On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 18:35:03 -0500 (EST), Gregory L. Hansen wrote: >I finally gave in to the legend of the screw mount, I bought a Spotmatic >II on eBay, BIN for $95. I don't know how close to a good deal that was, >but it was the lowest BIN I remembered seeing and wasn't too far away from >the $70 figure I saw in another auction. I figured the certainty in >avoiding a bidding war and the instant gratification were worth it. > >Funny thing is that except for the whole screw mount versus K mount thing, >the Spotmatic II seems like a better camera than the K1000, at least it >has more features. The red dot and the film speed indicator that turns >red are clever, it has a timer, an extra sync port. Flipping up the meter >switch is a little annoying, but that's also a depth of field preview >which the K1000 lacks. The lens doesn't quite center when I screw it on, >so the marking are cocked a little to the side. That's sort of weird. > >But what I don't understand, even after reading the manual, is the FP and >X sync ports. Both of them fire, along with the hot shoe, wherever the >flash dial is set. That suits me fine, but I don't understand what the >dial is for.
Welcome to the world of SPII owners. I have one that I am the original owner of. Bought it way back, just before the SPIIa was introduced which was a shame since I had the Honeywell Strobonar flash that the IIa was designed to work with. The dial is to select the flash synch for the hot shoe. There were at one time two kinds of flash bulbs, with different properties. the FP setting was for the type of bulb that took a little longer to get lit, and would trigger the flash in anticipation of the bulb firing at the same time the shutter was fully open. The X synch fires when the leading shutter curtain is fully open since it is theoretically instantaneous and is coincident with the fully open shutter at 1/60th and slower. Enjoy the SPII, I still do. Funny, after the Spotmatic, I didn't find another Pentax that felt right in my hands until the PZ-1p. jm
