Found this old camera

[Cameraman]

It says lx on the camera. Bunch of lenses and accessories.
Worth keeping?

[philslizzy]

Wow, that was Pentaxes top of the range camera with interchangeable finders and screens and off the film metering.

The long lens looks interesting like a Novoflex or something. You have got a great kit there.

Its the old problem isn't it? Keep or sell? Keep it coz its rare and a you don't come across them much but you'll probably not use it, sell it and you may make enough money to buy something you want. But you wont have it any more.

[Lloydy]

And a Novoflex,

[luisalegria]

I have one !
A lovely, superbly made thing. Pentax's best camera bar none, in workmanship and sheer niceness.
Very desirable camera for collectors these days.
Its worth a fair bit and I'm guessing some of the lenses may be rather valuable too.
It looks like you have a Pentax A 28mm, that Novoflex, and an accessory finder for the LX, which is an uncommon find.
Would be interesting to see what the other lenses are.
All in all quite a prize by our standards, probably worth $500 at least.
Any LX needs to be checked professionally as they are prone to problems of old age.
Condition would affect resale value as well as usability.
It is easy to test as you can make it go with common lr44's.

[Cameraman]

I was not aware it was so collectable; wow.
An old lady was moving and said her husband who passed away had all these boxes of camera equipment. So she said i could have it. I paid almost nothing for it.
The lenses are:
Smc pentax m f1.7 50mm
Smc pentax A f2.8 28mm
Sigma mini tele f3.5 135mm
Asashi pentax rear converter k t6-2x
The novoflex 240mm on a weird pistol grip with belows on top
Novoflex 135r for the bellows
Smc pentax m 80-200 f4.5

An adapter ring to fit the pistol thing to the camera
Waist level viewfinder ff1
Replacement focus screen in box still
Pentax shoulder strap still unopened in box

Tought choice to keep or not, but i got it almost for nothing

[Elmar Lang]

It's up to you to decide what to do.

You have an excellent outfit for film photography (although not a rangefinder... better to go in the SLR room!).

I think that if you decide to sell it, many people would be happy to buy the whole set.

All the best,

E.L.

[Lloydy]

the Novoflex 240 / 4.5 is a very nice lens, and one of the less common of the pistol grip lenses. Mine has no bellows, although any 42mm bellows would do the same job. It's a very sharp lens, and actually easier to use than it first appears. I use mine with a Sony NEX and use the screen to focus with a fairly good hit rate of sharp shots when used for moving targets. I haven't tried it with the A6000 yet, that has an EVF as well as the screen so it might be a lot better.

Looking closely at the one in the picture and comparing it to mine, the bellows is obviously a purpose made one, it has a curved profile to fit between the pistol grip and the lens. The trigger might work differently to mine - which I think is a later version - and move the bellows instead of the front section of the lens? I'd be interested to see more of that lens.

[luisalegria]

Everything there is quite easy to sell on eBay.
Alternately its a superb kit for film photography.
If you want to check it out, get a couple of lr-44 batteries. They aren't good for long term use on this camera but they are cheap and will make it go if it will go at all.
Try the shutter at all speeds and make sure the slow speeds in particular seem OK. This camera has purely mechanical fast speeds 125 or above- so its perfectly usable for flash and outdoor photography with no batteries.
Of course you will see if it cocks and fires properly, if the mirror goes up and down as expected, if the viewfinder is clear, etc.
Next check the meter (get the butkus manual to see how that should respond).
So far the usual sort of tests.
Most likely problems are electrical, tarnished contacts and broken wires, that sort of thing. The mechanics are very robust so I would be surprised to see a problem there. The only exception is that the mirror may stick - this would be related to the next issue -
Next part is quite specific to LX's-you need to see if the mirror is giving infinity correctly.
This camera has rubber mirror bearings that age and deteriorate. This can lead to the mirror seating at the wrong angle and giving the wrong back focus distance to the ground glass. Your Pentax zoom lens is an excellent lens to test this. Mount the lens, zoom to 200mm, point the camera to something at infinity - anything a kilometer or so away - and try focus on it. You should be able to. The distance scale on the lens should, if everything is correct, indicate infinity or very close to it (many long tele lenses actually tend to go a bit past infinity). If the mirror buffers are bad you will not be able to focus this lens properly at infinity as the mirror will be sitting too low and the back focus light path to the ground glass/focus screen will be too long. If this is the case this camera will require proper service in that those buffers will have to be replaced. Sometimes they get so mushy and sticky that they "glue" the mirror and impede its travel, hence a possible sticky mirror problem.



The only "worthless" thing is the Sigma lens as that wouldn't have appeal to collectors.
Still, its probably a very decent lens.

[Lloydy]

I dragged the Novaflex out today on the strength of this topic, took it outside and this was the first shot I grabbed.



I'd buy that Pentax kit just for the Novoflex.

[Cameraman]

Hi

Here you go mate, some pics of that Novaflex. Its strange. I have been searching for info about this particular one, but no info. The seperate bellows, and pistol grip I see, but not this configuration.





There is an adaptor to fit it too the LX, and it works beautifully. These novoflex lenses has the most aperture blades I have ever seen in a lens. It makes a perfect circle when stopped down, quite amazing.

[Farside]

I do declare, with that system you could fall into a barrel of dung and come out smelling of roses and jam.
Jammier than a jammy thing on a jammy day in Jamtown.

[Lloydy]

Very different to mine.

[womble]

If, for some weird reason or other, I could only keep one SLR, my LX would be the one I would keep. Jealous? Me? Never!

K.

[etorix]