Hi Len ...
The 3/21 meter was made in 1960. Here's a brief description of it from
the AOHC:
"This early spotmeter was introduced in February 1960 in Japan and gave
birth to the well known family of Pentax Spotmeters, still on sale
today. Also known as the Honeywell Pentax 3�/21� Exposure meter in USA,
it featured a 3� metering area centered in a 21� circular viewing field.
Looking like a dwarfed Hasselblad, the early Pentax Spot Exposure Meter
didn't feature any pentaprism, but had reflex viewing at chest level
with fixed eyepiece and lens accepting the 46mm filters and lens hood,
which were standard at the time in both Pentax and Leica systems.
Keeping the same filter thread of the standard lens was a well thought
solution, allowing the filter to be placed in front of the meter during
light reading and then in front of the taking lens during exposure, thus
avoiding exposure corrections according to the filter factor. For this
reason the Pentax Spot Exposure Meter became popular between
professionals using Leica cameras as well as Pentax professional users."
Since that time there have been several iterations of the venerable
Pentax meter. I believe the 1�/21� meter looked and worked in a similar
fashion. Although I know there was a Pentax Spotmeter II and Spotmeter
III, I know nothing about them. There were a couple of iterations of
the Spotmeter V, the earlier model of which had a brown case, while the
later and current model has a grey case. I've not found any reference
to a Spotmeter IV, but I assume there was one since there was a II, III,
and a V.
Len Paris wrote:
> What I meant by the original Pentax Spotmeter was that, as far
> as I recall, Pentax didn't make them at all before I bought
> mine. In fact, I don't remember anybody making one before
> Pentax, either, but I can't say positively that it was the first
> in the world.
>
> Now, tell me about that 1/21 and 3/21 you guys were talking
> about.
--
Shel Belinkoff
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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