In fact, I was happy with my Kodak and Canon digital cameras for the next 5 years. But recently I decided to pull that old Pentax K1000 out of the box, dust it off, and start using it. I was amazed at the pictures I was able to shoot. The options are much wider with a film camera than the simpler point-and-shoot digital cameras.
As I started using the Pentax K1000, I came across a lot of questions that took me a long time to finder answers to. So, I've put together a sort of Pentax K1000 tutorial here that will help anyone who is fortunate enough to have this camera in their arsenal.
NOTE: I have managed to lose the charging cable to my digital camera, so I will have to post pictures to go with this tutorial at a later date.
Getting to Know the Camera Body
The Pentax K1000 is a fully manual 35mm camera. It uses standard C-41 35mm film. On the camera body you will find settings for film speed and exposure.
The film speed is an ASA/ISO number. ASA stands for American Standards Association and ISO for International Standards Organization. They are basically the same thing, and the numerical scale relates to a film's sensitivity to light. For more information on 35mm film, read my Film Tutorial.
The Film Advancer is located on the far top-right of the camera body. Use this to advance the film negative after each time you depress the shutter button. It also features a counter. One important note about the counter: it does not always count to "24" for a 24 exposure or "36" for a 36 exposure. After you have loaded the film, always advance the counter to "0" to ensure you won't be using exposed film from loading.
Next to the advancer is a round knob used for setting film speed and exposure. You will notice an "X" next to 60 on the exposure wheel. This is because the "standard" exposure is 1/60 for 35mm film cameras. I say "standard" because once you become more familiar with exposure you will find there is no such thing as standard.
Above and between these two wheels is the Shutter Release Button. You know how this works. This is also where the Shutter Release Cable screws into the camera using small threads.
The very top of the camera is the Flash Attachment, where you can attachment most types of flashes. However, I would recommend never actually using this port for a flash. You can read my Flash Tutorial to see why I would make such a comment.
On the top-left side of the camera body is the Rewind knob. After you have finished up a roll of film, you depress the Film Release Button on the bottom of the camera, then wind the arm on the top clockwise until the film is wound up. Pulling up on this arm will also release the film door.
The K-Mount Lens
One question I spent hours scouring the internet to locate is the diameter of the K-Mount lens: 49mm. This will become important when buying filters since lenses come in a large array of diameters.
Pentax developed the K-mount lens specifically for the K-series of cameras. What this means is that when you are searching for new lenses for your K1000, you can only buy K-mount lenses to work. Even if the lens is 49mm in diameter, it will not work in your camera.
A small tab along the edge of the body where the lens attached is depressed whenever you want to remove the lens. After depressing this black tab, twist the lens counter-clockwise to remove.
When attaching a lens, two orange dots should line up between the lens and camera body before twisting clockwise until the tab locks into place.
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