hi my name is benoit and i want to talk to you about this the pentax lx and why i think it's
the best value 35mm film slr that you can get now like all professional cameras the
lx has got a deep and robust feature set and quality lenses to match up with those features
on the exposure fronts you've got automatic exposure exposure compensation and a very clear
meter in the viewfinder in terms of build quality it's actually second to none unlike many of its
peers from the 80s this camera is actually weather sealed that's standard now but back then was very
unique and as a little bonus feature when you've cocked the shutter there's a tiny little red icon
that appears just by the shutter speed dial to tell you that the camera is ready to go and
is just another example of how well thought out the pentax is from a user experience point of view
when you're choosing between professional 35mm film cameras to buy on ebay or from a camera shop
second hand they've all got very similar features choosing between one is a matter of taste
the pentax ticks so many boxes that i can't believe it's not more popular than it is
it's the small little details that set the LX apart from other cameras i've used in its
kind of price range and grade things like the meter on the inside of the viewfinder
vintage cameras do this in a number of different ways you know from the leica which just has
a triangle circle triangle if you get the m6 or sometimes i'll show you the shutter speed
and other cameras use a needle set against the glass viewfinder so you see it above your image
and the pentax kind of adopts a combination of those two approaches where you have
a little led scale that goes up and down is colored green orange and red
that is not set on the image that is off to the side in the viewfinder so you could always see
it no matter the light so you know where the middle is where the orange is where you might
get away with it in a dark situation you know where that green is where you'll absolutely get
away with it that small aid to taking photos makes shooting with the camera delightful
compared to the fm3a i owned where the needle kept jumping around and it would hover and move
it was very distracting in the image and then when you were in a slightly darker situation which is
usually where i tend to be shooting you know with available lights just documenting my life
it became actually hard to use the light meter in the camera and for a camera that
costs three to four times the price of this on ebay secondhand because of the clout
that just isn't acceptable to me at all and having said that most professional camera systems from
the 80s and 90s tend to have good lenses and a big back catalog of lenses you can choose from
i think what sets the pentax lenses apart is how little they cost considering how good they are
my experience with the lenses overall is that they are extremely high quality and strike a
really nice balance between having a nice feel in the hand feeling high quality while also not
being enormous you can see the quality of the 100 millimeter lens for yourself because i shot all
of the close-up macro shots of the lx on that lens when you combine the small efficient little lenses
that come in the pentax system with the tightly designed and user-friendly lx
you've got a combination that you just want to take everywhere with you but having said all that
of course there are things that aren't so great about the camera and the most obvious of those
is the strap lug design to me doesn't really add anything to the camera and if anything makes it
a little bit harder to use because it gets in the way of where your fingers want to be on the body
on both sides now there is an advantage where you can mount the strap to one side of the camera here
and have it hang on your body like this but to me that is not a very nice way to carry the camera
it just doesn't feel as secure as the sort of side mounted lugs that most other cameras have
and having said i love the meter in the viewfinder and generally the experience
of looking through it i have to say the fact that it's removable nowadays isn't really that useful
i've tried the waist level viewfinder and all it does is create a shade over the viewfinder
it doesn't magnify it doesn't reverse the meter on the inside because the meter is the
wrong way around when you take the finder off so what do i think of the pentax lx
i love it compared to similarly spec'd canons nikons leicas it gets the quality to price ratio
completely perfect for me you're paying a bit more for something nice but you get what you pay for
exactly with this camera i wanted a high quality fun camera that i can use in my spare
time to document my life and for me the pentax lx delivers i can't recommend it highly enough and i
regret that prices will probably go up on ebay if enough people see this video
so that's the pentax lx let me know if you have any questions or comments in
the comment section below and i will see you in the next video thank you