Phil Koenig

 Pentax Spotmatic

No spot meter… not automatic…

Asahi Optical Co., Ltd.

The Pentax Spotmatic is a product line of the Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, founded 1919. A big milestone came in 1952 with the Asahiflex, the first Japanese 35mm SLR.

The Spotmatic

The first Pentax was introduced in 1957 and the Spotmatic came out in 1964. It was in production with periodic updates, through the mid-1970s. The prototype Spotmatic had a spot meter but although the version that went into production didn’t, the name stuck.

Honeywell was Asahi’s U.S. distributor. Spotmatics bound for the U.S. had ‘Honeywell Pentax’ on their prism (with ‘Asahi Opt. Co., Japan’ on the back). For other markets, the name was ‘Asahi Pentax’.

(Sources: Keppler 1976, McKeown 1996, Pentax History.)

Lens mount

The Spotmatic has an M42 screw mount, a standard also used by some other camera companies. However, the later Pentax M42 lenses are reportedly not compatible with some of the other manufacturers’ bodies.

I looked into this using the Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL, an M42-mount camera, as a test. I have two Pentax M42 lenses. An older-generation 55mm f/2 Super-Takumar and a newer 50mm f/1.4 SMC Takumar. The older lens attaches to the Mamiya/Sekor. But the M42 mount of the newer lens, the SMC Takumar, isn’t the same, there are additional protruding tabs. So I haven’t tried it on the Mamiya/Sekor body.

Using the Pentax Spotmatic

The Pentax Spotmatic is a mechanical camera; the battery is only there for the light meter. I leave the battery out and use a hand-held meter or the sunny 16 method.

These cameras are less bulky than the Mamiya 1000 DTL, Nikkormat, and other 1960s Japanese SLRs. The main negative feature is that the focus screen lacks a split image, making rapid focusing more difficult. That’s in common with several other 1960s Japanese SLRs including the two named above.

Maintenance and repair

I have done no maintenance on either of these cameras.