rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I use modern batteries in my Pentax Super Program - it works just fine.

thix2112

One more comment - if you just want to change out the light seals, Jon Goodman puts kits together for all the cameras you mentioned. I have used him when I do my own seal updates. You can find him at jon_goodman at yahoo.com

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Sounds good, but I wonder if the seller has experience taking cameras apart. As long as you can return it if there are problems, the price is good. I see he has several old cameras for sale, so he could be used to working on cameras. He has a 100% rating since 2000, so that's a good sign.

DL Lender

Perrsonally, I would stay with the Pentax. If the person you want to work on it is really good at what he does ,I would go that route.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

I would highly recommend you pick up a used medium format camera some where, the image quality improvement over 35mm will be HUGE. You can pick up old Yashica's, Mamiya's or even Rollei's for $200-300 these days. And, medium format is much easier to handle and develop than 35mm if you plan to develop your own film.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Concur.

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

i quite agree with your post. light seals will most certainly need replacement. as for the light meters, as long as the resistors are active, there should be no problem in bringing the meter to accuracy throughout its range. now, having said that, i own and use 2 101 bodies and a pentax k2dmd body, among others in my field work. both great cameras. the minolta system benefited from the used of its own glass from its imari glass works. stellar lenses.

copladocus

Shoot the SRT-101. It was top of the line back in the early 1970's. I have a SRT-Super, the 101 as sold in Okinawa. It has been subjected to hard use both in military deployments and as a crime scene camera. It never failed me. All manual, just follow the in viewer metering pointer to dial in your shutter and aperture. That is how I learned to control depth of field. And the manual aspect of the camera will no slow you down in the least as it is a very easy, straight-forward system. I still have mine and if I ever decide to go back to film it will be my trusted companion.

BebuLamar

The ME super was designed to use silver oxide batteries to begin with. The SRT series were designed for use with mercury battery.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

The SRT101 was a very popular camera in the 70's and very well made. I would use the SRT101 also and buy a Sekonic L28 or similar light meter on E-bay. The L28s are currently selling for $20-$30 as a "buy it now."

The Sekonic is an incident light meter, so to use it you hold the meter in the same light as your subject and point the meter's dome toward the camera. An incident meter will give you about the same reading as using a reflective light meter with a grey card.

Quinn 4

Go with the Pentax K1000, test the one you have, if any problems, get another one. For $75.00 you can find on e-bay a very good Pentax K1000. Also with Pentax you have a wide ranger of lenses for Pentax than for the Minolta SRT 101. I have a Pentax K1000 I get back in 1982 and it was a second hand camera. It still running like a top to this day(12-12-17)

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

great cameras and the asahi/takumar lenses are very good, but do not match up to the imari/rokkor glass for the minoltas.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I have several hundred vintage cameras and as many or more vintage lenses (Canon, Nikon, Konica, Koni-Omegaflex, Minolta, Olympus, Pentax, Exacta, Zeiss Ikon, Zorki, Zenit, Leica, Wista and others). They can be great fun to play with, but may need some attention to put them back into good, working order. At the very least, it's common for mechanical cameras to get sluggish or "sticky" shutters and mechanisms as the old lubricants thicken or dry out (modern synthetics are better, but have to be used properly... might interact with some materials used in older cameras).

And, as you appear to be aware, many of the older cameras used no-longer-available 1.3 volt mercury batteries (625 and 675 are common sizes). Those can be replaced with modern 1.4 volt zinc-air (675 size is common, but Z-A are short-lived... one to three months) or 1.5 to 1.6 volt silver oxide (SR44, 303 and a couple others are same size as 675.... longer lived, a year or more). In many cases, DO NOT use modern alkaline cells, which also can be found in these sizes. The power curve of the alkaline over their lifespan is not stable like the old mercury or the modern Z-A and S-A batteries. Beginning around 1980, SOME vintage cameras employ power stabilization circuitry that allows them to use alkaline. But many do not have that circuitry and using alkaline in them will cause issues.

The voltage differences between the old mercury and the newer replacements tend to skew metering systems. The smaller difference of zinc-air usually means a third stop or half stop "error", while the greater difference of the silver oxide batteries often means a stop or more. But this may be in addition to the camera's metering system needing re-calibration anyway... since over time they often go out of adjustment as parts age.

