6^th PENTAX DAY (PART I)

By Ermanno Barchiesi

The 6th Pentax Day took place on the nice west coast of Liguria, at the Grand Hotel di Arenzano, about 20 Km from Genoa. The Grand Hotel is an impressive and elegant building featuring early 20th century architecture. It can attract the most distinguished customers, offering them top-level services. As an example, during the Pentax Day, the Genoa football team was there.

Setting up the event was truly demanding for member Gianfranco Chesi, who was practically alone in managing all the activities. He was also short of luck, as he broke his heel just before the event. However, his dedication continued, so that Gianfranco was able to carry out the job with some help from the club.

As planned, the opening to the public was at 9 a.m. Members and their companions started crowding the nice hall we had.

On both sides of the admission corridor, some captivating images by Arnaldo Calanca introduced visitors to the main hall. There, to your left you could see the club registration and meeting table, while on the right the club showcases were there to show you this year’s one-day museum.

On sides of the hall were the tables of Manfrotto to the left and Ferrania and Il Fotografo magazine on the right. Protege was opposite the entrance, together with Tecno 2000, the service center checking visitors’ cameras and lenses. Manfrotto also set up a nice photo set with backdrops and lights for model shooting.

Display panels in the central area of the hall were showing the many pictures of AOHC group exhibition and two individual exhibitions of the underwritten. In fact, I wanted to show images of two different places being far in space and even more in time. I wanted to highlight how different our world can be, without you need to go so far from your living area.

The first series concerned the Defence in Paris, the modern district where architecture casts into the future. The second series was made in a village in Salerno province, abandoned by its inhabitants one century ago so that it remained as it was then.

At the welcome table members could get some gifts like the Pentax Calendar and the meal voucher offered by Protege. In addition to Issue 28 of Spotmatic, the gadget the club made this year was distributed: an AOHC embroidered badge that you can stitch on your photo vest or bag.

The day museum was celebrating 25 years of the K1000 and 20 years of the MEF, the first 35mm autofocus SLR put on sale.

Many variations of the K1000 were present: the standard model, a cornerstone of SLR photography, and some special versions like the SE for the North-American market and the K1000 Anniversary, maybe the only exclusive SLR for the Italian market only. Made by the former Pentax importer in 1994, it was intended for celebrating 25 years of their partnership with Pentax. We do hope we won’t have to wait so long to see another special version of a Pentax SLR from Protege.

Then, you could see the rare K1000 Post (made for the French Postal Service without the shutter speed dial, hence with just one shutter speed) and some Chinese clones of the K1000: the MINGCA and the GALILEO, featuring black finish, self-timer and meter readouts via LED in place of needle.

The MEF, a derivative of the ME Super, was made in a single variation. However, we also had on display a camera complete with its 35-70 f/2.8 autofocus zoom lens which was perfectly sectioned along its optical axis.

All of the M-series cameras, which started in 1976 with the MX and ME, were on display: ME Super, MV, MV-1, MG, and their descendants Super A and Program A. A K2DMD, a KX MD, an LX and a curious transparent PZ1 completed the showcase of recent cameras.

The section dedicated to screw mount cameras saw the Tower 23 (Asahiflex IA), the Asahiflex IIA and the Asahi Pentax AP, K, S2, S1A, SP, SP500, SP MD, SP1000, SPF MD, Electro Spotmatic, and the Heiland Pentax H1.

Of course there were also many lenses, both in screw mount and bayonet. Among them you can spot the 500 f5 for the Asahiflex, the 15 f3.5 and the 17 f4 Fish-eye, and the 70-150 f4.5, 45-125 f4 and 85-210 f4.5 screw mount zoom lenses. Among the bayonet mount lenses on display, it is worthy to mention the 120 f2.8, the 85 f2.2 Soft, and the 400-600 f8-12 mirror zoom lens.

The camera display also saw a complete Auto 110 outfit and the medium format 645. This year we wanted to show a wide selection of accessories. Among them, the flash units Super Lite II, Autorobo and AF080C, clip-on meters and the rare Dial Data back for the MX.

Quite a lot of this equipment was supplied by Dino Fadelli, hence a special thanks goes to him, without forgetting all the other members who contributed to put together a nice historical display.

6th Pentax Day Report (Part II)
6th Pentax Day Report (Part III)
6th Pentax Day Report (Part IV)