Hi, I ask the help of fellow screwy lovers (ehm), am in need of some screwy body... <VBEG>
I am interested in finding an M42 body for some of my screwmount CZJ lenses**1), which I love to use but don't because I dislike fiddling with adapters from K to 42. What I *need* is bright, high-magnification viewfinder with *bright* focusing screen! At *least* as bright as my Pentax K2DMD, preferably BETTER!**2) What is the best M42 camera based on that criterion? I will ask about other criteria later on. (considering either Spotmatic, Asahi SV, another pre-spotmatic body, or a 3rd party M42 body like from Cosina or Vivitar) Basic needs for the body: purely mechanical, no batteries (except meter if applicable), meter _not needed_, standard M42 autoaperture plate, DOF preview, rapid-return mirror, 1/1000 speed or higher is minimum, reliability, if ttl meter than it _needs_ to be able to meter easily with all M42 lenses **3). MLU would be a nice boon, either switchable or via selftimer. Quitness is a plus of course, it should be less noisy than a K2DMD _at minimum_. Ability to accept motordrive would be a nice boon too. **1: (the lenses are 1.8/80 and 2.8/20, Carl Zeiss Jena MC both, just in case there is some incompatibility with a body, although I doubt it - after all CZ/Pentacon invented the M42 mount in the first place, although it gets "credited" as 'Pentax screwmount' nowadays- Phew!) **2: (compared to e.g. N. FM2n, the K2DMD's screen is almost full one stop dimmer, as tested with FM2N + 1.8/50 vs. K2 + 1.4/50, the FM2n was slightly better, even with almost 1 full stop dimmer lens), but still the K2 is way better than M42 Prakticas wrt screen. And the FM2n has almost about same magnification as the K2DMD finder, not like the AF cameras sporting low-low magnification but bright finders, which still are impossible to focus through manually **3: that means the Praktica MTLx series or normal Spotmatic mode - there is a switch separate from shutter release which 1st: stop down the lens to selected aperture 2nd: activates the meter. NOT like on the Zenit, where the switch is built-in into shutter release - that makes releasing the shutter cumbersome and slow, just plain stupid. Good light, Frantisek Vlcek P.S.: Kelvin, I will surely ask this on Club M42, but haven't subscribed yet (too low on free time :( ). Could you please FW my post there? Thank you a lot! - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
