Just pulled a working shutter from a 1967 Spotmatic I found at a yard sale

I was at an estate sale about 2 weeks ago and found this old Pentax Spotmatic buried under a pile of vinyl records. The body was beat to hell but I figured why not, paid the guy $15. Got it home and popped off the lens mount to check the shutter mechanism. To my surprise the curtains looked good, no pinholes, and the speeds all sounded close. I shot a test roll of Ilford HP5 through it yesterday and developed it this morning. Almost every frame came out properly exposed. The meter is dead of course but that's fine. Feels good to save a piece of gear from the trash. Has anyone else had luck finding salvageable bodies at flea markets or estate sales?

2 comments

2 Comments

sageburns1mo ago

The Spotmatic didn't use a removable lens mount, you must have been working on the lens itself.

tylerlane1mo ago

I mean, you're totally right about the mount not being removable. But here's the thing nobody's talking about - those early Spotmatic lenses were actually kind of a pain to work on because of the way the aperture linkage mechanism was integrated into the helicoid. Like, you'd think it would be straightforward since it's all one piece, but the way the stop-down lever interacts with the body's shutter release cam creates this weird binding issue if you don't get the helicoid grease exactly right. I've seen a few repair guys just swap the whole front element group instead of trying to service the aperture blades because it's actually faster than dealing with that hidden spring and pin setup.