Cameras: Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL

I had no expectation of buying this camera and it is not a camera that I sort out.  In all honesty I almost literally stumbled across it.  I was out for a lunchtime walk with my Pen-F and came across a house running an estate sale.  I am someone who likes to rummage in this kind of thing and see what interesting things I can find.  As I walk in the door the first thing in front of me is a table with a few cameras on it; this one, a 500 DTL and a compact which I can’t now remember.  The condition of this one is excellent (as was the 500) and everything seemed to function.

As I said I had no desire for a Mamiya/Sekor SLR although I have a slight need for a suitable M39 (or M42) body with TTL metering to attach to my macro bellows.  Up until now I had been trying to find a suitable Voigtländer body and was willing to wait and in the meantime did think that maybe I could buy a cheap alternative like a Ricoh but this also fitted the bill.

This is a bulky kinda camera and I wasn’t really sure whether it was worth it but after inquiring the price, which was $15, I was a bit more enthusiastic as even if I don’t keep it I am sure I can get more than that for it on eBay.  So.. sold and another camera added to the collection; I decided to leave the 500 for someone else to find.

It comes with a nice feeling f1.4 55mm lens and is fully functional.  The Mamiya/Sekor was the first camera to have dual-pattern through-the-lens (TTL) metering; Spot and Averaging.

Make	Model	Film/format	Year	Lens	Shutter	Aperture
Mamiya/Sekor	1000 DTL	35mm SLR	c19568	55mm 1:1.4	B, 1, ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500  and 1/1000	F1.4-16

Using it is much like most other SLRs of the time and it functions very well.  I can’t say that I am blown away by it and I wasn’t expecting anything exceptional but equally I can’t fault it either from my tests (single roll of film so far).  It is just a very solid and well functioning SLR that takes pretty good pictures (or maybe not “just”).  I understand that there are some lens mount limitations in that some Pentax M42 lenses don’t quite fit (I have no way of confirming this).

One slight operational difference is that the meter is enabled by pushing the film wind lever back toward the camera body and to save power, and unintended operation when not in use, the centre of the wind lever is pressed which flicks the lever into a storage position (fully ‘retracted’).

The below images were shot using expired Kodakcolor Gold 100 (scans are by my camera shop) and are very pleasing.