Thursday, February 01, 2018

Pentax ME, Part 2

I shot off a roll of Fuji 200 to verify that my small repairs to the nice little Pentax ME had met with success.  The worn mirror bumper had been replaced with a small strip from a sheet of foam from Walmart; it was a bit thicker than the original, but seems to work fine.
    The ASA dial I found on ebay looked identical at first glance, but it did not quite fit due to a difference in a small toothed bracket on the underside.  Luckily, the screw holes on the brackets were in the same locations and I was able to swap the parts successfully.
     The nice surprise in the process was the ease of fixing the misaligned latch which caused the back of the camera to pop open.  It seems that the ME back gets a bit dished in with use and pressing on the back near the hinge end was what was causing the problem.  I found a note on the net which indicated I just needed to open the back, grasp it at either end and apply a tiny bit of pressure as if to bend it.  Problem solved.
    The only thing remaining is a missing cover for the motor drive connection; however, that is a cosmetic issue which has a low priority for me.  The camera seems to work perfectly at this point and is a real pleasure to use.

I shot the whole roll after a visit to my dentist whose office is in Albuquerque's Huning Highlands Historic District.  Many of the homes there date back to the early Twentieth Century.  A lot of the houses are Victorian in style, but there is quite an eclectic mix of wooden construction, brick and and stucco.





In addition to the interesting homes there are also quite a few larger historic buildings in the neighborhood including a Greek Church, the 1925 Pueblo/Spanish Revival-style Special Collections Library and the repurposed Albuquerque High School which has been turned into apartments.


I've made pictures of all those buildings in the past with other cameras.  The most interesting structure in the neighborhood, though, is something of a stylistic outlier.  The Albuquerque Press Club was built in a rustic log cabin style in 1903 and it sits on top of a hill in a park overlooking the historic district; it is said to be designed after a Norwegian villa.  I noticed when I visited the site today that the cottage next door is occupied, perhaps by a caretaker.  The dog that met me at the gate there was very friendly.  It could be the most charming place to live in the whole city.

4 comments:

JR Smith said...

I have many extra motor drive covers here somewhere. Happy to send some. Nice shots Mike!

Mike said...

I'm looking forward to getting this camera out to some of my usual haunts. The lens is super.

Jim Grey said...

The ME appears to have undergone running changes as manufacturing continued. One of those changes, I feel sure, was a shift from Japan to probably China. I've owned three MEs and the first is stamped "Asahi Optical Co." on the back while the second two are stamped "Asahi Optical Co., Japan." I know that on a K1000 the presence or absence of Japan there is the tell between Japanese and Chinese manufacture and I expect the same is true of the ME. I also know that my Chinese-made ME had a different film-box-end holder (whatever that's officially called) than my Japanese MEs.

The 50/1.7 is the one 50 I've not tried in K mount. I own a 50/2, a 50/1.4, and a 55/1.8.

Mike said...

Good point. I looked at the back and see that it does specify "Japan".
The used dial I bought on ebay was free shipping, but took a long time to get to me. When the envelope arrived it had a customs sticker on it along with some very nice Greek stamps. A thoroughly international transaction.