Pentax ZX-60 Date AF SLR Body (Lens Not Included)

I bought this camera for my neice who is starting college and has plans to be a journalist. She wanted a camera to get started with and one that would fit her needs at school. I looked at the photography classes the college offered and what they expected, so for the price I ended up here. As I am partial to Pentax (none of my bodies or lenses have ever failed me) I looked at other brands before I went back to my old standby. I even bought one myself first (found it on clearance for well under a $100 at a local department store) and tried it out, I was suprised that it functioned so well for appearing so light and like a lot of new Film SLR's cheap. but it did the job and worked with all my lenses, though not all of the functions worked on all the lenses. Some of the older Manual one's didn't even et the metering function work properly. But overall I was pleased with this as a starter camera for someone who has to use a Film SLR but has no experince.

I purchased the MZ-60 model which is simply a renamed ZX-60. This camera, contrary to the previous review, will use manual lenses but only in manual mode. I have used manual focus lenses with no "A" aperture setting with this camera - you can also fake having depth-of-field preview with automatic-aperture lenses by slightly unscrewing the lense and moving to your desired aperture setting. The light metre will still function this way in manual mode.

Firstly my gripes - the viewfinder information is very basic not unlike that of an older manual camera. Exposure is indicated by a plus or minus sign, but there is no shutter speed or aperture figures indicated. These are only shown on the LCD panel, which in dark conditions is difficult to see.

Secondly there is no exposure compensation dial, so if you wish to increase or decrease exposure outside of the meter's suggested setting you'll have to take it into manual mode.

Thirdly there is no cable-release socket BUT this is not a terrible ommision as you can set the shutter to open after 2 seconds AND the very good news is it locks-up the mirror immediately, then waits two seconds before exposing the film.

Metering is two segment, but I am unsure if this is a fancy name for centre-weighted metering. It seems to expose for the darker subject if faced with a contrasting subject & background. No multi-segment metering but it's a very easy metering system to predict!

Be very careful with dust with this unit as a small moth has managed to get up above the focusing screen. It is definately constructed mostly of plastic so don't use this camera as a football as you may not like taking photos with a smashed camera. Admittedly the buttons are a little bit cheap-feeling and it's very easy to switch the camera off without realising it due to it's position - but just remember it's Pentax's budget offering.. just because the buttons may not feel terribly solid doesn't mean you can't produce exactly the same photograph than a more expensive camera (in most 'normal' cases).

For the price I would recommened this camera to anybody who's familiar with using a manual camera but hates not having autofocus. The focusing isn't the fastest around but I'd much rather save a lot of money now than having my camera focus a few 10th's of a second quicker.

I purchased this camera to replace an old Pentax ME, but I had to promptly return it, as it is not compatible with older Pentax manual lenses. While it seems to be a quality camera, it will only be useful to you if you have autofocus lenses. Though the price is atractive this will probably not be the best camera for a student for just this reason. In the future I will likely buy the Pentax ZX-5N instead.