Everything You Need to Know About The Pentax K1000

The Pentax K1000 has been a top recommendation for film students since it was released in 1976. More than 3 million were made before the K1000 was discontinued in 1997.

It’s fully mechanical with a built-in light meter. You’ll need to know how to adjust the shutter speed and aperture to get a correct exposure.

It was based off of the earlier Pentax Spotmatic. There aren’t very many features, which makes it easy to use and durable.

A SR44, AG13, or LR44 battery is needed to power the light meter.

It uses Pentax K-mount lenses and 35mm film.

Camera Version

The Pentax K1000 was manufactured in 3 different countries.

• 1975-1978 - Japan
• 1978 - 1990 - Hong Kong
• 1990 - 1997 - China

When production was moved to China, the metal housing was switched to plastic. That’s not as durable.

Asahi Optical Historical Club

Pentax K1000 Lens Compatibility

The K1000 uses K-mount lenses, which is a bayonet mount.

Apart from some of the professional lenses, most are inexpensive, in good condition, and easy to find.

Pentax is still using the mount for digital cameras. For that to happen, autofocus and other features were added. Newer lenses without aperture rings are not going to be compatible.

There are many affordable primes in good condition available. See the best Pentax K1000 lenses.

Earlier M42 screw mount lenses can be used with an adapter.

Kit Lenses

• SMC Pentax-M 50mm f2
• SMC Pentax 50mm f1.8

Battery

The Pentax K1000 needs a SR44, AG13, LR44 or equivalent battery to power the light meter. SR44 are silver oxide batteries, which are more reliable than cheaper alkaline alternatives.

The shutter is mechanical, so no power is required for it to operate. Using the film advance lever will cock the shutter. Exposure can be estimated by using the sunny 16 rule.

The battery door can be opened with a coin. A nickle works best.

No battery grip or power winder was made for the K1000.

Comparable Cameras

The K1000 isn’t alone in being on of the most popular film camera recommendations for new photographers.

The most common comparison will be the Canon AE-1 vs Pentax K1000. This is because both cameras sold well and have similar price points on the used market.

Specs

Shutter

The K1000 uses a horizontal focal plane shutter. Shutter speeds range from 1 second to 1/1000 of a second.

For longer exposures, it has a bulb mode. The shutter button is threaded to allow a cable release to be used.

The flash sync speed (X-sync) is 1/60 of a second. The accessory shoe has a hot shoe that is compatible with flashes that use a center fire pin to trigger.

Film

The K1000 uses 35mm film. Both color or black and white film will work. Rolls of film can be purchased with 12, 24, or 36 exposures.

Exact film emulsions are difficult to recommend because what is locally available varies so much. I would recommend Kodak Tri-X 400, Ilford HP5+, or Kodak Portra 400.

Here are instructions on how to load film into the Pentax K1000 and how to rewind and remove film from the Pentax K1000.

Additionally, the film rewind button can be pressed to allow multiple exposures to be taken. The rewind knob will need to be held in place. The film counter will also advance, making it difficult to keep track of the remaining frames.

Viewfinder

The K1000 uses a pentaprism with a 0.88x magnification, which has 92% coverage. That means the edges of the final image will can not be seen through the viewfinder.

The viewfinder and focusing screen can not be changed.

There is no diopter correction or depth-of-field preview.

Lightmeter

It has a CdS diode to provide center-weighted metering.

The metering range is 3 - 18 EV.

There is no dedicated exposure compensation dial. Instead, the ISO can be changed, which will be the same as setting exposure compensation.