It's now a few months into my fifth year of taking my photography seriously and I want to speak about the camera I started with back in February 2017, my Pentax SP500. I have spoken before in my blog about my budget spotmatics and the start they gave me with a Helios 44m-4. I have learned a lot with my SP500 and have gathered a few M42 lenses to accompany it. A Helios 44m-4 it originally came with, a Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f3.5 sonnar, a Beroflex auto WW 35mm f 2.8 and my recent purchase, my Meyer-Optik Goerlitz 30mm f3.5 Lydith. All these lenses produce excellent images and have all lived on my SP500 for a few months as I got to know them. I used my SP500 exclusively through 2017 and most of 2018 when a dear friend gifted me my Nikon F801. My go to gear is now my Nikon F801 and my D700 DSLR, but I still take my SP500 out from time to time just for the joy of using it.
The biggest thing about photography for me is enjoying the process. Feeling comfortable with a camera and lens combination is paramount and that effects every process that comes after it. I have learned to handle my SP500 competently and, having spent a few days over the last fortnite looking through my archive, I have seen a genuine improvement in my skills and the quality of images I have produced with it. I made a concious decision to buy a fully manual camera when I began my journey and every time I use my SP500 that decision is vindicated.
Made in the early 1970's, the Pentax SP500 was the cheapest spotmatic camera in Pentax's inventory. This is borne out by the lack of a timer and the shutter speed dial only going to 1/500th. It is a basic camera with the most rudimentary match needle CdS light meter, the only bit of "high tech" on the camera. Some would see the lack of bells and whistles as a disadvantage, but after four years I have learned this to be it's super power. It does the basics and does them very well indeed.
The quality of it's construction is superb and it has been through some abrupt changes in weather over the last four years as it can rain at any time here in Wigan. It has performed excellently every time. I know one day the battery will eventually run out, but so far the light meter has been very reliable. I will often use sunny 16's with it and just check one or two shots with the light meter and I have found we get a lot of 1/250th at f/11 kind of days here in Wigan. The ability to read the light and shoot accordingly has been a skill that crept up on me before I realised I could do it without thinking about it. That's how comfortabe I have become with my SP500. I can use it intuitively as there is literally nothing to worry about. After four years I can take my SP500 out and be ready to shoot before I have sorted the basic settings out on my Nikon D700 and my F801.
There is a lot of sentiment that goes with a first camera, or a first of anything, but in this case that sentiment has been earned and is well deserved. It is a fairly heavy lump of precision engineering and has a reasuring clunk when I release the shutter. You know when you have taken a photograph with an SP500 and so does everyone within a ten foot radius of you. Most folk would think that to be a worry, "if it clunks that loud it must be on it's way out", but that's a complete 180 from the truth. My OM-1 and OM-2 are super quiet and are as precise as a swiss watch, but my SP500 takes a spoon and rattles the pans like a bell, proudly announcing to the world "I have taken a photograph!" It is a very recognisable sound and I love it.
Here's a few images I shot recently on Kodak T-Max 400 which I admit to getting the development wrong. I forgot how many times I had used my mix of Kodak HC-110 dilution B and was initially disappointed with them. However, since having a little play with them in Affinity Photo I think they have become what Bob Ross called a "happy accident." I have also placed an album on Flickr you can visit by clicking the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Kodak T-Max 400 - Pentax SP500
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