new K1000?

[ARH1988]

Hey all....I've got a pentax K1000 with a ton of nice lenses, but my K1000 doesnt have a lit-up light meter. this makes it impossible to shoot at night because i cannot see the damn meter! Is there a newer body i can buy that will be compatible with the lenses i already have?
Any other options? I dont know much about external light meters, but I'd be willing to explore them...
thanks!
-Alec

 

[selmerdave]

I'm pretty sure the MX uses LED's inside to give the meter readings. It should be nearly identical to your K1000 in operation otherwise, though a little smaller and lighter. Another option if you wanted to spend a little bit would be an LX, one of the all-time great SLR's. I have one and it definitely has the LED's so night time is no problem. I don't generally find that to be much of an issue though, usually if it's dark enough that I can't see the needle (on my Nikon for example) I probably don't need the meter (flash only).

Pentax is one of the best manufacturers in terms of lens/body compatibility over the years, but there aren't even any compatibility issues as the mounts of all three are identical. Don't ditch the K1000, it's a great camera.

Dave

 

[Torus34]

Consider the possibility of a sensitive hand-held light meter such as the Luna Pro. Loads of them now available on ebay. Total cost, with battery conversion up-date, is under $US100.

 

[usayit]

Go with either the ME or MX. Both were very popular cameras of that time. MX will be a bit higher priced as it has additional features including full manual. The ME will be quite easy to find and not too expensive but will be aperture priority.

ME SE w/ MEII winder

If you really go over board.. there's always the LX

 

[Lol999]

At the end of the day if you are shooting in the dark your lightmeter on the K1000 won't pick anything up anyway, I know because I used to do night shots with one! get a decent second hand lightmeter and stick with the K1000, there is no advantage to be had swapping bodies just because of this. i got a great Gossen Lunasix3 for £55 off e-bay last year and it goes VERY low on light levels.

Cheers, Lol

 

[ARH1988]

So the luna pro is the way to go? I really know nothing about stand-alone light meters, but i would much rather use that instead of getting an entirely new body. How the hell do these things work?...pardon my french

 

[Don Simon]

A handheld light meter will do pretty much the same as the meter in your camera - tell you how much light is reflecting off the subject, so you have a fairly good idea of how to get the exposure right. As with the in-camera meter, this works best if you meter off a grey card or equivalent. The handheld meter however may also include a cone enabling you to use it as an incident meter - which tells you how much light is actually falling on the subject, so it's fairly hard to go wrong. However the incident meter requires you to stand where the subject is and point the meter at the camera - so it's not much good if the subject is far away or difficult to reach. Finally a spot meter also tells you how much light is reflecting off the subject, but it focuses on a very precise area (or spot) so it's good if the subject is very small, or you can spot meter across the scene and work out an average.

One of the main benefits of a handheld meter is that, once you've worked out the correct exposure, the meter will tell you all the possible ways of achieving that exposure - the whole range of possible shutter speeds, apertures and ISO levels. That, and incidental metering, IMO make getting a light meter (even a cheap one) a very good idea.

If nighttime shots are what you're after, what you want to look for is the light meter with the lowest EV rating.