This is a review for the Pentax Z-1. This is a friend's camera that
stayed with my for 3 months during which I shot one film with it.
The
Pentax Z-1 came out in the (now) distant 1991 and it was a very
innovative camera back at that time. I remember reading about this
camera on the photographic press; it was marketed as the Top-of-the-line
Pentax although it clearly lacked the modularity and the build quality
of its predecessor, the Pentax LX. The LX was a modular system while the
Z-1 was a high-end tier camera. It stayed in production for a total of 9
years, receiving an update in 1995 which added a few more features and a
more responsive AF module but nothing else. As it is usually the case,
cameras of that era (early 90's) are jam packed with useless features
which impact on their usability. I suppose it was kind of way to make a
camera sound very "high-tec" back at that time. The Z-1 is no exception, the user manual is a whooping 120 pages to read.
First
impressions are a mixed bag. Good quality plastic and nice finish are
evident on this camera. The weight is nice and comfortable. The problem
is the extensive use of plastic. I unscrewed the bottom plate and
believe me, it is wafer thin plastic, you can crash it easily with your
one hand. On a top-of-the-line Pentax I would expect to see more metal.
Other
than that, the shape of the camera is nice and comfortable to hold with
a big chunky grip. There are a few more ergonomic hiccups though. When I
grab the camera grip, my fingers go like this: Index finger: Rotating
wheel, middle finger: shutter button, the other two fingers on the grip.
I find this to be un-ergonomic. I always trip the shutter with my index
so it seems that Pentax has placed the shutter button a bit too low,
leaving a lot of empty space on top. Probably this has also to do with
Pentax's decision to place the flash gun on the right of the camera.
This meant that the LCD panel was moved on the top of the pentaprism,
making it big and easy to read but at the same time it is
left unprotected. True, in my sample the LCD panel has loads and loads
of scratches. Another thing that left me cold was the viewfinder.
Relatively small and not so bright (with the Ricoh 50 f/2), I was
expecting something of the glorious Pentax MX in there. But no.
But, hey, there are good news too. First of all, the multi-segment meter is phenomenal. I am not sure how does the Z-1 do it, but it is always spot on. There are multiple reports on the Internet which testify it but I can speak from my own experience too that the light meter performs flawlessly. There is also the usual spot and centre-weight metering if you wish. Another thing that works well is the AF. It is not the fastest horse on the race, with occasional hunting and not as responsive as the newer cameras, but I doubt it will ever let you down. I tested it with the old 35-135 f/3.5-4.5 and it was good. Noise is a bit on the loud side, especially the advance motor but nothing too bad. Vibrations are kept low. A big advantage of this Pentax (just as with every Pentax really) is the compatibility with older Pentax glass and third party PK lenses. I have used the Ricoh 50 f/2 that you see in the picture and works well on Aperture priority and Manual. You can also use spot metering with these lenses.
So, good build quality, excellent metering, good AF module, compatibility with older lenses - this sounds like the winning recipe. Not yet ,there is one more thing. It is the user interface that I found it to be really (really) bad. It is not as bad as the Minolta's 9xi but it is still very bad. Apart from the usual exposure and drive modes that you can fathom out easily, the rest of the camera's functions remain a mystery. Just to give you a
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| Rear of the camera |
Pentax introduced the so called "Hyper Programme" and "Hyper Manual" exposure modes with this camera. The idea is that in these modes, you can instantly switch from one exposure mode to another with just a rotation of a dial. While some Pentax users find this an excellent feature, I found it quite useless. And this is because, if I shoot on programme, I want it on programme. If I feel that I need to change exposure mode, I press the button and rotate the dial. If I want to change the f/speed combination, I can do that through programme. So adding two more exposure modes on this camera, makes an over-complicated user-interface even worst. Pentax dropped this feature later on (as they probably saw that it was pointless, I would add....).
Although the Pentax Z-1 is a reliable camera, twenty years later there are a few things to watch out when buying second hand. First of all, cracked bottom plates are quite common - the one reviewed here has - a sign of the camera being dropped. There are reports about uneven spacing between frames and loose spring on the build-in flash (this one reviewed has a loose flash spring - leaves the flash half open). Finally, check to see if the mirror is stuck in the up position, apparently this is something quite common with these cameras.
Summary
OK, I might sound too harsh but I am not. This is an excellent camera that will always bring back home well exposed and focused pictures. And at the end of the day, this is was matters. You have to read my criticism within the context of the "Pentax's flagship for a decade" though. Does this camera compare favourably against the likes of the Nikon F4 or F5? Canon EOS-1n? Minolta 9xi or Dynax 9? No it doesn't. The Pentax Z-1 feels more like a competitor for the Nikon F-90x or the Canon EOS-5 or the Minolta 700s. And how does it compare to them? OK but these are newer cameras so the Z-1 might struggle a bit in terms of AF speed and ease of use.
