Mystery Cosina!

[mothdust]

Hello all! A while ago I bought a Cosina PM-1 from a car boot sale for the princely sum on £3. I really love it, it produces lovely atmospheric (not accurate but pretty) shots. But I can't find a damn thing on the internet about it! Camerapedia and Wikipedia, neither say it exists in their big list of Cosina cameras.
Does anyone know anything about it? I know a lot of Cosina cameras are copies of other bodies, might this be one? Link to a photo of it on my blog here: 35mm

 

[Derrel]

It was made by Cosina! It's black! It used M42 thread mount lenses! It was made by Cosina!

 

[mothdust]

Lies! It uses the Pentax-K mount

 

[Derrel]

Well, see there, you know quite a bit about it!!!

You could be right; Cosina has manufactured 35mm cameras, and lenses, for many other well-known Japanese camera/lens brands. Nikon's FM-10 was made by Cosina; Cosina has made lenses for many companies, including for Zeiss. Cosina bought the trade name Voigtlander, and makes some nice 35mm rangefinder bodies and lenses for Leica M-mount and Leica Thread Mount. I suppose it is possible that the Cosina camera you're in possession of could have been a camera originally made for sale as, well, as a Ricoh, or whatever....I think the Cosina CT-1 is a very similar camera.

 

[mothdust]

I've had a look at the CT-1 and it is practically identical, actually.... how strange! I wonder why mine is branded PM-1...?

 

[AUG19]

lol @ Derrel

It's ironic that Cosina failed as a consumer brand, so just carried on quietly making other brand's cameras and lenses. I guess the customer is 'always right'

 

[AUG19]

Just a guess: PM = Program Mode

 

[Mitica100]

Although there's no mention of the PM-1, the Butkus site offers various free manuals for the Cosinas here.

 

[IanG]

The problem is that many cameras from a variety of manufacturers have a different name in the US compared to the rest of the world, the PM-1 may be one of them.

By the time Cosina was becoming known for it's own cameras there was over capacity, just look how many companies were making Pentax K mount cameras apart from Pentax, Cosina, Topcon, Petri, Carena, Ricoh, Chinon etc not to mention the rebadged sometimes slightly re-engineerd models under other names like Alpha.

Ian

 

[Howard1471]

I was the proud owner of a Cosina PM-1, along with standard, wide angle and zoom lenses, all correctly identified as Pentax K Mount. I cut my photographic teeth on this camera as I couldn't afford a K1000 and this little beauty could, as I recall, match the Pentax for functionality. It cost me £72.00 brand new in the late 70's when I bought it from the Camera shop in Cavendish Street Keighley. Sadly we parted company when darkroom space gave way to children and It eventually found a new owner through an auction Website.
The PM, I was lead to believe, stood for Photo-Mart. The CT-1 is the same camera.