I cleaned up the new camera the other night... and it's a beauty! There was a small smudge on the lens that I was worried about, that could have been either hiding a scratch or fungus... but it cleaned up wonderfully with a little help from my glasses lens cleaner and chamois.

There's a small dint in the lens, which means I won't be able to attach filters to it.... but since I can pick up new lenses from McBain Camera for around $40, I'm not too worried.

The mechanics are in great condition; the lens mirror snaps up nicely, with no hitch and the mirror is scratch free as well. there's a small black spot in the viewfinder, but that will have no bearing on any photographs taken with it... all in all, it was a steal for $20. Something I noted in the previous entry was that it lacked a flash hot shoe. It turns out I was wrong on this count (I was going from memory, not having the camera in front of me).. it not only has a flash hot shoe, but it also has two external leads out of the camera, to hook up to external flash units (not that I'm ever going to need or even use that functionality).

Something I did note about the Autoreflex T3, aside from its weight (it's at least a pound heavier than the K100... and physically bigger as well) is the volume of the shutter mechanism. This is not a camera to take subtle, stealthy photos with... if you snap a picture, the people around you will know it. :)

Tonight I need to head out and get batteries for it (for the auto-exposure)... and after that, I can start taking pictures!

(which reminds me... I've got a roll of film from the Pentax sitting in my coat pocket, just waiting to be developed. It has some more Christmas tree photos on it. Now that I have a scanner, and it's working, I can hopefully scan them in at a better quality than what walmart was doing)