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Classic Camera Repair » Archives-2007 » Pentax spotmatic F stopdown light meter problem « Previous Next »

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Jdgraham
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Username: Jdgraham

Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2007

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Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 12:48 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)
I recently bought a Pentax Spotmatic F to replace my old SPII that was stolen.
The light meter works fine when I have the SMC Takumar 1:1.4 50mm lens set to manual. According to the owners manual the lens is supposed to be set to auto. When I push the stop-down lever up (lens on auto) to do stop-down metering the needle goes straight up to the plus side of the light meter. The diaphram closes down to the aperture that is set, but for some reason the light meter reading is wonkey.
Is there somthing real simple that I am missing or is there a problem with the switch/cirduit?
the reason I know that the meter readings are acurate on the manual setting is because I checked it against my Canon S2 which has proven to be extremely accurate.
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Paul_ron
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Username: Paul_ron

Post Number: 14
Registered: 07-2006

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Posted on Sunday, February 04, 2007 - 07:29 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)
I just looked at my old Spotmatic and confirmed the switches.

The lens is set to AUTO. The lens is always wide open. It will automatically stop down before taking a picture. OTOH If in MANUAL mode it will be stopped down all the time.

The body switch activates the meter and will stop down the lens so you can take an accurate reading. It also allows you to do a DOF preview of your image in the finder with the lens stopped down.

I hope this helps.

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