Glee with Gadgets Pentax ME Super Dial Data Back

I'm not a photographer.  Though I may occasionally use my "Spidey Senses" and put forth some wonderful results, I'm not a 100% true, dyed in the changing bag cloth, "photographer."

I'd best describe my make up as one part photographer, one part history buff, one part collector, and one part "gear head."  The result is a quirky guy who likes using multiple classic old cameras to take photos.

The "gear head" aspect of this takes me down a geeky path where I find myself drawn to things that some other true photographers could care less about.  I might pay attention in particular to something as relevant as the intuitive nature of a viewfinder, but then also put an extra level of attention to the typefaces used in that viewfinder.

As I'm also a "data nerd" of sorts, I find that I like to know and keep track of things such as dates or exposure data at times, and have often looked at specific camera models that can accomplish the data recording in particular.  So when I discovered that a model for which I'd already developed a great fondness actually had such a capability, I simply had to give it a try.

And this is the story behind how I acquired a Pentax Dial Data Back ME.

The "Dial Data ME" back works by manually setting the three dials to the desired values to print, or to null values to disable printing.

ME Superb! The Pentax ME Super

Fully aware that I have posted a lot of camera reviews as of late, I feel compelled to offer a "Cliff's Notes" version for those viewers who simply wish to skip down to the photos without guilt...

• Quirky guy buys cheap "parts only" camera in order to secure a manual focus lens.
• Quirky guy finds out that camera actually works with no seeming issues.
• Quirky guy elects to try out the camera on a whim, though worried of its performance.
• Quirky guy finds a stellar new favorite camera in this "throwaway!"

It's true, and I blame the Pentax K-1000.  And this is why.

As the proud new owner of the Pentax ZX-7 camera that can readily accept both AF and manual Pentax lenses, I got a "bee in my bonnet" to pick up a K-series 50mm lens in order to have an affordable fast prime to fit onto this modern film camera.  With patience not being my strongest virtue at this particular point in time, I scoured ebay "Buy-it-Now" listings for a cheap pickup on such a lens and found the cheapest to be around $35 once shipping was added.  I certainly wanted to see if I could find such a lens for a bit less, so I employed a particular strategy to search for a "parts" camera body that included the lens to see if I could find a worn out camera with an optically decent lens attached.

Knowing that the basic K-1000 cameras were typically running about $50 or more with lenses attached, I tried to jog my brain cells to recall what other models were made by Pentax, and vaguely recalled the LX and ME.  The LX, a known premium model, certainly was showing up at prices reflecting that premium.  However, I was able to find a some worthwhile results on my search using "Pentax ME Lens," the cheapest of which offered an ME Super body and lens for $29 total.  The seller readily acknowledged that the camera likely didn't work, but this was still cheaper than buying the lens alone, and that was really all I wanted.

I knew nothing about this camera model, but by using logic (something that one should really discard in this hobby), I figured that if a bland vanilla K-1000 typically cost at least $50 with a lens, and if an ME Super could be found pretty easily for $30, then it stood to reason that an ME Super was an older, less desirable, less versatile camera than the austere "K-Grand."  I gave little initial thought to the camera at all though - it was almost certainly dead, and even if it worked, I would hardly be elated to have a camera that was the lesser of the K-1000.

This camera can really be summed up in the one in-focus word in this photo.