I wonder why the MZ-10 was also called ZX-10 in some markets. So dumb.
Anyhow, here is a quick review of a camera that I despise. It is the worst camera. It has no redeeming qualities or upsides. For the same amount of money you can get a much better camera in every way. I happened upon this in mint condition in a local fleamarket for something like €10 so I picked it up just because it said Pentax.
But this does not feel like a Pentax camera. It was introduced in 1996, and during that time all camera manufacturers were looking into reducing costs as much as possible. They moved their factories to cheaper countries, like Philippines where this one is made. They stopped using metal parts and instead had plastic cogs and parts made, and the different models were basically just the same camera. There’s a whole range of MZ-* cameras but all except MZ-S are pretty much the same plastic garbage. Even the lens mount is plastic on this model!
The kit lens that came with it is also garbage. I have never held a lighter lens, it feels like a toy. Is there any glass inside this I wonder? Compared to the previous generation, SMC-F, the SMC-FA lenses just feel so cheap even though the F-series also had a bunch of plastic.
I managed to shoot one roll before the camera started acting up. It seems all of these die from the same fault, a plastic cog is worn out. It is difficult to source and difficult to replace. And why bother, it is a shit camera to begin with.
The viewfinder is tiny, 0.77x, 92%. Pentamirror. The autofocus is noisy and the winder sounds like I’m running with almost empty batteries even when they are fresh. It has some functions with different modes but they are confusing and redundant. It takes 2x of the very expensive CR2 batteries, but I also have the battery pack. It is a useless piece of plastic again. Instead of using the expensive CR2 batteries you can instead go with 4xAA batteries that last a while longer. But the battery pack cannot be used as a vertical grip and if you drop the camera you can be sure to destroy the battery pack into a million pieces.
I wish there was something positive I could say about this camera, but there is nothing. This image of the insides should tell you everything you need to know. It’s from a fancier model though, that has a metal lens mount.
Avoid it if you can. But here are some more images.
