Pentax ME Super New User

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Hi All,

I recently started using my fathers Pentax ME Super from the 80s. The lens with it was a zoom, not in the best of condition so I sourced a Pentax M series 50mm prime having read good things on various forums.

Over the past 3 months I have shot a Fujicolor C200 and a Kodak Colorplus roll just so I can start learning how to use the camera and begin experimenting. I am going on a long haul trip to Oz later this year and hope to take the camera with me along with a Wide Angle lens should I get one for a good price :)

I have had the films developed in a local mini lab that turns C41 around in an hour with scans and a free roll of Colorplus for £9 so really reasonable.

The photos I have taken so far have been a mixed bag, some really good shots on local mountains in the evening sunset, some portraits of family, some indoor shots which aren’t great given the slow speed film, lack of flash and my skill level.

Mistakes that I have made include not Compensating for backlit subjects and perhaps being too reliant on the Auto mode and the cameras inbuilt light meter, not metering for the shadows.

Although some of the scans from the lab look bright on my iPad, I’ve noticed all the 4x6 prints look quite dark and not very vibrant, even those taken on a sunny day.

Is it common for prints to look this way? Thinking it may be because I’m used to using a backlit screen however they just don’t seem bright enough.

Also any advice on the next film I should try appreciated, thinking I might try an ISO 400 this time to see if it produces different results.

Cheers in advance!
 
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Hi Jamsteruk
Not much I can add as you know what you might be doing wrong with exposure and just experience would get things better...but none of us get perfect shots 100 % all the time as we have cockups as well :( But would mention is the camera's exposure meter accurate? As a few stops out can make a difference and a well under exposed neg could make a print look dull.
 
Hi @Jamsteruk , and welcome to TP and the best bit, F&C!

I'm assuming you put fresh batteries in? If not, definitely worth replacing them. And as Brian says, check the meter against something else (a digital camera, or an app on an iPhone, etc).

The films you used are perfectly OK for testing purposes, though both are (IMHO) at the lower end of quality consumer films. I use Superia 400 as a day to day colour film a lot, or Portra 160 or 400 for more quality work, and Ektar 100 if I want more saturated colours. I don't think I would take much 400 ISO film for a trip to Australia, depending on the time of year though; the light can be a LOT brighter!

Your minilab will have made the prints from the scans; the days of "wet printing" from negatives are long gone in that sector (and quite rare even here, for colour). Seeing bright screen images and dark prints is very often because the screen is set too bright; try turning it down to 50%. The experts will tell you to profile (is that the right word) the monitor, using a (not inexpensive) tool, but you can probably get by with just turning the brightness down. It may look very dim at first (depending on your ambient lighting) but you should get used to it quite quickly.

Those local minilabs are quite convenient, and yours seems well priced, but they are often rather unused to handling film these days, and you can sometimes get scratched films, and scans can be quite hit and miss (just set on auto). There's a thread on here about film labs; at the moment many on here use Filmdev, which is reasonably priced, fast and good quality. Postage to them is pricy due to Royal Mail, so I tend to collect a few films; you may not want to do this while you are still testing, though.

I have a Pentax ME, but haven't used the ME Plus; those Pentax M cameras were all good quality, though. The Pentax M glass is excellent. Pentaxforums has very good reviews of Pentax (see https://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/) and 3rd party lenses which might be a help in choosing your next lens. I use a Pentax M 35/2 which is a fabulous lens that I use a lot. Some of the Vivitar Series 1 28/2.8 lenses are excellent, but they vary by manufacturer (you can tell by the serial numbers); read the reviews.
 
I loved the ME Super, had one stolen whilst on holiday in New York in 1981. Bought another one in 1982 when the insurers finally paid up, but haven't used it for nearly twenty-years (since the shutter/film advance system jammed). Pentax M 50mm f/1.7 was great and I had a Vivitar Series One 70-210 f/3.5 Macro, brilliant lens. As for the exposures being dark; when using C41 type film, I'm pretty sure I always shot 0.5-1 stop over the metered value. When shooting slide materials (Kodachrome or Ektachrome), the metered value seemed to be about right. Good luck.
 
I started out serious photography with the Pentax ME, and later became a bit jealous of my brother who had the ME super (with the ability to set shutter speeds). I now have both but haven't used them for over 20 years as I've gone digital...
Unlike screens prints are restricted by the lighting in the area they are viewed, they can never reflect more than 100% of the ambient lighting. Because of this prints will often look darker than screen shots. Do the prints still look dark if viewed in sunshine?
If both prints & scans are provided by the same people they should be reasonably comparable in brightness, with any corrections to the exposure of one also made for the other - no fault of the camera will effect one and not the other, but having the camera underexpose is certainly a possibility.

