Born to Wear - Pentax MX-1 Part Two

Born to Wear - Pentax MX-1 Part Two

When you look at today's images of my Pentax MX-1 it will be immediately obvious that Pentax designed it to mimic some of the lines and contours of the original Pentax MX - the sister camera to the ubiquitous ME Super. The advertising obviously told us was a great product this was - and actually it has proved to be so and is still in full time use, all the way through from its purchase in 2013. I have made A3 competition winners with this compact, so in the performance stakes it is no slouch. But look at those lines, the angled corners, the design of the MX name, the brass top and bottom plates, and the gorgeous black paint finish. So far so good, but then, Pentax being Pentax and not being afraid to make products that look different, they also claimed that the finish would wear just like the black finishes of the Spotmatics as well as the M series, with the paint eventually rubbing and tantalisingly revealing the brass beneath. This is called "brassing" and some photographers would wear the gentle brassing of their cameras with pride, a sort of proof that they were out in the real world, doing real, tough photography, and here was the wear and tear to prove it.....a world that Douglas Adams might describe as when men were real men, women were real women and blue cuddly monsters from Betelgeuse were real blue cuddly monsters from Betelgeuse......

So here we are, some years later, and you can judge for yourself whether that brassing was worth the wait. Meanwhile, the pictures suggest that I had better go and give the MX-1 a thorough clean. Where did I put the Zeiss wipes?