I inherited a Pentax K1000 from my Grandfather

My Grandfather loved to travel and was not a profession photographer by any means, always bought things of high quality that would last. About 3 years ago, he slipped and fell on ice, hitting his head. That started the onset of dementia and about 3 weeks ago, his life ended. Among his things that my mother collected was his, what she called, "just some old camera." The story isn't about my Grandfather though, that's for a different time and place.

She said I could have it and handed me the bag containing the camera, an early model Ser. 648****, made in Japan in the late 70's based on a serial number database, along with 4 lenses. It came with a roll of 35mm 400 ASA film that had not been loaded. Unfortunately, there was no undeveloped film in the camera. I was hoping to see him posing or feeding the deer maybe, but no, it was empty. I loaded the roll into the camera and started shooting with it, starting with my dad and moving onto my mom and some cool trains behind their house. I was visiting for the funeral, so I took a walk with the new to me Pentax. 

Yesterday, I found an adapter to mount the Pentax lenses to my Song E-body. I took a photo of the camera with one if it's lenses. How's that for full circle? This picture is straight out of the camera, no editing at all. To be honest, I rarely edit my photos. But, again, that's another story. I just wanted to share and hope that you can enjoy this photo as much as I do.

Thank you.

They have quite a following. Lighter, less expensive, not as durable as the Nikkormats, Nikons and Leicaflexes of the day, but they held up pretty good for the amateur who only ran a few rolls a year through them. Enjoy!

And those Pentax lenses as a rule produce quite good image quality.

The K100 was very popular amongst amateurs.
It must have been the most sold camera in South Africa at the time.
Because of that it is still popular today because of all those peoples’ nostalgia.

Great photo and great story.