The Pentax ME Super is one of the finest 35mm SLRs ever made. Small, quiet, and genuinely capable; it’s still available on the used market for a fraction of what most beginners spend on their first camera. If you’re getting into film photography, it belongs on your shortlist.

What It’s Actually Like to Shoot

Mine came from Robert with two lenses already attached. I trusted him, put some film in, and tried it out. Some of the photos worked and some didn’t — but that was about getting used to the camera, not the camera failing. The more I used it, the more it became second nature. It has the same feel as my X100F, which is a high compliment: a camera that stops being something you operate and becomes something you just use.

I’ve shot with it on the streets of Nantes and taken it into the mountains. In the mountains especially, I was impressed — I could just put the film in and take photos. No fussing, no second-guessing the settings. A 24mm from my cousin in the States, a 28mm and 50mm that came with the camera from Robert. Between those three focal lengths, it covers everything: architecture, people, light, the kind of landscape you find when you’re walking a city and the streets go quiet.

The shutter isn’t noisy. It’s not silent either — this is a 1980 SLR, not a rangefinder — but it doesn’t announce itself. The Nikon FE is louder; that’s the sound of different machinery. The ME Super just gets on with it.

The Films Worth Putting Through It

Most of what goes through mine is HP5+ or Fomapan, and the ME Super handles both well.

HP5 is the obvious choice for a camera like this — fast enough to keep pace with aperture priority in unpredictable light, forgiving of the exposure errors you’ll make while learning to trust the meter, and consistent enough that you stop thinking about it. That’s a compliment. The best film stock for a camera you’re still getting to know is one that gets out of the way. And with a top shutter speed of 1/2000th, you can shoot HP5 at box speed and still open the lens right up in decent light — something a lot of cameras at this price point can’t offer.

Fomapan earns its place differently. It’s cheap enough that you stop treating frames like they matter, which turns out to produce better shooting habits than expensive film does. Fomapan 400 in particular has a quality to it — grainier than Ilford, lower in contrast, a little rougher around the edges — that suits a camera from 1980. They feel like they belong together. Fomapan 100 wants better light, but when it gets it, the results are clean and sharp in a way that doesn’t announce itself.

The two together cover most situations without requiring much thought about which to reach for.

ME Super vs. the Standard ME

The two cameras are nearly identical. Same compact body, same K-mount, same aperture-priority automation, same viewfinder. If you handed both to someone who didn’t know what they were holding, they’d be hard pressed to tell them apart.

The difference is that the ME locks you into aperture priority entirely. The Super adds manual mode — two small buttons that step the shutter speed up or down — but that’s not really why you’d choose it. Most of the time, you won’t touch those buttons. The meter is good enough that you don’t need to.

The reason to get the Super over the ME is for the moments when the meter gets it wrong, or when you’re shooting something unusual enough that you want to override it rather than argue with it through exposure compensation. It’s a fallback, not a feature. But it’s a useful one to have, and since the two cameras sell for similar prices, there’s no real reason to choose the more limited version.

If you know for certain that you want a point-and-shoot experience and nothing else, the ME does that. For everyone else, the Super is the sensible default.

Buying Used: What to Check

These cameras have been around for over 40 years and most copies you’ll find have lived some kind of life. The things worth checking are specific.

Battery corrosion is real. My cousin sent me his old Pentax K1000 from the States — same era, same dependency on small cells — and the battery compartment corrosion meant it went straight into a drawer waiting for repair. I kept the 24mm lens. The ME Super takes two LR44 cells in the base; check the contacts before you commit. Light oxidation can be cleaned. Green crust is a different problem.

Mirror foam is the other common issue — the light-sealing foam around the mirror box breaks down over time into a sticky residue. Open the back and look. If you see black gunk around the mirror frame, budget for a re-foam job. DIY kits exist; a repair shop will charge €20–40. It’s not a reason to walk away, but it’s worth knowing about going in.

Check the shutter at all speeds in manual mode, and look at the door seals along the back for crumbled foam — that’s light leaks on your first roll.

A working body in decent condition currently sells for around €70–130, with the sweet spot around €80–100. With a 50mm lens: €85–130. Serviced or near-mint examples from Japan go higher — €150 and above. Parts-only bodies start around €15. Anything listed as “untested” is a gamble worth skipping unless the price reflects the risk.

A Note on Batteries

One thing worth knowing before your first outing: the ME Super is almost entirely battery-dependent. Without working LR44 cells, you have exactly one shutter speed — a mechanical 1/125 failsafe. In good light with the right aperture, that can save a situation. In anything trickier, you’re stuck.

Carry a spare pair. They’re cheap, they last a long time under normal use, but running out mid-shoot on a cloudy afternoon in a city you’ve walked an hour to reach is frustrating in a way that’s easily avoided.

Technical Specifications

• Shutter speed: 4 seconds to 1/2000th, plus Bulb
• ISO range: 12–1600
• Exposure control: Aperture priority (with manual override)
• Viewfinder: 0.9x magnification, 95% coverage
• Other: self-timer, cable release socket, exposure compensation (±2 stops), K-mount lens compatibility

Post Scriptum

If the Pentax ME Super has caught your attention, I’d recommend checking out my other posts on classic film cameras like the Olympus Pen EE S (Aug 9, 2023) or my reflections on the lasting appeal of film photography in In Defense of Film (Aug 23, 2023). For a more in-depth look at the Pentax in action, mark your calendars for Capturing the Essence of Nantes: A Street Photography Journey with the Pentax ME Super and Kentmere 100 Film (coming Nov 17, 2023). And for those curious about the Fujifilm X100F, you can preview how it compares in Seeing the World Through 35mm: Street Photography with the Fujifilm X100F (Jun 21, 2023). A more detailed comparison between these two cameras is also coming this November!