Excuse my ramblings, but I am happy about the purchase of an old (middle aged) camera. I snagged a Super Program with a Kiron 28/2 from ebay. The price was great and there were a couple of problems that were quickly fixed and now I have a solid Super Program with a film transport that feels new! So it got me thinking...
The average user bought these cameras 20 years ago as an improvement over the point-n-shoot they had (maybe an old Brownie). The purchase was spurred on by that upcoming big vacation or the arrival of 'Junior'. It was the family camera for recording family events. It came out for vacations and birthdays, for Christmas and holidays to take a few shots. Most people were too frugal to waste the rest of the roll, so Christmas and Easter shots sometimes came back from the developer on the same roll in June. These Pentax cameras served their families well. But think about the light use they got. 10 or maybe 20 rolls per year for the last 20 years. That is roughly 3,000 to 6,000 exposures on a consumer grade camera designed for 50,000. These cameras are hardly broken in! In fact, you could argue that the original owners have just done the initial testing to verify that the cameras work well. I suppose it is the bargain hunter in me, but I can't resist these old Pentax's. For only a fraction of their original cost, I can get a high quality precision instrument with 90% of it's useful life ahead of it! What a deal. Regards, Bob S. - 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 .
