My first real camera was a Pentax SFX. I never liked it very much, the auto-focus was really noisy, it was heavy and changing settings was really slow. After that I never really went into the auto-focus era of Pentax cameras. I much preferred the LX and MX. And for M42 I really like the old Spotmatic SPII:s.
But sometimes I did miss a motor driven camera with auto-focus. After we got a dog, I realized it is almost impossible to get good shots with slow manual focus cameras. And I found a good deal locally for a Z-20 and a broken MX for ~40€.
I’ve shot three rolls with it now, and I realize it’s funny how different cameras affect my shooting style. The faster it is to take a shot, the more shots I take. I burn through a roll much quicker than I normally would. The autofocus helps with taking pictures of moving targets. If the situation is such that the opportunity might go away quickly, I really appreciate having auto-focus (and a popup flash).
At the same time, I remember my disdain for this era of cameras. It is 100% plastic. It FEELS like plastic. The viewfinder is tiny, (0.8x, 92%) and quite dim (pentamirror). The autofocus is still noisy, (Z is one generation after SF). The shutter speeds are not even better than earlier models, 30s to 1/2000s. Sync speed of 1/100. It’s not a very good looking camera either.
A lot of negatives, very few positives. Will this camera be one that I keep on using? I don’t think so. But is it a decent camera? Yes. For a beginner, this is a great camera even. The buttons are well placed, changing settings is easy enough. Aperture priority mode is great on later lenses. And it is a K-mount camera which means there’s loads of great lenses for it.
It’s been a while since I last wrote a camera review, it was quite fun to try out something different and new for a change. Anyhow, that’s all this time. Until next time!