Pentax Espio Mini/ UC1

[@rigopex3999]

i'm an industrial designer and this is the best video I've found on 90''s point and shoot cameras....ever

[@paulomoreira007]

Thank you very much for your kind comment. My background is also in industrial mechanical engineering. Cheers.

[@punkrachmaninoff]

@@paulomoreira007 was lucky enough to see one of these (the elusive 75th anniversary edition in silver) last week. it was acquired by a friend at the used marketplace for $5!? i actually had tears in my eyes. it is flawless. sorry contax, this is one of the greatest of all time.

[@paulomoreira007]

@@punkrachmaninoff it's a very rare sight, I have never seen that special edition either. Still, don't dismiss the Contax T series, they operate at a different level. Although I can't stand all the hysteria around the T2, I have been long a fan of the brand, from its initial cameras in the 30's to the last ones. The T2 is very different from the Pentax, the lens is a work of art in itself, the camera weighs 10 times more, completely different camera. The Espio Mini is a really fine point & shoot in the same league of the Yashica T series or Mju2.

[@craigroethler1495]

Dang! Nice shooting there. I think you can make any camera shine but this Pentax does seem to have something going for it. Nice talk as always. Thanks!

[@paulomoreira007]

Thank you for your nice comment. The little Pentax was quite a surprise, very nice lens, accurate metering and speedy operation. I really enjoyed taking pictures with it, although I would never pay the silly prices that people ask for this type of camera.

[@bintayademusingss]

lifesaver, have been trying to figure out how to rewind for ages!

[@nico.m8346]

Glad you're back Paolo! Have a great day.

[@paulomoreira007]

Thank you for your warm welcome. Have a great week.

[@SpaghettiPaparazzi]

Thank you Paulo for the informative video!

[@paulomoreira007]

Thank you for your lovely comment.

[@nicktropiano5246]

Welcome back. Prices of thes 90's compacts have reached absurdity with some models. A consideration for a future video might be what I consider "steals". Mid-00's DSLRs like the minty Nikon N75 I picked up for $10 (Amazon "other sellers" this time). I'm a Nikon shooter with a bunch of Nikkor glass, so I figured why not? This thing is 85% of an F6, light as a feather, much newer than decades old cameras. Even if you pick up a cheap body and slap a 50/1.8 or even the 28-80 3.3-5.6 G kit lens you have a decent kit for sensible money that is far more capable than the old point-n-shoots with their simple tessar lenses, not that much bigger, just as light. They act just like point-n-shoots if you keep them in "P" mode. Just a thought.

[@paulomoreira007]

Thank you for your comment Nick. Unfortunately the analogue/film community has taken a turn for the worst in many regards. As for equipment there are tons of cameras that are cheap and readly available. The power of the internet has never been so great like it is now in the gear department. People aren't really interested in photography, they just want instant gratification by having a camera made famous by some public figure. You are absolutely right in your comparison, but the F/N-75 sells for peanuts, but the same applies for many other models. It's always wiser to by a younger camera and like you say, it's not a pedestrian 4 element lens that is going to bother a Nikon F/N-75 with its 50/1.8 or even the 28/70 in the image department. People have too much money now, when I started in photography, I bought the camera that I could afford and that had what I thouht that I needed. I never was ashamed of my Praktica B200 and never felt the urge to "improve", I still have it and sadly I haven't outgrown it, I must be an even worse photographer than I thought! Cheers!

[@nicktropiano5246]

@@paulomoreira007 my first camera was a Vivitar 3800. Late 80's? Early 90's? It was made by Cosina (who knew then?) and a Vivitar 50/1.8 (probably also Cosina made). Plastic fantastic but it was what I could afford at the time and grateful to have it. All manual camera. Boy did that teach me a lot about photography. And I took some of my best pictures with it and just that 50mm.