FWIW my DSLRs are still Pentax models, that work nicely with those old lenses. Some of them are now available for only 10x what your paying for processing a film. I suspect a used APSC model with an 18-55 zoom would pay for itself over the course of your trip to Oz several times over without taking into account the benefits of instant feedback...
 
Thanks for all the advice!

Excalibur and ChrisR, I’ve downloaded the Lux app so will have a play to see how close the Pentax meter is to the app. I’ve got a roll of Kodak Gold 36 exp lined up, but may give a roll of Superia 400 a crack first to see the results. The batteries were fresh 3 months ago so hopefully will still be good.

GeeJay57 interesting to hear about the 0.5 to 1 stop overexposure on your ME Super. Is the best way to achieve this by adjusting the ISO setting for a 200 box film to 100 on the camera, reading up on it this is called “pulling”?

The ME Super also has an Exposure Compensation dial, so I’d imagine this can be set to x2 to achieve the same overexposure? When developing do you need to let the lab know you’ve overexposed?

The local mini lab does seem to be pretty busy, they have a wide selection of film and also do B&W development by hand looking at their website. While I’m testing I’d definitely like to continue supporting them, however the prints do look dark even compared to a dim monitor. Perhaps if I mention this when developing my next film they can adjust something for the prints?

Petrochemist, funnily enough I also own a Pentax *istD purchased when I was a student, as I recall the battery life was poor and the rear screen is tiny but may be worth dusting off. Still keen on getting to know my ME Super though :)
 
Colour print film generally tolerates moderate overexposure well, but not underexposure:

https://petapixel.com/2016/03/29/exposure-affects-film-photos/

'Pulling' implies asking a lab to compensate for overexposure by underdevelopment, but that isn't what Glenn is suggesting (and would rarely be necessary with colour negative film). Instead, quite a few people effectively rate their colour negative film lower than the nominal box speed (e.g. by setting the camera ISO to 320 and loading 400 ISO film) and have the film developed as normal. The film is 'overexposed', but you might prefer the results. You can get the same effect using the exposure compensation dial, or just bear in mind the film's relative tolerance to overexposure when shooting in tricky light and adjust on a shot by shot basis.
 
Looking good, @Jamsteruk . The ME has centre-weighted metering, so those results are pretty much to be expected. General advice is to meter for the shadows; in these cases I think I'd meter once with the subject framed as shot, then meter again pointing towards the ground, and use your exposure compensation to add, say, half the difference... however, what gets me so often when I use exposure comp is forgetting to set it back to 1!
 
Don't forget Jamsteruk you can adjust your shots in Photoshop (or similar) and it's not "cheating" like digi guys as in the old days in the darkroom we also adjusted negs while printing to suit the final photographic result that we wanted. And there were chemicals that actually changed the negs...I remember one for well over exposed negs and it was "Farmer's reducer".
The difference from the old days to today is we can easily get results using a computer...h'mm and don't have smelly hands ;)
 
^^ Pushing, pulling, dodging, burning, retouching, posterising, solarising etc... Many of the functions in digital image processing software are founded on those used in the old film labs. As you say a lot more convenient and less smelly using a computer, less 'magical' though. That said, I haven't shot film since 2002, but might have a go if I fix my ME Super or have a go with the Canon A1 I was given. I haven't dabbled in the darkroom since the early 70's.
 
^^ Pushing, pulling, dodging, burning, retouching, posterising, solarising etc... Many of the functions in digital image processing software are founded on those used in the old film labs. As you say a lot more convenient and less smelly using a computer, less 'magical' though. That said, I haven't shot film since 2002, but might have a go if I fix my ME Super or have a go with the Canon A1 I was given. I haven't dabbled in the darkroom since the early 70's.
You've got to put a roll of Kodak Gold 200 through that A1 this summer, it's still a cracking camera and should produce very nice looking results. Just stick it on 'P' and the lens on 'A' and enjoy the art of manual focusing while the camera does the rest. You can then select shutter priority or aperture priority from the top switch and dial just like a modern camera... it really did pioneer the 'PASM' controls we take for granted these days. A ground-breaking classic SLR if ever there was one. :)
 
You've got to put a roll of Kodak Gold 200 through that A1 this summer, it's still a cracking camera and should produce very nice looking results. Just stick it on 'P' and the lens on 'A' and enjoy the art of manual focusing while the camera does the rest. You can then select shutter priority or aperture priority from the top switch and dial just like a modern camera... it really did pioneer the 'PASM' controls we take for granted these days. A ground-breaking classic SLR if ever there was one. :)
Was given it several years ago together with an AE1 and a few lenses (not especially good ones). I've never used either, but maybe I should have a bash.
 
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