A Look at the Pentax MX

I recently acquired a Pentax MX in very good condition. Like me and many others, when digital cameras became “The Thing” I either sold my film camera or put it in a box and just left it for several years. It looks like the later was the fate of this 1970’s film camera because it’s in such good shape. The fully mechanical shutter is working nicely – except 1 second, which is a bit sticky and slow – but that’s not unusual for old mechanical shutters. The other speeds all seem very good.

For those of you who don’t remember, the MX, at least it seemed this way to me (I remember the marketing when it came out), was a direct competitor to the Olympus OM-1. The year after the MX, the ME was released. The ME was an aperture priority camera – very similar to the Olympus OM-2 (however, the OM-2 would also allow full manual metering mode, and the original ME would not).

You should also know that I’m a big Olympus OM fan – the OM-1 and OM-2 are 2 of my favorite 1970’s film cameras – so when a friend offered me this MX I was excited to compare it to my OM-1, but I’m admittedly a bit biased.

First off, let me say that the MX feels very nice. It’s solidly built, and it fits nicely in my hands, even though it’s a bit smaller than the OM-1.

The lenses made by Pentax seem to be of good quality – but I’m still a fan of Olympus optics. I’m going to share a few results from shooting with a 28mm Takumar f/2.8, a 50mm SMC Pentax f/1.4, and an 85mm SMC Pentax f/2 – that last lens I’m very intrigued by – it looks beautiful, but we’ll see how the results are.

One note about my 50mm f/1.4… it isn’t supposed to be radioactive but testing with my meter showed slight radioactivity. I’m not sure why, but it’s not quite as radioactive as some of my older Pentax lenses, but I am measuring some radiation, mostly from the back element(s) as is usually the case.

Now, compared to the Olympus, I have to say that it’s very comparable in features and quality. I have to say, I like the sound of the Olympus OM-1 shutter. The mechanical build of the OM-1 seems a little better, a little more solid.

So, at this point, I’ve run a couple rolls of color file through my MX – and it has functioned fairly well. I like the needle for metering in the OM-1/OM-2 better, but the LED lights in the MX work fine. I supposed you can get used to using either method. I do like the method Pentax engineers employed for turning the meter on and off. In the MX, when the shutter advance lever is pull out slightly (it clicks into place) the shutter button can be depressed slightly to turn the meter on – and with the advance lever in this position, the shutter release button stays slightly down, so the meter stays on. If the advance lever is pushed all the way closed – the meter turns off, and the shutter release button does not stay down (locking the meter on) but just allows you to turn the meter on and off quickly, presumably to do a fast check of settings and light. So, as I get used to how this works, it’s actually quite nice.

I’ve been using the 85mm f/2.0 lens – and it’s a very nice lens. The one I have is very smooth to operate – the focus and f-stop dials both move nicely. Like my Olympus lenses, the Pentax lenses I have all use 49mm filters, so that’s convenient since I already have some filters for my Olympus lenses.

Today I loaded a roll of Tri-X and I’ll try to process and scan it myself. I haven’t used my chemicals for a while, so we’ll see how well HC-110 lasts – I fill small, dark, glass bottles with about 8 ounces in each – so the concentrate lasts quite some time. Hopefully mine is still good.

Now, there is one thing that bugs me about the Olympus OM-1, and that is its battery. It uses a 1.3-volt mercury cell that’s no longer available. You can buy substitute batteries that produce the same voltage, or you can have the camera modified to accept 1.5-volt alkaline cells – but the Pentax MX uses 1.5 volt, readily available batteries, which makes life quite a bit easier. The battery type is one of the reasons I tend to shoot with my OM-2 (which takes the same 1.5-volt batteries) more than my OM-1. As far as my OM-1, I was never a big fan of modifying the camera to use different batteries – I like to keep the camera as it was when sold – that’s just how I am. I guess I’m more of a collector than a user.

So, here’s a few of my color shots from the MX. Most look very nice. I really found shooting with this camera quite pleasant, and I like the way it looks and feels. It’s quite nice.

So, I would recommend trying the Pentax MX if you ever get a chance – I think it’s a nice, compact, well-made film camera. Very fun!