How do you adjust the ASA film speed dial on Pentax ME?

Dave Harris

• 117 Answers
• Posted on Oct 01, 2007

SOURCE: Contax 137ma ASA will not move...

I have a very vague memory (I used to sell cameras many years ago) that there is a stop at ASA 400 to prevent you accidentally selecting a faster speed. I do remember something of the sort on a camera of that era but it may not have been the Contax. IIRC, you have to lift the dial a *second* time (i.e. a bit higher) to get it past the stop. Hope this helps but it may be a red herring!

SOURCE: shutter speed won't go above 200

I have two possible solutions:

First, are you shooting with the flash up or an external flash connected to it? If so, the camera likely needs to synchronize at 1/200 or slower otherwise it won't be able to take a full photo. As a safety feature to prevent that, many new cameras just restrict the ability to pick a faster shutter speed.

Second, if its not related to the flash, it might be related to the mode you are using. Turn the camera off the automatic modes and put it on an all manual setting. Change the ISO to 400 or so, got outside and aim up at the day's sky, put it on manual mode and then adjust the shutter speed. Open up the aperture on your lens all the way (turn it to the smallest number). Now adjust the shutter speeds. It should be able to go past 200 now.

SOURCE: Question on SnapSights waterproof camera

The SnapSights SS03 is a non waterproof camera supplied with 200 ISO film so you clearly have the SS01 model for 800 ISO. Both cameras have fixed aperture and shutter speed and rely on the wide exposure latitude of print film. 100 ISO is ideal if you have a camera with a wider aperture than yours, but if you use it then photos will be three stops underexposed; you'd possibly get away with this on land but underwater shots typically have more shadows than highlights and you'd lose a lot of photographic detail. By using 800 ISO the camera will produce photos which are noticeably grainy and with high contrast demonstrated by less detail in shadow areas and overexposed highlights, but for most purposes the photos will be acceptable and far better than none at all.

Colour negative film has a wide exposure latitude so you may wish to experiment with using 400 ISO or even 200 ISO. 400 will be one stop underexposed, but the printing stage can compensate to produce shots which are less grainy with better shadow details but which will lack some highlight detail. This can be partially compensated for if you tell the processing lab to "push process" your film at 800 ISO, but this will usually cost extra and for just one stop under I wouldn't bother, 200 ISO is really stretching it though and you may find that results are unacceptable unless you push process. Ultimately, it all depends upon how dark and how deep you go, but at much below 1,5m everything gets a strong blue colour cast anyway unless you use a powerful underwater strobe light mounted away from the lens axis.

Basically your camera is designed just to give you a taste of underwater photography and is very limited in what it can achieve. Even with a good specialist 35mm underwater camera such as the Sea & Sea MotorMarine II I usually find that I only have one or two usable shots on a 36 exposure roll, so if you do get the underwater photography bug then invest in a decent quality underwater digital model which accepts a proper external strobe lamp. The ratio of failed photos is similar, but at least you can review and delete them immediately without expense.

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SOURCE: the mirror on my pentax pz1 (film) camera is stuck

Mirror lockup often occurs if the batteries are flat.

Try new batteries first and if the problem remains please report back for further options.

Testimonial: "ha ha yes that's what it was thankyou!"

SOURCE: Nikon FA top plate removal

After unscrewing the rewind knob, remove the circlip under it. Remove the disk and pull the rewind shaft stop off the hub (a spring and flat plate). Remove the two screws. You'll need a special tool to remove the little stud the shaft stop was pivoting on. Take a 1/8 inch screwdriver and grind a slot in the blade. Use this tool to remove the stud, then remove the three screws from the plastic cover ring.