achieved as well as an optional audible beep. The single central focus point actually works just fine but it could only truly autofocus when used with the motor driven battery carrying Pentax AF35-70 lens one which I do not have.
The Pentax ME-F was the first SLR to provide autofocus although it was very limited due mainly to there only being the one autofocus lens for it. However with manual focus lenses it provides focus confirmation with arrow indicators to assist with which way to turn the lens to get to that point of focus.
By todays standards its terribly lacking but as a first foray into autofocus it set a milestone but the market was not willing to pay for it at that price as seen by this advertisement only two years later.
“At $500 it was overpriced – at $179.95 its incredible!”
It worked I can give it that but it seems to be a battery hog. It requires four S76 or equivalent batteries and I only made it through one roll of film with mine.
When you turn the metering on you need to set it to one of two settings depending on the ‘speed’ of the lens your using. For lenses of f2.8 or faster you use one setting and for slower lenses there is another. It’s hard to imagine a limitation like that on a camera today but that was just how it was.
This camera is interesting of course because of it’s early autofocus system but the plain ME or a Super Program are much better choices today primarily because of the battery requirements.