It may be possible to use modern batteries with an adapter that reduces the voltage. For example, if you can find one, Gossen offered an adapter (part #GO 4145) to extend the useful life of some of their older meters, which also can be used in cameras that were designed to use a stacked pair of 625 mercury cells ( a common arrangement). Sometimes it's a tight fit and the plastic barrel needs to be sanded lightly to reduce it's diameter, but it allows SR44 batteries (and similar) to be used in those cameras, also regulating the voltage. There are lots of other adapters... some of which control the voltage, some of which don't. I just bought several inexpensive, plain brass SR44-to-625 adapters off eBay... fresh from China.

If the adapter doesn't "correct" the voltage, it is often possible to simply skew the ASA (ISO) dial settings to compensate. Or, again, it may be possible to have the metering system professionally re-calibrated, which might be needed anyway.

A lot of vintage SLRs... including the three you mention... are fully mechanical and can be used manually without any batteries (either using a separate handheld meter or Sunny 16 Rule, etc. to set exposure by eye).

In the 1980s it started to be more common for cameras to use electronically-controlled shutters for greater precision... but making those cameras battery dependent. For example, many Nikon FM, FG, FE models have only a single mechanical shutter speed: 1/90. All the other speeds are electronically-controlled and can only be used with good batteries in the camera. (Fortunately, many of those Nikon models use still-available SR44 and similar. Unfortunately, some of those models are known to "eat batteries" like candy! :am16:)

Choosing between the Pentax K1000 and the two Minolta models... do you have more lenses for one or the other mount? If so, that might be the better choice. Or, if you will need to buy lenses, you might look into their selling prices on eBay (and elsewhere). "Orphan" system lenses can often be found at bargain prices.... while lenses that can still be easily used on modern DSLRs tend to be a lot more expensive. I haven't looked, but suspect the Pentax P/K bayonet lenses used by the K1000, but also usable on modern Pentax DSLRs, will have held value better than old, manual focus Minolta lenses that require an adapter and may have more limited functionality on modern cameras.

Shooting B&W film, you'll have a choice of traditional, silver halide based films versus "chromogenic" films. There are some key differences to consider.

Silver halide B&W films such as Kodak Tri-X and T-Max; Ilford HP5, FP4 and Pan F; Fuji Neopan Acros (gorgeous stuff!), etc. all may be more difficult to process. You may need to send them to a pro lab and pay a higher price for processing, unless you have the facilities and plan to develop the film yourself. But, silver halide films don't scan particularly well (regardless whether you do the scanning, or the film processor does). The tiny silver particles that make up the tonal graduations block light used for scanning, causing increased contrast and loss of detail particularly in highlights and shadows. But this type film can make the most beautiful traditional silver halide print using an enlarger and darkroom... if that's your plan.

Chromogenic B&W film is C41 processed, which is what's used by nearly all "1 hour" labs for color negative film and is still the most widely used type of film processing. So it's much easier to find local, inexpensive film processing for chromogenic B&W films such as Ilford's XP2. When traditionally printed using an enlarger, prints from this type of film tend to appear low contrast. But because it's like color neg film (just without the color), it scans much better if you want to work with the images digitally.

EDIT: While I agree that medium format film cameras can be great to work with, too.... There may be some problems using them now. AFAIK, only 120-size rolls of film are available (9/10 to 15/16 exposures, depending upon the format of the camera: 6x9, 6x8, 6x7, 6x6, 6x4.5). Longer 220 rolls (15 to 30 exposures, depending upon the camera) are no longer available... at least not anywhere I've looked. The next challenge will be getting MF film processed. There are limited places that can handle it, so you'll probably be sending it to a pro lab and paying a premium price... unless you use silver halide film and process it yourself at home. AFAIK, there is only one chromogenic offered in MF 120 size (Ilford XP2). I imagine that's fairily difficult to get processed, too (and isn't very easily done at home... C41 requires relatively precised temperature control).

ambulatingreader

Thanks for your reply. I have the Rokkor 1:14 f=58mm lens. Walt

ambulatingreader

Thanks for your very detailed reply, and lots of new info. I'm leaning toward getting the K1000 professionally overhauled.
I also received an old LunaPro meter that uses the old mercury 1.35V batteries, so may look into those adapters you mentioned. Walt