Pentax ME Super

My only non-Polaroid camera with automatic exposure.

 

Pentax ME Super with 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M. (Color photos of the camera were made with a Nikon F, 55mm f/3.5 Micro-Nikkor-P.C, and Portra 400.)

 

Electronic shutter and automatic exposure

The Pentax ME Super was in production c. 1980-86. It has the Pentax K lens mount so the Spotmatic’s M42 lenses don’t fit. Unusually for me, the ME Super has an electronic shutter and automatic exposure. I think of it as an automatic Olympus OM-1:

  • It is very small, even a bit smaller than the OM-1.

  • The viewfinder is large and bright with split image focus, like the OM-1.

  • Form factor and handling feel are very similar to the OM-1.

Olympus made automatic OM cameras, but I don’t have one. The ME Super and the Polaroid SX-70 are enough automation for me.

(Source: production dates in this article are from McKeown, 1996.)

 

Cambridge, Mass.: Kendall/MIT subway station. Pentax ME Super, 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M, FP4+, 2023.

 

It can be used manually, but…

The Pentax ME Super’s controls work great in aperture-priority automatic mode. It also has a manual mode but using it is a chore as there’s no shutter speed dial.

Instead, according to the manual, there’s a ‘revolutionary new “pushbutton” manual exposure system’ in which ‘the fumbling characteristic of the traditional shutter speed dial has been eliminated’ (p. 20). Viewpoints can differ, but I find the pushbutton controls non-intuitive and inconvenient.

 
 

Why the pushbutton design?

The Pentax ME (1976-81) had automatic exposure only. The ME Super, introduced in 1980, had automatic and also manual, but otherwise was nearly the same. Adding two tiny pushbuttons on the existing top deck might have been a less invasive design change than reconfiguring it for a shutter speed dial. Plus, the dial control had been on 35mm cameras from the beginning and ‘revolutionary’ might have been good marketing.

On the usability of the pushbutton manual controls, the camera manual advises, ‘You might consider “AUTO” the normal exposure mode and the others as auxiliary modes…’ (p. 10). That makes sense. I use the ME Super exclusively in automatic exposure mode and it works great.

 

Bethesda, Md. Pentax ME Super, 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M, FP4+, 2023.

 

There was a mechanical, manual sibling: the Pentax MX

Pentax built another 35mm SLR, the MX, which appeared in 1976.. The MX was as small as the ME Super but was all-manual and all-mechanical. A direct analog of the Olympus OM-1. I’d like to try one of those some day.

Maintenance and repair

No maintenance done on this camera yet.

References / further reading

McKeown, J.M. and J.C. 1996. McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 1997-1998. Grantsburg, Wis.: Centennial Photo. The ME Super is on p. 79.