Great price. Well built. Easy and fun to use. Analog knobs rather than little confusing buttons. Accepts K-mount lenses (easy availability of used lenses).

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Don't buy someone's old, beatup used camera. If you want to take great photos with a new manual focus camera the ZX M is for you. B&H offers the ZX M body for $159. The ZX M loaded with features (apperture priority, shutter priority, program mode, manual mode, bulb mode, timer, depth of field preview, motor wind, DX film coding, auto film rewind). In short, there is nothing the Pentax ZX M lacks compared to higher priced cameras other than autofocus. I bought the ZX M at a local shop with a 28-80 f3.5-5.6 Phoenix lens, a Hoya UV and a linear polarizing filter, a Sunpak 266D flash, the cable release, and a bag for less than $450. The ZX M takes great photos and offers enough features to let you really experiment with photography. The ZX M feels a lot more sturdy than the Canon Rebel line.

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exposure compensation, manual focusing, override ISO setting;
also aperture, program, shutter and full manual program. viewfinder bright, but small, but I found the smallness works to my advantage because I wear glasses, if the viewfinder image was larger I'd have to take my glasses off to see the whole frame.
Shutter very quiet and doesn't shake at all compared to my manual Yashica camera.

probably wouldn't want to use it in rainy weather... it doesn't seem like it would be water resistant at all.

Great camera... being that I baby my equipment anyway, durability wouldn't be a problem... besides I could buy six of these and still not add up to the cost of a 'pro' camera. I dislike autofocus, and so if you like manual focusing, this would be a great buy.

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I have an older Yashica Fx-3 I needed replacing, went for Pentax due to large selection of lenses

User interface is excellent. Light weight. Plenty of features

When using longer/heavier lenses, like my 35-105/f4, the camera, being so light, does not balance well. Also the lack of TTL flash is unfortunate, especially for day light fill flash. This is a big deal for me because I photograph people most, and in the sunny California.

Good cheap camera. But I'd still miss my K-1000, which feels more rugged and balances well with heavier lenses. For TTL flash, I'd rather have pentax superprogram.

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pentax pz-20, pentax me-super, pentax K-100, pentax superprogram, minolta srt101.

Very cheap, well made, small and light, easy to use, loaded with features, exellent back up body to my AF pentax camera, reasonably durable, DOF preview on a 150 camera?

needs TTL flash and brighter view finder, plastic lens mount will last but look ugly after a few lens swaps

At this price for such a loaded camera no one can complain, Students beginers or if you need a backup this is the camera for you. It works great and is the best low end manual focus camera I have used, Works best with AF lenses and anyone concerned with durability, this camera got soaked in the rain and still work fine while a nikon n70 that was covered and in a rain protective bag failed just from the moisture. The MZ-m has been out in -35 c and dropped from 2 times, it has never failed yet.

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Minolta x-370 and x-700 , canon at-1, pentax k-1000

Lightweight, Controls nicely arranged and easy to read and use.Very low battery consumption, excellent Pentax quality and reputation:K plastic lens mount is better than metalic mount to fit my lens takumar 70-200mm F:4 MF and vivitar 28mm F:2,8 MF

I did have some problems using no dedicated flash because the mirror was delaying when returning to the down position, but I still use no dedicated flash and everything still works great with the convivence day by day!

I liked very much to use manual focus camera now because I get great photos with help by Preview Button and controls dial who helps more quick movements during the report photography and the extreme low battery consumption if compare with Nikon N6006 who consume only 10 rolls with a battery!

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Nikon N6006 AF and Minolta Maxxum 7000

Deep of field button, exposure meter

Lightweight, Exposure lock button don't hold the set too much time

I searched a good manual camera; and for human price, this was the only one. I use one year ago, without any problem. The only one problem with this camera: little bit light. I use this camera with my old lenses, and this help me to hold the camera. And if the ML button hold the set...

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Price, Viewfinder & Focusing Screen, Metering System, Accepts All Pentax Mount Lenses

No TTL Flash Support

This is an outstanding value for the beginner or amateur photographer. The camera is very well built and has a feel of quality much higher than you would expect for its price. Its strengths are its excellent metering system (for its class/price) and the brightness and quality of the viewfinder of the focusing screen (probably the best I've seen/used). The controls are very easy and intuitive to operate. The camera could use a little more weight (a couple of ounces) to help balance the momentum of the mirror when the shutter is released. It tends to shake it a little but still, this is not a major problem -- just takes a few shots to get used to it. Great camera for anyone who wants to start in SLR photography and even good enough as a second body for seasoned photographers. I am very glad to own it!

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Pentax ZX-5n, Minolta x700, Nikon FM10

Price, weight, exposure options.

Flimsy, cheap looking, no inbuilt flash.

This camera may do the job in terms of photo taking and the retro knobs is a good touch, but lets face it this camera is a piece of plastic junk, which I expect will have a limited life. My 20 year old Pentax Super A, out shines this 'toy', hands down.

