OT: 35mm SLR camera

[kag]

Hi,
I bought myself a digital camera 2 years ago and after viewing images taken here and on DTMPower, I decided that I wanted to step up from my all automatic 1.3 megapixel FujiFilm FinePix 1400 to an all manual camera. A digital SLR is wayyyyy out of my budget (I hardly had enough cash to buy my FujiFilm) so I began to look around for a nice 35mm SLR. But for some reason, I remembered that my mom had a nice 35mm SLR camera. Anyway I found out she has a Pentax ME Super with some pretty neat accessories (telephoto lens, wide angle lens, filters, etc). She said she paid over $1200 about 15 years ago for everything. She said she was never able to take beautiful pictures with it, but she never understands how simple gadgets work, so my guess is that she never really understood how it worked.

Now I'm hoping that the camera is working good and I'll be able to take nice pictures so I won't have to buy a camera for me

Here are the specs:
Type: 35mm SLR camera with aperature-preferred automatic exposure; "pushbutton" electronic manual; auto flash sync (with AF200S and AF160 units)
Shutter: Seiko MFC-E2 vertical-run metal focal plane shutter; automatic shutter speeds electronically controlled between 4 seconds and 1/2000 seconds (stepless variation); electronic manual shutter speeds at 14 viewfinder settings (varied by dual pushbutton controls), plus mechanical settings of "125X" and "B" (operates without batteries at mechanical settings); selection via exposure mode dial; shutter lock also provided.
Exposure: Metering Open aperture, center-weighted through-the-lens light metering by GPD cells. Exposure arange from EV 1 - EV 19 (ASA 100 with 50mm f/1.4 lens). Three-color LED shutter-speed readout in viewfinder. (20 - 35 second display given on partially pressing shutter button which acts as metering switch); +/- 2EV exposure compensation via dial (1/4X, 1/2X, 2X, 4X).
Viewfinder: Silver-coated pentaprism finder with split-image/microprism focusing screen; shows 92% of the picture area, 0.9X magnification with 50mm lens; -1.0 diopter eyepiece (accepts correction eyepieces).
Viewfinder Indications: 2-color shutter speed readout: GREEN LEDs indicate speeds from 1/60 to 1/2000 second (adequate range for handheld shooting); YELLOW LEDs give "OVER/UNDER" exposure warning; RED LED exposure compensation warning; "M" (manual) exposure warning when "M" LED is continuously lit, auto flash ready indication with "M" LED flashes; auto flash synch indicated by GREEN LED at "125X".

Accessories (sorry if it's not how you are supposed to explain this):
Vivitar Series1 70-210mm f3.5 telephoto lens
Vivitar 28mm f2.8 wide angle lens
various filters (skylight, etc)

Anyway you can check out pictures over here.

You think it's worth investing time (and money) into this camera?

[greg]

That is a perfectly good camera and your description is perfectly adequate- and it is capable of taking beautiful pictures. The principal limitation will be the photographer. However it is pretty far OT for a discussion - why don't you search the web and find a photography forum - ask there.

Also - if you don't understand WHY all those controls are there, or what terms like "depth of field" or "aperture" or "center-weighted through-the-lens light metering" mean, you might want to buy a book or find a tutorial - you'll learn much faster.

Cheers