- The Pentax K1000 35mm SLR is one of photography's greatest, most popular and longest-lived cameras.
- This Pentax film camera is completely mechanical and needs no battery to run, however, you must purchase an A76 cell battery to run the light meter.
- Unlike other SLR and DSLR cameras, the K1000 is simple and has little to no learning curve. There is three shooting controls: aperture, shutter speed and focus. You set the film speed when you load it.
- An extraordinary simple camera that forces you to think about your picture instead of your camera. As a result, it's recommended by most photography teachers, instructors, and professors to be used in their classes.
- The Pentax K1000 is so brilliant that you never need to turn the meter or camera on or off: both are always on for instant picture taking
The K1000 is an almost-all metal, mechanically (springs, gears, levers) controlled, manual-focus SLR with manual-exposure control. It is completely operable without batteries. Batteries are only required (one A76 or S76, or LR44 or SR44) for the light metering information system. This consists of a centre-the-needle exposure control system using a galvanometer needle pointer moving between vertically arranged /– over/underexposure markers at the right side of the viewfinder to indicate the readings of the built-in full-scene averaging, cadmium sulfide (CdS)battery light meter versus the actual camera settings. The meter does not have a true on/off switch and the lens cap must be attached to the lens to prevent draining the K1000's battery when it is not in use. The K1000 uses a horizontal travel, rubberized silk cloth focal plane shutter with a speed range of 1/1000 second to 1 second, along with Bulb and a flash X-sync of 1/60 second. It is 91.4 millimetres tall, 143 mm wide, and 48 mm deep, and weighs 620 grams. The body is finished in black leather with chrome trim only, although early production Pentax K1000 SE bodies have brown leather with chrome trim. In 1983, a K1000 with SMC Pentax-M 50 mm f/2 lens listed for $220.
