For a while now I’ve been developing a liking for autofocus SLRs. There are two reasons for this: 1) I seem to have completely missed the autofocus SLR era going directly from a manual focus Canon AE-1 to digital; 2) Nobody seems to want to lower end models so they’re often ridiculously inexpensive.

So when I saw these two Pentax AF SLRs, each with its own lens, going for a low price I couldn’t resist. It was fairly obvious that the seller knew little about cameras so I was taking a chance, but seemed to be worth a gamble. I already had an adapter for Pentax lenses so if worst came to the worst I could use them with my Sony NEX 5n.

The two cameras are a Pentax ZX-5N and a ZX-50 and the lenses a SMC Pentax-F Zoom f3.5-4.5 35-70mm and a Tamron AF Aspherical LD 28-200mm f3.8-5.6.

When they arrived the bodies had a very solid feel to them and seemed to be in excellent shape. Unfortunately, the worst did come to the worst. The ZX-5N was dead on arrival. The mirror was stuck in limbo and after some research I discovered that this is a common problem with the ZX series cameras. Apparently a plastic part in the mirror motor breaks rendering the mirror inoperative. Parts are no longer available so there’s not much you can do about it. The ZX-50 seemed at first as if was working until a pressed the shutter release. Then there was a ‘whirring’ sound just like the ZX-5N was producing so I guess it was the same problem.

So neither of the bodies worked so on to trying out the lenses. I quickly got my adapter and tried both lenses on the Sony NEX 5N. They both fitted and worked well – phew!

So if there’s a message here it’s probably that it’s wise to avoid Pentax ZX series cameras, attractive though they may be.

I’ve tried out the lenses a bit more extensively now, but that’s the subject for another post.

Taken with a Sony A77 II and Tamron A1 AF 18-250mm.