C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Pentax ES II (Electro Spotmatic II, 1973) was the second-generation aperture-priority automatic SLR from Asahi Pentax, continuing the M42 Electro Spotmatic line introduced in 1971. Where the SPF added open-aperture metering to the all-manual Spotmatic body, the ES II went further: you set the aperture, and the camera selects shutter speed continuously from 8 seconds to 1/1000s via an electronically-controlled cloth shutter. A manual override mode is available for fixed shutter speeds.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
Aperture-priority automation on M42 - the Spotmatic body that learned to think for itself.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | M42 (Pentax universal screw mount) |
| Years | 1973-1976 |
| Shutter | 8s - 1/1000s, electronic horizontal cloth |
| Flash sync | 1/60s |
| Meter | TTL open-aperture silicon |
| Modes | Aperture-priority auto, manual |
| Battery | 4x SR44 / LR44 (required) |
| ISO range | 20-3200 |
| Weight | ~ |
The original Electro Spotmatic (ES, 1971) was Pentax's first body with auto-exposure, predating the K-mount era entirely. It used a CdS meter and required stop-down metering. The ES II refined this with an open-aperture silicon cell (matching the SPF's metering advance) and an extended shutter range reaching 8 seconds - useful for available-light work in the days before fast film was common.
Both the ES and ES II occupy an unusual niche in camera history: full AE bodies on the elderly M42 mount, at a time when most manufacturers were transitioning to dedicated AE bayonet systems. Pentax effectively ran parallel development tracks in 1973 - the SPF for manual purists and the ES II for automation - before consolidating everything under the K-bayonet in 1976.
The ES II was replaced, philosophically rather than directly, by the aperture-priority ME (1976) on K-mount. The ME was lighter, simpler, and sold in far greater numbers.
The ES II is historically significant as one of the few cameras that brought genuine stepless electronic aperture-priority AE to the M42 ecosystem. Most M42 bodies - from Praktica to Spotmatic - were purely mechanical and manual. Finding automation on M42 was rare enough that the ES II stands out as a technical outlier.
For contemporary film shooters, the ES II is a way to use aperture-priority AE with the vast M42 lens catalog - Takumars, Helios, Carl Zeiss Jena glass - without adapting to a different mount. The open-aperture metering means the workflow is smooth with SMC Takumar lenses, which communicate aperture to the body directly.
The full battery-dependence is the practical downside: unlike the SPF or mechanical Spotmatics, a dead battery in an ES II means a non-functional camera. This limits its appeal as a field camera but does not diminish its historical place.
M42 screw mount. Open-aperture AE works with SMC Takumar lenses carrying the aperture coupling tab. Without the tab (older Super Takumar, third-party M42 lenses), the camera falls back to stop-down metering in auto mode.
Recommended lenses for AE use:
Stop-down-only use (still functional in manual mode): Helios-44, Industar-50, Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50/1.8, Flektogon 35/2.4.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Pentax ES II
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