Pentax 6x7, 67, 67 II

Overview and Personal Comments

The Pentax 6x7 is the Arnold Schwazenegger of cameras -- everything else is a "girlie-man" compared to this behemoth. When you pick it up, it feels like it is made of solid metal. It's impossible to tell from photographs the sheer scale of this camera. Let me just say this - with the standard 105mm f/2.4 lens and prism, it weighs 1760 grams. That's twice the weight of a Leica M7 with 50mm f/1.4. (A fully loaded Nikon F5 with 50mm f/1.4 comes close at 1580 grams.) If the Pentax 67 isn't man enough for you, the Mamiya RB67 at 2690 grams or the Fuji 680 is your next best choice. Pentax 6x7 cameras are now widely available on the used market for about $600 with standard lens, which makes them the easiest entry to medium format quality. Using the text or images on this website without permission on an ebay auction or any other site is a violation of federal law.

The Pentax 6x7 was first released in 1969 and underwent some minor modifications while in production, namely the addition of a mirror-lock-up (MU), which is a useful addition for tripod photography that will improve image quality. In online ads, you'll see this described as "Pentax 6x7 with MU." Mirror-Lock-Up is also abbreviated MLU. Older cameras often went back to Pentax to have the MU feature added, so serial numbers aren't an accurate way to gauge whether or not it has this feature. Recently, parts for pre-MU cameras are becoming scarce and Pentax will not repair them, so it behooves you to buy a camera with mirror-lockup if you can.

In 1989, the Pentax 6x7 underwent some other upgrades, most significantly the shutter timing was changed from being partly mechanically to being fully electromechanically controlled. This helped improve exposure accuracy (unfortunately it also meant that the bulb-mode required batteries, which disappointed many astrophotographers; you can get Pentax to modify your camera to not require batteries in bulb). Some components of the all-metax 6x7 were replaced with polycarbonate to lighten it. The upgraded model was renamed the Pentax 67.

In 1998, the camera was completely redesigned and computerized. The most significant change was the inclusion of auto-exposure and matrix metering through the new AE Pentaprism. The right hand grip was changed to make it easier to handhold, and it used CR123A lithium batteries for better cold-weather performance. Pentax named it the Pentax 67ii. They also added a non-battery-reliant power-saving time mode (bulb), mostly for the many astrophotographers who use this camera. Regardless of the many internal changes, it's essentially the same camera DNA, unchanged for over 35 years.

Pentax 6x7 cameras have been particularly popular with astrophotographers because of the large film size, absolutely flat film plane, and easy mounting to telescopes.

The Pentax 67 is one of the best landscape medium format cameras available. Pentax has a very wide range of 67 interchangeable lenses for it ranging from 45mm super-wides to 1000mm* super-teles. No other medium-format camera system boasts as wide a range.

All of the recent lenses feature Pentax's proprietary 'smc' (super-multicoating) lens coating, which is easily one of the best in the industry, if not the best. All 67 lenses can be used with all Pentax 6x7 and 67 cameras, regardless of vintage. What's more, you can use your 67 lenses on your Pentax 645 or even Pentax K mount camera with adapters made by Pentax. And for those who gripe about the Pentax 67's laughably slow flash X-sync of 1/30 sec, there are even leaf-shutter lenses below that will allow you to do daylight flash-sync of up to 1/500 sec.

*At 55mm x 70mm, the 6x7 film frame is double the dimensions of 35mm film (24mmx36mm) in both width and height, making for a whopping 400% more film area. A rough guide to recalculating focal length to a 35mm equivalent is to divide by 2: so the 45mm super-wide is a 22mm in the 35mm world; and the 1000mm super-tele is a 500mm. More info on film format equivalents is here.

Interesting quirks

This camera belongs in the irritating class of cameras that won't work if you don't have film in it, or a battery. Here's the checklist for checking one out to make sure the shutter fires:

