Servicing My Pentax SP500

 Regular readers will know how much I love my Pentax SP500. I came back to film with it in 2017 along with a Helios 44m-4 58mm f/2 lens and it was an ebay bargain at £20. I used it for the Frugal Film Project in 2022 and I promised it a service if it made it through the year. To pay for it I sold several copies of my e-book on my Ko-Fi pages and added the kind donations from folks who bought me a Ko-Fi to put towards the cost. As it performed admirably I set about arranging for it to have a CLA with a chap I have heard good things about, Lyndon at Londinium Cameras.

My Pentax SP500 is a 50 year old camera and although the light meter works, the 1.5 volt battery I have been using is just that little bit more powerful than the original 1.35 volt mercury battery it was designed for. This caused the meter to over expose a bit and I wanted to have my camera adjusted so the light meter would not be a stop or so over exposed. This was always known to me and I did compensate for it, but I'm getting on and just wanted to have it sorted.

I bought the camera with no gaurantee it had ever been serviced and It has been a grand workhorse over the last half a dozen years in my ownership. As it had behaved during the Frugal Film Project in 2022 I made good on my promise to get it serviced so it would give me many more years of reliable use. I found the Londinium Cameras website via twitter and had a read of what services he could offer. Encouraged by what I read, I sent an email to Lyndon to take it further.

Lyndon explained what the job entailed, a CLA is stripping the camera down to Clean, Lubricate and Adjust the precision mechanisms that work together to release the shutter for the precise amount of time required to make a well exposed photograph on any given day. I'm not averse to taking things apart, I can strip a motorcycle down with my eyes shut, but cameras are small and delicate so I'm happy to let a professional do it. I sent my Pentax to Londinium Cameras to have it serviced. First Class, of course.

A couple of weeks go by and I received an email from Lyndon to tell me my camera was ready to return to me. I paid the bill and a couple of days later the Postie brought my camera home to me. I was like a kid at christmas. I couldn't wait to see it and I carefully opened the parcel. I unwrapped my camera and marvelled at it's cleanliness. It looked new and it's only the slight brassing in places from years of use that tell it's true age. I had to try it, I wound the shutter and pressed the release. It not only looked new, it sounded new too.

Mechanical things get sloppy with age and the CLA it received has tightened it up again. It feels precise, eveything now moves as it did when it was new with new lubricants to smooth the mechanism. I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5, put my Tamron Adaptall 2 28mm f/2.5 lens on it and toddled off to Mesnes Park, my favourite testing zone.

Here in Wiganshire we often get grey overcast skies and this day was one of them. Thanks to Lyndon weaving his magic skills on my camera to allow for a 1.5 volt battery, I was confident I would have well exposed photos. I wouldn't really know for sure until I developed my film later that day. However, I did make one error. In my haste to get out and enjoy using my freshly serviced camera I forgot to set the film speed dial and I had shot my roll at 100 iso. Oops!

Oh well, I carried on and soon finished my roll of Ilford HP5 and headed home. A little research later that day showed a developing time on the Massive Dev Chart to process Ilford HP5 shot at 100 iso and I gave it a try. I developed my film in HC-110 dilution H 1+63 for 6 1/2 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry. I had a decently exposed roll of film despite my mistake. Huzzah! I scanned my film with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and processed the images with Affinity Photo 2 to remove any blemishes.

My Pentax SP500 was always a pleasure to use right from the day it was delivered to me in 2017. Now it has been serviced by the very capable hands of Lyndon at Londinium Cameras, it's like having a new camera. Have a look at the Londinium Cameras website using the link below where you will find all the information you need about the services he provides and he's bloody good at it too. My 50 year old camera is good as new and I hope to enjoy many more years of using it.

Here's a few photos shot with my Pentax SP500 on Ilfords finest HP5 at 100 iso. I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below, I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did taking them.

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Londinium Cameras.com
Ilford HP5 @ 100 - Pentax SP500 Flickr Album