For me, the biggest problem of this camera is the fact that it is over-complicated. I have sold better cameras than this in the past because of their complexity. Pentax realised it later on and all these bad ergonomics were corrected in the MZ-series. The Pentax MZ-5n is an excellent example of how a camera interface should be (in my opinion the best user interface ever... by far). The Z-1 is a camera that you can customise it however you want but make sure you don't forget the manual at home.
Today (April 2015) these cameras are sold for 1/10th of their original price. On that auction site you can get them for anything between £50-£70. If you are a Pentax user, maybe getting one of these makes sense although I would urge you to have a look on the newer MZ-5n or MZ-6. If not, the similar tier offers from the big three might be a better option. For less money you can get a Nikon F90x which is streets ahead the Pentax.
The decision is yours.
Dear Panagiotis Giannakis
ReplyDeleteHaving bought the Z-1 in 1993 i can say you are wrong on a few things here. Yes the camera has its weak points, the pop-up flash failed on me too from early 2018, first it didn't fully open, now it won't open at all.
Issues that bothered me from the beginning are that the focusing screen is nearly impossible for focusing manually, whereas for instance a Minolta 300si is great to focus manually. It is an issue with all Pentax camera's since and Pentaxforums.com is loaded with posts on using alternative screens.
A second issue is Pentax never releasing a battery-grip for either the Z-1 or Z-1p (where P stands not for professional but for Panorama, a hype of those days). There was a hand-grip which is empty plastic. It does improve holding but was reasonably expensive (just above battery-grips from other manufacturers).
Where you are wrong about is the position of the front wheel. This is perfect as it is to be operated a lot unless you always shoot on program but then you should have bought a cheaper Z-10 or something like a Minolta 300si, 3xi or 3000i where the first has landscape, sports, macro, portrait and night portrait programs and the last only a push-button to switch between normal and fast program.
The index finger naturally also operates the shutter release so middle finger goes with the rest under the release-button, problem solved.
Placing the LCD on the prisma as on the SFX/SF1, SF7/SF10 and SFXn/SF1n before and all later Z-series cameras (Z-20, Z-50, Z-70) makes it vulnerable for scratches but allows for better balance of the camera and mounted flashgun.
The user interface, although having some quirks, is actually pretty good. Most of the settings under pf are made only once and never changed thereafter but switching between spot and center-weight metering doesn't belong there.
Mid-film rewinding is a function seldom used by most photographers and thus it is placed somewhere where it isn't all too obstructive. That and the pf-functions are indeed things one needs to read the manual for, but those are the only things you need to read the manual for, all the rest is lay out pretty logical and obvious.
Exposure modes:
Hyper-manual is just a manual setting where you can return to the program line by touching the 'if' button (maybe that name 'if' is confusing, i don't remember what it stands for either. I hardly ever uses that if button, especially since i seldom use the hyper-manual. When using a lens off the A-setting (or an older lens without it) one basically has just conventional manual or aperture priority.
Hyper-Program:
ReplyDeleteSince the auto-focus age most camera's have featured a kind of program-shift. Pentax choose another approach, in that you can switch to shutter-priority or aperture-priority by turning the wheel (Hyper Program). The logic is that if one changes the setting, there must be a reason to choose anther speed or aperture and that reason may persist to the next frame. Program-shift camera's on the other hand return to the programmed setting after each shot thus having the photographer having to apply the same shift over and over again which is annoying. This Pentax approach makes the traditional aperture-priority and speed-priority settings obsolete. For those who still want to use them, they are still there though. Pentax further solidified that approach in the successor, the MZ-S (aka MZ-1) where there are no separate mode settings. Turn the wheel and you're in speed-priority, turn the aperture and your in aperture-priority, turn both and you're in manual. This however interferes with the approach of controlling aperture from the camera and leaving the aperture-ring from the lenses as done by Minolta and Canon when they introduced their AF systems and followed by Nikon and Pentax in the digital age. The Pentax Z-line can adapt to both.
The Pentax photographer just touches the if button if he wants to return to the program line, something the P button does on many Minolta and other camera's. The question is however whether that P stands for program or for Panic as it usually resets a whole lot of other settings. Pentax did experiment with program shift in the Z-20 but there they made it a learning function. If the photographer always shifts a program (action, landscape, portrait, close-up or normal) towards faster speeds it will adapt that program line and if he shifts it to smaller apertures it will adapt again.
As for using older lenses, using a lens off the A-position disables the multi-segment-metering switching to center-weight only which is a shame.