• Push the battery check button and make sure the LED lights (it's partially hidden by the 6x7 metering prism, so you have to peek to see if anything lights up)
• If the camera appears to fire once, but won't cock again -- you might have no batteries installed. Make sure the battery check button lights the LED (it will light regardless of the shutter cocking position). If it doesn't, you've dry fired the camera with a dead battery and the mirror is hung up halfway (you can take off the lens to verify that the mirror is hung up halfway).
• You can clear the mirror half-up position by clicking on the small black "mirror reset" button that's on the front right hand side of the body (underneath the 6x7 or 67 mark). Then put in new batteries and you should be able to cock and fire the shutter.
• Are you sure you don't have film in it?
• Cock the camera. If there is no resistance, there is no film in it. There should be moderate resistance as the camera cocks and winds all in one single stroke. If there is very hard resistance, then the camera is already cocked, don't force it!
• Try the shutter button.
• If it doesn't cock and doesn't fire, then you most likely have no film in it and the safety interlock is preventing a dry fire. To override this:
  • Check the mirror-hang-up position if dead batteries were installed (see above). If that was the case, put new batteries in, check the battery condition, then clear the mirror hang-up.
  • Open the camera back (you did remember to make sure there was no film in it, right?!) by hooking your thumb in the back latch catch on the left side.
  • While the back door is open, turn the film dial indicator past '1' with your thumb and then close the door without letting go of the dial indicator. This will then set it to so that camera thinks it has film and you can fire the rest of the "roll" as test fires.
• As the shutter is electronically timed, without a battery you won't have shutter speeds except X.

 

 

Executive Summary

Danny Gonzalez has perhaps the best summation of the Pentax 67 that I've seen:



This camera is designed as a field camera, for handheld SLR convenience (convenience is only relative with this camera). The camera remains basically unchanged from its original form and, having been introduced about thirty years ago (and based on the design of the Pentax Spotmatic 35mm camera), almost every feature is archaic by modern standards. It's very large and heavy (by 35mm standards; small and light by 67 standards), fires off like a canon (Mucho vibration and noise) and is quirky like the Pentax 645 (If you take off the TTL prism, then replace it, you've got to remove and replace the lens before you get a reading back. The meter just goes dead). Some lenses focus very closely (55, 90, 135 and new 200), others don't focus closely at all (300/4 and the old 200).
Working with the camera is an exercise in indecisive relativity; it charms you with its fast lenses, its tanklike craftsmanship and its versatility, but bothers you with its noisy, vibratory release and its 'retro' feature set.
Danny Gonzalez

 

Myths and Truths

The Pentax 6x7 most probably has more myths around it than any other medium format camera. Here are some common ones:

1. You can't handhold it: FALSE. Yes, it's a behemoth and will tire your arms, but many people use it as a handheld field camera. There's an auxiliary wooden grip that makes it much easier to handhold. As an added bonus, the grip also provides a flash shoe bracket. There's a lot of vibration from the mirror flipping up and the huge shutter opening and closing. But with fast film (ISO800 is very usable for prints since the film negative is so huge) and shutter speeds greater than 1/250, it's a nice medium-format shooter. Just be sure to pump weights at the 'Y' before buying one.
2. You need mirror-lock-up (MU): 50% TRUE/FALSE. MU is most probably one of the most important features to look for, but it's not a deal-killer. If you can get a good user 6x7 without MU for a song, then buy it. You can always upgrade later. And with a hefty tripod or with fast film, you may never know the difference.
3. You need a good tripod: TRUE: Again many sins are forgiven with fast film, but if you're shooting with Provia 100 (or goddess forgive, Velvia 50), then you need a very solid tripod. The rule of thumb is that your tripod+head must be twice the weight of the camera. Carbon-fiber is lighter to carry and deadens the vibrations weight somewhat but sheer mass is what's crucial. Many high-end tripods have hooks on the end of the center column, this is to hook your camera bag to give the system more mass. You can also buy "tripod stone bags" to weigh down the legs.
4. Film loading is a pain: TRUE. There are some good sites with tips on how to load film quickly. You can download the manual from the Pentax corporate website (below). The key appears to be loading the empty spool in the camera first, then the film spool, and then finally threading the film into the empty spool.
5. Daylight sync flash is impossible: TRUE. With a top X-sync speed of 1/30th of a second, it's sadly true. This is not a good camera for use with a flash unit. You can buy leaf shutter lenses for the Pentax which increase the sync speed to 1/500 sec. but they are expensive and not that practical in use. If you're doing flash work, get a Hasselblad 500 series instead.
6. A Pentax 67 is sharper than a Hasselblad: Truish. The Hasselblad lenses are actually slightly sharper, but the Hasselblad film size is 55mm x 55mm square. When you actually crop to print, a Hasselblad is more like a 6x4.5 camera. With the much larger 6x7 frame (55mm x 70mm) which requires no cropping on standard printing paper, the Pentax has more film surface area and requires less print magnification, which more than makes up for the slightly lower lens resolution.
7. I need the meter-prism: FALSE. You don't need it, you want it. The 6x7 and 67 came standard with an unmetered pentaprism. You could buy a meter prism as an additional option. The meter prism was coupled to the film speed dial. You would meter the scene, the prism would tell you the aperture you needed to be at. If you're poor, get a handheld lightmeter for between $30-100. It does the same job as the meter prism with better accuracy.
   With the Pentax 67ii, the new AE Pentaprism has the ability to set the shutter speed automatically given the aperture you are at (aperture priority auto-exposure). This is quite handy, but hardly essential.
   There are a variety of interchangeable waist-level finders for the Pentax 67. These are great for macro work, ground-level work, or for pretending your Pentax is a Hasselblad. The Pentax 67 is a system camera, you can also change out the focusing screen.
8. This is a great wedding camera: FALSE. The combination of horrible X-sync flash speed with slow film loading makes this unsuitable for wedding photography (unless you have a very patient bride) or on-the-fly photojournalism. Get a Hasselblad 500 with interchangeable backs instead. Or go digital like every other wedding photographer out there...
9. This is a terrible street photography camera: False. The 67 is a great street photography camera -- as long as you don't need to change film that often. People think it's just a regular SLR -- a bit big perhaps, but an SLR. So you look like just another tourist.
10. Only real men shoot Pentax 67s: FALSE. Actually, one of my friends, New York photographer Eun Suk Joo, shoots with a Pentax 67. She's maybe 5' tall and weighs less than a hundred pounds. It's funny to see her carry it since it's totally out of proportion to her body, but she shoots a mean slide with it and regularly prints giantic 40"x60" posters. If she's ever mugged, she could whack the assailant with her Pentax 67. He'll go down cold and she'll be lucky if she isn't charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

