I'm waiting for two new photographic items. I've seem to have lost my Luna Pro light meter. Maybe it's just misplaced but I needed to act.

I know have a Weston Master V on it's way from Australia. I got it for a little over $15 including an invercone, neck strap and appropriate leather cases. The seller claims it's still accurate. It's a classic. No batteries. I seem to be moving backwards. Or maybe I'm just moving to simpler. I've been kind of wanting a good Weston for some time. I'm looking forward to it.

The other item I'm eagerly awaiting in extreme anticipation is a Pentax H1a.

That isn't the actual camera. Mine is Honeywell labeled.This was a deal I couldn't pass up. I went to browse the Rangefinder Forum Friday evening and there was this thread: Free: Pentax H1a, 55mm & 35mm lenses. My photography kit has small, medium, and large format rangefinders and medium and large format SLRs but no small format SLR. It's a type of camera that was pretty low priority for me but I've been keeping an eye out for a good deal. I've been wanting a M42 Pentax/Pratkica screw mount SLR. (I'm just an old fashioned kind of guy.) Actually, there are some incredible lenses available in the M42 mount, specifically the Pentax Super Takumars, that can be had for very resonable prices. And there are some nice cameras with that mount for good prices. The Asahi/Honeywell Spotmatic being the most famous. But recently my price point has been at zero. Which was exactly what the H1a was going for. I wasn't real familiar with the H1a other than a vague recollection from an article I had read but it was a Pentax with a M42 mount that would let me use the Super Takumar lenses that I was interested in. Without further thinking my fingers sprang into action and a message was sent to the owner of the H1a. Apparently my reply was within a minute of his posting the offer and the camera was mine. He only wanted $7 for shipping but I offered to trade one of my camera straps and the deal was done.

Then I thought that I might do some googling to see just what it was that I had traded for. I was very nicely surprised. Like my 5x7 Burke & James I ended up with a camera that I didn't know about but one that met my requirements perfectly. It predates the Spotmatic. It is the model that is at the end of the line of the design of the first modern SLR. Karen Nakamura has a nice write-up on it. Her's was the Asahi S1a which is the same camera as the Honeywell H1a. It is a meterless SLR which suites me just fine. None of my other cameras have a built in meter. Actually it comes with an external meter that mounts on top of the pentaprism and couples to the speed dial.

And it comes with two Super Takumar lenses — a 55/2 and a 35/3.5. I'm excited. I can't wait for it to get here.

Here is a site with a lot of information on the Pentax screw mount cameras and lenses.

Asahi Optical Historical Club