This camera was the ultimate thrift. In the shop, it seemed utterly broken. The mirror was stuck in a strange position, and nothing I could do would get it to move, or would make the shutter release click. But it also had a 50mm Pentax lens attached, and I thought at the very least I could get my money back. My thoughts were grab it, take it home to fiddle with it, and if I couldn’t get it to work, flip the lens. It only needed two small batteries. It turned out the batteries operate a motor for the shutter timer. Someone had activated the timer, but there were no batteries to make it tick down, so everything was just frozen in place. I now had in my possession a solid little SLR that, because it seemed broken, I walked away with for $30 plus the price of new batteries.
I keep meaning to get something a bit more elegant to stick on the back as a way to remind myself what I’ve got in the camera, but taping the box lid to it is cheap. Like my Canon, this thing weighs a ton even with its small lens. What I love about it is that aside from that shutter timer, it’s fully manual. It doesn’t even have an auto focus. It’s the sort of camera that makes you slow down and take your time on a shot. It’s one I take out nearly as regularly as my Canon, which does make for a very heavy bag.
And then the bag got even heavier on a recent trip when I found a 75-200mm lens for it at an antique shop, for $20. The reason I suspect it was only $20 is because it seems like it had something knocked against it, and the UV filter broke. Again, for $20, I thought it was worth the chance. I left the broken filter on, and said nothing until I got out of the store. But $55 for a camera and two lenses, where everything works perfectly is almost as good as as the deal I got for my Canon. And now I have two cameras I can take birding with me.