 



 

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Technical Details

Camera Name	6x7	67	67 II
Manufacturer	Asahi Optical
Place of Manufacture	Japan
Date of Manufacture	1969.7	1989	1998
Focusing System	Single-lens reflex with interchangeable pentaprism eye-level viewfinder 100% coverage Lens use helicoid focusing
Lens Mount	Pentax smc67 Bayonet Mount (internal and external bayonets)
Shutter	Mechanical focal plane shutter 1 sec ~ 1/1000 X-sync = 1/30	Electronically controlled focal plane shutter 1 sec ~ 1/1000 + X + B X-sync = 1/30	Electronically controlled focal plane shutter Manual: 4 sec ~ 1/1000 + X + B AE: 30sec~1/1000 X-sync = 1/30
Metering System	None built-in Optional TTL metering finder Full-frame metering Early models CdS metering Late models SpD metering Ev 2.5~19 ASA 12-3200		None built-in Optional AE Pentaprism finder Matrix, center-weighted, and spot metering Ev 2~21 ISO 6-6400
Flash	FP + X Sync PC connections		X Sync PC and TTL Proprietary connector
Film type / speeds	Medium format 120/220 type 10 frames on 120 film 20 frames on 220 film (Pentax 6x7 and 67) 21 frames on 220 film (Pentax 67 II) Frame size 55mm x 70mm (6x7)
Battery type	4 x LR44/SR44 1.5v or 1 x 4SR44 6.0v		2 x CR123A lithium 3v cells
Dimensions and weight		177x101x91mm 1.29kg w/o finder 177x152x91mm 1.76kg w/ TTL finder	185.5x108.5x92mm 1.21kg w/o finder 185.5x151x106mm 1.66kg w/ AE Pentraprism finder
Retail price
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Normal Lenses

Lens	SMC Pentax 67 55mm f/4	S-M-C Macro Takumar 135mm f/4	SMC Pentax Takumar 200mm f/4
Manufacturer	Asahi Optical Co.
Place of Manufacture	Japan
Date of Manufacture	????	????
Lens Construction	8 elements in 7 groups 78° AoV	5 elements in 3 groups 36.5° AoV	5 elements in 4 groups 25° AoV
Lens Mount	Pentax smc67 Bayonet Mount (internal) auto-diaphragm
Focusing range	0.35 meter (1.1') - infinity Left focusing (infinity at left)	0.75 meter (2.5 feet) - infinity Left focusing (infinity at left)	1.5 meter (4.9 feet) - infinity Left focusing (infinity at left)
Apertures	f/4 ~ f/22 (1 stop steps)	f/4 ~ f/32 (1 stop steps) 8 aperture blades	f/4 ~ f/32 (1 stop steps) x aperture blades
Filter Mount	77mm threaded	Filter: 67mm threaded	77mm threaded
Dimensions and weight	78.5mmx92.5mm 725g	95mmx91.5mm 645g	135mmx92mm 795g
Note: Using the text or images on this site in an ebay auction without permission is a violation of your ebay Terms of Service. I will report you to ebay if I discover such a violation taking place.

