Last week I spoke about having a day out at Southport with my pal Keith and enjoying a photowalk along Lord Street. I didn't just take my Pentax SP500, I also took a couple of cameras that my friend Mike Francis gave to me recently, a Pentax P30n and a P30t. As they both needed to be tested I loaned Keith the P30n and I used the P30t. The P30n that Keith used had a Pentax-A SMC 28-80mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom on it when Mike kindly gave it to me and I fitted my Hoya HMC 35-75mm f/4 zoom with macro to the P30t. After a little familiarisation we each chose a film and were ready for a photowalk. I loaded a roll of Fomapan 200, shot at 100 iso, into the P30t and soon got the hang of this simple yet very capable 35mm SLR.
Following on from the success of the K and M series of cameras, Pentax brought the P series to the market with fully programmed exposure control, aperture priority and fully manual modes. It also reads the DX code from the film cassette. If there is no DX code on the film the camera has a default 100 iso setting built into it, which is why I shot my Foma 200 at 100 iso. The differences between the P30n and P30t are mostly cosmetic. The P30n has a horizontal split screen in the viewfinder, the P30t has a diagonal split screen and the body is a different colour.
What are they like to shoot? They are reassuringly Pentax. Asahi Pentax always worked on the basis that a person could be out taking photographs a few minutes after unboxing a new Pentax camera. The controls are simple, the shutter speed dial is around the shutter release with the very smooth film advance lever placed nicely for your thumb. The on-off switch is just to the left of the prism and the electronically controlled shutter means camera will not release the shutter when it is switched off. Just install 2 LR44 or SR44 batteries, a roll of DX coded film and away you go.
The camera can be used in full automatic mode when using a Pentax-A lens. Simply set the shutter dial to A, set the lens aperture to A and you don't need to worry about either of them until you fancy using it in aperture priority or fully manually. You just point, focus and shoot. Easy. As I had my Hoya 35-75 lens fitted to the P30t I didn't have the luxury of programmed exposure control, I just used it in aperture priority and flitted between f/4 and f/11. The shutter has a reassuring Pentax "Clunk" to it to make sure you, and everybody within 10 yards, know you have taken a photo.
Of course the proof is aways when you get home and develop your film. On the following day I developed my roll of Fomapan 200, shot at 100 iso, at the time given on the Massive Dev Chart for 200 iso in Rodinal 1+50. When I hung the film to dry I could see I had a nicely exposed roll of film and later that evening I scanned the film into my PC with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and got to work editing the shots with Affinity Photo. I didn't need to do much, just removed a few dust spots and scratches.
Here's a few shots from my first experience of using a Pentax P30t. I am pleased with how well the camera performed, reassuringly Pentax is a fair description of it. It is now in my regular rotation and it wont be long before I use it again. I have placed these shots and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. There's also a link to keith's Instagram where you can see his photo's from our walk in Southport. Also please consider making a donation using the Ko-Fi buttons on this page. I hope you enjoy them.
Foma 200 - Pentax P30t
Keith Sharples - Instagram
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