[@paulomoreira007]

@@nicktropiano5246 That's not the fashionable answer! You should have said that you had a Canon AE-1 or if possible, the almighty AE-1 P! I only saw that model once in my life and it was relatively recent, this decade to be precise. That Cosina body goes back to the 1970's and has helped to bring people into photography than any other camera. It's still possible to get excellent cameras very cheaply if people are really into photography not Facebook vanity or in for the fad. Also most people don't realize that they can fit Pentax lenses, M42 lenses to cameras that use a K mount, instead they go for the stereotype of a K-1000 with the proverbial 50/1.4. I do respect people's choices but there is a lot of money being spent rather unwisely at the moment. I hope people won't regret it in the near future.

[@Eleni_I]

Thanks for the helpful guide

[@MichaelRusso]

You have this camera! I have the older Pentax PC35 AF cameras which are also very nice. It has a 35mm f/2.8 5 element, 5 groups I believe.

[@paulomoreira007]

Yes, I too have the PC 35 AF.The camera is whisper quiet, but the AF system is so bad that it killstat great lens. This one has a simple 3 element lens that produces surprisingly good results.

[@paulinechampagne9441]

Thanxz for the info just picked up a minty one at a local thrift shop for $5.00 dollars

[@paulomoreira007]

Great find! Enjoy your new camera!

[@rodneykoh2258]

I bought an espio mini in 1994 for street photography, and gave it away very soon after I realised that the lag between squeezing the shutter and the actual exposure was longer than a second. It was just too slow for catching the decisive moment.

[@paulomoreira007]

Thank you for your comment. As you can see from the video, my unit isn't especially slow to react, much quicker then the Leica Mini and its clones. Perhaps mine had an upgrade. I don't use AF point and shoot cameras because I think that they are all too slow to use. Nothing beats my (...........) with my Voigtlander Super Wide Heliar 15 mm, no focus needed, instant seize of the moment.

[@MitchAlive]

Hi there, is this camera better than the Pentax espio 140v?

[@paulomoreira007]

Hi, yes it is. This is a high quality fixed lens compact, not a zoom lens compact which traditionally have far more quality compromises. This is not to say that they are unworthy, just different from the UC-1.

[@MichaelRusso]

I would keep the camera. Put some HP4 in it. The advantage of the PC 35 AF is ASA settings. If you can, set your 100 to 200 and push accordingly. :)

[@paulomoreira007]

I normally don't mess with ISO ratings, so for me, not a great advantage. I don't know what to do with it yet, I have been selling all my premium P&S cameras, it's to risky, one day they work fine, the other they are dead. I prefer to trade them for lenses or mechanical cameras. I already have too many compact fantastic plastic cameras 😁

[@MichaelRusso]

@@paulomoreira007 I agree, It took me many years to even do film pushing. I can't do it with my P&S DX camera's either. I use them till they die.... ;)

[@paulomoreira007]

@@MichaelRusso I would do the same thing in the good old days but now with some of those compacts reaching almost Leica prices, I prefer to let them go. Anyway, my Canon 7s with the 21 mm is a point & shoot camera, no focusing required, no shutter lag and incomparable picture quality with a plastic fantastic camera. I don't like the 35 mm focal length, for me anything higher than 28 mm is a Tele lens!😂

[@MichaelRusso]

@@paulomoreira007 I hear you on the prices. They are getting stupid high. I can't imagine they are flying off the shelves either. The wide end is my favorite focal length. I thought I was into short telephoto but I rarely shoot anything past 50mm. 24mm to 50mm seem to be the sweet point for most of my work, sounds like you are similar and I suspect many people, especially street shooters.

[@paulomoreira007]

@@MichaelRusso They fly off the selves far quicker than you imagine. I can't perceive street photography without a real wide angle lens. It's not easy, you have to be careful and patient, otherwise you'll end up including far too elements in the picture, distracting from the main subect. I too prefer the 24 mm in digital, rangefinder wise I don't have a 24 mm only for my SLRs. It's possibly one of my acquisitions in the future.