The Pentax ES Strikes Back

A few months ago, I got my paws on a 40 year old Pentax ES, complete with a SMC Takumar 55mm f/2 lens. Essentially, the ES is the refined version of the Electro-Spotmatic. Word on the street is that early Electro-Spotmatics had some reliability issues, so Pentax had to fix them before launching the product globally. The ES is the result of that effort.

Like all other high-end cameras from the 70's, this thing was built withstand a 1 megaton nuclear blast. The body feels like a piece of granite, and every control dial is tight and precise. Winding the film advance lever is reminiscent of cocking a bolt action rifle. And pressing the shutter release is like firing a Tomahawk missile from an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. You hear a thunderous KLACK, then the spine-shattering shutter vibration is transmitted from the camera body to your fingertips. No question about it, this ain't no girlie camera for Hello Kitty fans. It's a MAN's camera.

The ES, along with its Electro-Spotmatic sibling, were the world's first cameras to feature aperature priority auto-exposure. So, the AE system is its crown jewel; it's the main reason why people paid big bucks for it 40 years ago. I am happy to report that the system works like a charm. Put the shutter speed dial to auto, and it will meter accurately and fire correctly.

Due to is size and weight, the ES is not what one would call nimble. It's bulky, and you feel it. So, if you are gonna shoot a chihuahua that wouldn't stand still, this isn't the right camera for the job. When you work it, you gotta take the speed down a notch. This is not an entirely bad thing. When you take your time with a shot, you tend to think more. In this day and age, when any cheap P&S can do 5 frames per second, this thinking-before-shooting mantra can be quite refreshing. Usually, this shift in workflow will result in photographs that look slightly different from your previous works. That's kinda cool. Most of the time.

No complaints with the lens. Its optical performance is on par with the Pentax-A SMC 50mm f/2. Good edge-to-edge sharpness. Zero distortion, zero vignetting, but things can can get quite soft at f/2. In other words, it performs like a typical Pentax lens from that era. So not a whole lot to write home about.

After working with it for a few weeks, I observed two problems. First, the focusing ring would slip sometimes. Nothing major, but it is a little annoying when you are trying to make minute focus adjustments. Fortunately, I have another nearly identical lens sitting around, so no big deal. Second, on rare instances, the shutter speed won't match the metered value, thus causing incorrect exposure. This is a fairly serious problem, though I am not certain whether it's caused by advanced age, or some inherent design flaw. Auto exposure was bleeding edge tech in the 70's after all, some bugs might had been overlooked.

The following are some examples. The results are quite pleasing.

Yong Kang Street. Fujicolor 400.

Da An Forest Park. Fujicolor 400

Taipei International Convention Center. Fujicolor 400

Farglory Financial Center. Fujicolor 400

Portrait. Fujicolor 400, converted to B&W using channel mixer

Portrait. Fujicolor 400

Tamshui Harbor. Ilford XP2 400

On board a ferry from Tamshui Harbor. Ilford XP2 400

Taipei 101. Fujicolor 400, stitched from two shots using Microsoft ICE

And there you have it. Shooting with this old beast is an utterly engaging process, for it forces you to concentrate and think about a shot. I guess you can still shoot first and ask questions later, but just remember, every time you press the shutter release, that's $7NT out of the window. So you have an economic incentive to contemplate deeply. How cool is that?

But, that is not the most interesting aspect.

40 years ago, my father used an Electro-Spotmatic to photograph me. Now, I use the same type of camera system to photograph my kids. It's almost as if these old cameras exist on a different metaphysical level. Time passes with each shutter click, yes, but the camera is unaware of the passage. It continues to record the days of our lives on a layer of chemical emulsion, but the device itself somehow exists outside the normal flow of time.

Yeah, I'll bet even Einstein would find that wild.

Note: If you are gonna shoot film, you will need to know a good lab. No matter how good of a photographer you are, you are no match for a crappy lab, for it's almost a guarantee that they will screw up your work. I use to take my films to Costco. It's not that Costco is bad, it's just that they are mediocre to a fault. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, so I did some homework and found myself a new lab. Their office hour is capricious to say the least, but the work, both development and scanning, is outstanding. I highly recommend these guys.

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