Giving Film a Shot: The Pentax Spotmatic II Camera

I was just gifted this excellent and beautifully-maintained Asahi Pentax Spotmatic II film camera and I'm very excited to try it out! It's been a long time since I last shot film, I was just a kid in high school. But #filmphotography is a great way for me to test weather or not digital photography is giving me an added boost.
Read more about the Pentax Spotmatic here: casualphotophile.com/2017/10/...
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - What's Going On?
01:11 - Getting the Camera
03:05 - The Pentax Spotmatic II 35mm Camera
04:41 - Lenses & Accessories
08:13 - The Plan and Next Steps
09:22 - Wrap It Up
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[@ChrisFreitag]

I'm going out to get some Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film as my first roll. But I'm open to suggestions! And I'm also open to any tips for first timers, so please let me know what you think I should try.

[@StevesFilmThoughts]

You cant go wrong with hp5. Its my go to for b&w. Pushes and pulls very well if you want to deviate from box speed.

[@clintwood1983]

Cool video, good luck with the Pentax

[@ChrisFreitag]

Thank you!

[@tdalton854]

Wow, what a great time capsule.

[@ChrisFreitag]

Yeah, when stuff felt solid!

[@hectorcarmona9583]

Fujifilm also produced cameras back in the day under the name of fujica. I recently got my hands on the fujica st801 and I'm excited to shoot it!

[@ChrisFreitag]

Didn’t they work with Hasselblad on the X-Pan?

[@ulfgreger]

Great video Chris. I',m still using my fathers old Pentax MEs film camera + X-Pro1 so... I just finished my last Fujifilm lens video. Man it's hard to make a YT video :) and i dont like my own videos yet. Keeep up the good work

[@ChrisFreitag]

Thank you, Ulf! Keep at it, I wish I could say it gets easier but I still make a lot of mistakes, still have trouble with color and skin tones. But I keep going because I enjoy it.

[@psudemonboy]

Super stoked for you. This will be a ton of fun for you!

[@ChrisFreitag]

Just got my film and I’m going out first thing tomorrow to get a quick 36 so I can see if everything is working.

[@Jennifer_Prentice]

I have one of the first gen spotmatics.. Love that camera and will probably never part with it.. I got mine at a yard sale for 5 dollars with two of those 55mm lenses like you have .. Cleaned everything up and away it went .. My meter does not work so I use a light meter :).. Also if you plan on shooting dark stuff on film expect lots of grain until you learn how to expose different types of film in dark areas.. I struggled and still struggle to get clean dark images on film. I have learned that often when shooting dark areas I over expose +2 to even +3 stops over just to make sure the film gets the light it needs .. Film is a lot slower at reacting to light then our high end digital sensors so be aware of that when you get back your scans and wonder why they are so grainy and crappy looking lol.. Also if you find you enjoy the process as much as I do.. You might want to check out investing in dev kits and get all the stuff you need to develop and scan the negs yourself :). Saves you TONS of money..

[@ChrisFreitag]

Wonderful, thank you for the insightful and detailed comment! I've been getting great feedback both here and on other social networks and people are being very supportive. I expect my images to look bad, but I want to work to make them better so I'll keep everything you've said in mind, especially about the dark areas.

[@koby1960]

The Pentax Spotmatic was originally supposed to have spot metering but that was changed to average scene metering...the name Spotmatic remained.

[@ChrisFreitag]

Good to know! It even has this spot in the center that gets light/dark as you adjust, so it really feels like it’s spot metering. Either way, the meter works, my rolls of film have come back mostly exposed correctly.

[@koby1960]

@@ChrisFreitag the spot in the center is the micro prism focusing aid

[@barclayjb]

With digital you expose to protect the highlights. With film you expose to retain the shadows. You will not be able to recover shadow detail with film as easily as you can with digital.

[@ChrisFreitag]

Thank you, that helps. I’m willing to see it in action and make adjustments from there.