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low price, easy to use, compact, light weigth,

some problems in exposure (photos a little overexposed).

I like this camera a lot. Excellent for amateurs like me who like to shot to everithing in trips or family events. Very easy to use an nice control reading. Manual control for those who likes to experiment and completely automatic feautures for the times you don't want to think

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canon T50

Outstanding Travel Camera

My ultimate, eccentric bare-bones travel camera kit is: the Pentax ZXM with a 50 f.20A and an Olympus Stylus Epic.

Why? Because 50mm and 35mm are my favorite focal lengths and this is the absolutely cheapest, lightest way to get a 50 and a 35, both fast, in the same small camera bag (Tamrac 601). The 50mm is incredibly versatile, and despite being only $50 in this Pentax f 2.0A version, is incredibly sharp and colorful. Plus, unlike a consumer zoom, this lens has useful f 2.0/2.8/4.0 apertures So you can shoot indoors successfully without a flash, and the quality goes up a lot by stopping down one stop – where you still have a shooting aperture of f 2.8! Compare that to a zoom with the widest aperture of f 3.5 or 4.0, and that is only at the WIDEST end. Next, instead of getting a 35mm lens for the Pentax ZXM I opt to just use the Stylus Epic. Why? Because I don’t need to control the depth of field as much with a 35mm lens as with the 50, so I am willing to use an automatic camera. Also, viewfinder accurary isn’t as important so a viewfinder camera is ok. And in this case, the quality of the lens on the Epic is superb (caveat: if you get the zoom Epics or the original non-zoom Stylus, the quality isn’t as high and in the zooms, the lens speed is much slower). I have taken pictures with the Epic 35mm 2.8 that are as sharp and colorful as anything I have taken with Nikon and Contax 35mm focal length lenses Also, by having two bodies – the ZXM and the Epic – I have a back up body, redundancy on a lot of travel shots in case one camera develops a hidden malfunction, and have the option of loading one with fast film and one with slow film, or one with black and white. Heck, at 9 ounces and selling for $99, it isn’t impossible to carry an extra Epic just for ultrafast film for indoor shooting, or black and white film…but that is another story!

Now let me say why the ZXM is so great. Three reasons: (1) very, very light weight so it isn’t a drag to carry on trips; (2) the viewfinder is VERY bright and EASY to focus; and (3) you can buy it in a kit with the 50mm for only $199. Let me repeat that last part: it is significantly less than any autofocus kit you can buy, and comes with an extremely sharp lens, one that several websites have rated as better than most Nikon and Canon zoom lenses.

It is very easy for a beginner to operate. It has a fully automated exposure mode with an automatically compensating exposure system that works with any lens you can attach – from the earliest Pentax K lenses, to the updated manual focussing “A” mount lenses, to the current autofocus lenses.It sets the film speed automatically. It advances and rewinds the film automatically. When you develop an instinct for the right areas of the picture to expose for, you can lock the exposure with a memory lock. It has an intermediate mode, Aperture Priority , that allows semi-auto exposure control to control depth of field, and full manual. So the camera is very competent. You can fuzz out the background into a blur, or make the whole scene sharp. You can make moving hands blur out in a café, or stop a bicyclist on the street.

Is the lack of autofocus a negative? In my opinion, not for travel photography or street photography. In travel photography, there isn’t that much focussing on distant subjects anyway, most of the time you aren’t shoo

Weaknesses: (1) no built in flash (it isn’t a point and shoot, live with it); (2) batteries continue to drain even in “off” (to power that lcd frame counter – so take the batteries out during longer periods of storage, the frame counter will resume where it left off anyway); (3) its too small and light for real pro-level shooting (it was designed to be easy to carry! this is great for street and travel).

Only diehards will refuse to admit that the finder is much better than any prior manual focus Pentax body, and certainly much better than any af finder in the under $800 price range.

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Classic slrs, like Olympus, Canon, Nikon, which make me appreciate size and weight and automatic features; and a fair number of consumer level af slrs, most of which are too dumbed-down in one area or another. If I am willing to carry more weight, my favorite is the long-discontinued Contax 137MA, which has an outstandingly bright, big and easy to focus finder, with a 45mm Contax lens. Next favorite is the Olympus OM line, with the updated 2-13 finder, which finder is even bigger and brighter than the Contax, but a little less contrasty for focus. All the Olympus fixed focal lenses are little precision jewels, and almost always give Nikon and Canon level performance. Olympus zooms are less fun, unless you are shooting fixed f 2.8 glass it is just too hard to focus. In af, the Nikon F100 is simply amazing and poetry to hold in the hands. Unfortunately, $1299 will buy a lot of ZXM’s, and the body weighs 29 ounces! The new N65 is the current consumer af body to beat, but the older 35-70 f 3.3-4.5 zoom which came out with the N2020 is heads above the current trashy 28-80 Nikon consumer glass.