Spotmatic

KMZ Industar-50-2

2013 09 20 JMZ Swim Pentax Spotmatic Kodak Portra 400-8628-0020
Pentax Spotmatic, KMZ Industar-50-2 50/3.5 (wide open), Kodak Portra 400

The first soviet lens I have been trying out is an Industar-50-2 made by KMZ.

KMZ was one of the most prolific of the soviet camera and lens manufacturers, and the Industar-50-2 was one of their more common lenses.  I think this was "The People's 50mm" for many back in the day.

It is incredibly compact and so some call it a pancake lens, but I find its sloped edges more reminiscent of a squat nuclear cooling tower.

As with many of the older M42 mount lenses, the Industar-50-2 features a smooth (if not loose) aperture ring with no stops, meaning that it rotates smoothly from f/16 up through f/3.5.

You focus the Industar wide open and then stop down to the desired aperture in order to meter.  This can be tough to do by touch given the lack of clicks, but on the other hand there is nothing preventing you from dialing in any intermediate aperture to nail exposure just where you want it.

The relatively slow maximum aperture means that this is not a good lens for low-light situations or minimizing the depth of field.  However, I have found that I can shoot wide open even in daylight and still get nice, rounded out of focus elements in the photo.

Spotmatic Overview

2013-09-30 14.00.34
The majority of Spotmatic controls are right here

After a few weeks
playing with my Pentax Spotmatic camera I find shooting it a blast.

It is a fully manual SLR
with typical layout of the controls.  You won't find much more on this
camera than shutter speed dial & release, film advance level and a
self-timer.  Aperture and focus is of course controlled via the lens.

The Spotmatic has
through the lens (TTL) metering, but unlike newer cameras there is a switch
near the lens mount to enable the meter.  This engages an automatic
diaphragm release on newer M42 lenses to stop the aperture down for metering.

The documented usage
model is to first compose and focus with the aperture wide open and then engage
the meter and adjust exposure as needed.  The image through the viewfinder
darkens during metering as the lens stops down to the chosen aperture.

Personally I found
myself metering first and then disengaging the switch to perform final
focusing; either method works fine.

The only quirks I have
encountered are

  • It required an PX-400 mercury battery, but I used the
    replacement WeinCell instead
  • The battery chamber prong had to be pried up a bit to
    get the meter working
  • The fresnel focusing screen in the viewfinder requires your eye to be dead center to work

Taking a Spin with a Spotmatic

2013-09-21 11.15.36

While I use a variety of film cameras, my SLRs and interchangeable
lenses so far have been mostly Nikon.

I wanted to branch out and try an older interchangeable lens
system and decided on the M42 mount.  There
is some pretty nice M42 glass with unique aesthetics, often available at affordable
prices.

M42 is a thread mount where you literally screw the threaded rear
end of the lens into the camera body.  M42
is sometimes known as the Praktica or Pentax thread mounts as those were two of
the most prolific camera makes to use it.

After some research it seemed that the original Pentax Spotmatic was
one of the best camera bodies made to use M42 lenses.  It has TTL metering, a reputation for quality,
and a pleasing design.

It has a few quirks for those used to more modern SLRs; primarily
that you often have to focus and meter as separate steps. But now that I have put a few rolls through one it has a certain
charm to it that I find hard to resist.