 

Leaf Shutter Lenses

Lens	SMC Pentax 67 55mm f/4	S-M-C Macro Takumar 90mm f/2.8 LS	SMC Pentax Takumar 165 f/4 LS
Manufacturer	Asahi Optical Co.
Place of Manufacture	Japan
Date of Manufacture	????	????
Lens Construction	8 elements in 7 groups 78° AoV	6 elements in 5 groups 52.5° AoV	5 elements in 4 groups 30° AoV
Lens Mount	Pentax smc67 Bayonet Mount (internal) auto-diaphragm
Focusing range	0.35 meter (1.1') - infinity Left focusing (infinity at left)	0.85 meter (2.75 feet) - infinity Left focusing (infinity at left)	1.6 meter (5 feet) - infinity Left focusing (infinity at left)
Apertures	f/4 ~ f/22 (1 stop steps)	f/2.8 ~ f/22 (1 stop steps) x aperture blades	f/4 ~ f/32 (1 stop steps) x aperture blades
Shutter	f/4 ~ f/22 (1 stop steps)	Copal 'C' Shutter 1/500, 250, 125, 60, 30
Filter Mount	77mm threaded	Filter: 67mm threaded	77mm threaded
Dimensions and weight	78.5mmx92.5mm 725g	91.5mmx62mm 610g	92.5mmx77mm 780g
Note: Using the text or images on this site in an ebay auction without permission is a violation of your ebay Terms of Service. I will report you to ebay if I discover such a violation taking place.

 

 

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About Asahi Optical Co.

You see both Asahi Pentax and Honeywell Pentax cameras on the market, what's the difference? Asahi Optical Company is the manufacturer of the cameras and has a very hallowed history. It was founded in 1919 to make optical lenses. It came out with its first SLR, the Asahiflex I in 1951. Pentax is the name of their first SLR with a pentaprism (penta-prism = pentax) which came out in 1957. Since then, it's been their tradename for their series of SLRs, just as EOS is the trade name for Canon's electronic SLRs.

Honeywell was the U.S. importer for Asahi cameras until the mid-1970s. Cameras that they imported are stamped "Honeywell Pentax" on the nameplate, not Asahi Pentax. With the minor except of one camera that was designed to accomodate a Honeywell flash unit, Honeywell Pentaxes are identical to Asahi Pentaxes.

About the only things with a stronger cult following than the Pentax screw mount cameras (Spotmatics) are their K-mount cameras, including the K1000. The K1000 which is now being made by Chinese companies and branded under Chinon and other labels, is often recommended by photography instructors. This has caused the price to stay about $200 for a new set. My own recommendation is to stay with the screw mounts. There is a wider variety of lenses and prices are relatively good. There's also a very strong cult following around their gargantuan Pentax 67 medium format SLRs.

• History of the Asahi Optical Corporation (digilander.libero.it)

Trivia: "Pentax" was one of the names the Nippon Optical Corporation cycled through when coming up with the name of their new camera in 1948. They ended up calling it the "Nikon" instead.

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On the Net

 

Kitamura's Camera Museum A tribute to the original Asahi Pentax Paul Provencher's excellent Asahi Pentax Camera and Lens page Pentax Discuss Mailing List (PDML.net) - mail list for Pentax enthusiasts Pentax Users Gallery - photos by Pentax users Photo.net: Pentax 67 Review Robert Monaghan: Pentax 67 information (extensive) Danny Gonzalez: 6x7 camera overview Shutterbug: Bob Mayer reviews the Pentax 67ii Luminous Landscape review Pentax 67 Lens Information (extensive) Pentax 6x7 modified for astrophotography by Company7 Hutech vacuum back Fixing a broken aperture linkage chain on the Pentax 6x7 Dante Stella on the 6x7/67 Pentax Discussion Mailing List (PDML) Japanese: Pentax 67 information Pentax 67 II information Online manuals: Pentax.com (manufacturer site; PDFs including the Pentax 67 manual and accessory manuals) Pentax 67ii information page direct link to Pentax 67ii manual (PDF) WhiteMetal.com has older Pentax manuals (pay site) Pentax-Manuals.com - free manuals, etc.