Pentax ME F

The Pentax ME F 1981 came on the market and was built until 1984. It is based on the ME Super, but was heavily revised and was the first series autofocus SLR for 35mm film. It is a milestone in the development of photography. The ME F is part of the Pentax M- series, in addition to the Pentax ME (1976 ), Pentax MX ( 1977), Pentax MV (1979 ), Pentax ME Super ( 1979), Pentax MV-1 (1980) and Pentax MG (1982 ).

The camera has a built- in housing contrast autofocus, which measures through the lens (TTL) and the focusing of the specially constructed for the ME F SMC Pentax AF 2.8/35-70mm-Objektivs controlled, which, however, the only autofocus lens for this camera stayed. The communication between the camera and lens was carried out via electrical contacts in the bayonet of the camera housing, but about which you could also connect any other lens with K bayonet to the ME F, and so they use as a manual camera with focusing aid in the viewfinder.

The autofocus lens itself contained except the focusing also a battery compartment for four AAA cells at 1.5 V, which was correspondingly large and heavy. Although the autofocus of the ME F was also very slow and inaccurate in low light conditions, so it was nevertheless a technological milestone, which heralded the era of autofocus SLRs.

Data and features

The Pentax ME F is a 35mm SLR camera with TTL light metering. The lens mount is the Pentax K- bayonet, which was supplemented by some electronic contacts.

The closure of the ME F is a vertical- Seikogab MFC -E2 bladed shutter. The shutter is electronically controlled and has a shutter speed range from 4s to 1/2000s plus B ( Bulb ). The flash sync speed is 1/125s.

The measuring system of the ME F measures through the lens ( TTL), center-weighted and works based on a gallium arsenide phosphide photodiode.

The self-timer is mechanical in the ME F, and can be varied over the self-timer lever.

The viewfinder of the ME F offers a large and clear viewfinder image. The light metering is displayed with green, yellow and red LEDs to the left of the viewfinder image. Under the viewfinder are three additional LEDs for focus -position support ( Middle: green, left and right red): is to focus a clockwise rotation of the lens needed, the left LED is on, in clockwise rotation of the right and as soon as the focus is correct, the middle green LED lights up.

The ME F was offered in silver and black.

Accessories

Back walls

• Digital Data M imprinting of dates in different variants

Winder

• Winder • Winder ME ME2