A Site dedicated Vintage technology
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Vintage Cameras
  4. /
  5. Pentax MZ-7 35 mm autofocus SLR

Pentax MZ-7 35 mm autofocus SLR

I have an on/off love affair with Pentax. Although I basically love Pentax cameras, I have a bit of a problem at the moment with reliability.

Pentax MZ-7 Reliability

I'm looking for a good autofocus 35 mm camera to carry with me when I'm out with my NEX 6 or Pentax K5, and an obvious choice would be a Pentax since the majority of my K-mount lenses are actually full frame. Because of that, I've bought a few from the MZ series, but I've found several problems.

I have an MZ-50 and an MZ-30 which seem to be fine, an MZ-5n which has a problem with the mirror motor (a standard problem on Pentax MZ) and I have a Pentax MZ-7 on which the shutter stopped firing.

Except I tried the MZ-7 again today and the shutter is firing again?

Anyway I only paid just over £4 for the MZ-7 and a Pentax M 80-200 mm Zoom, so it wasn't bad value!

Pentax MZ-7 Images

Pentax MZ-7 Description

This is one of the better Pentax Auto-focus cameras in the MZ series.

As with all Pentax models the numbers go down as the features and price go up, so the MZ-50 I have is an entry level camera, the MZ-30 is slightly more featured etc and the MZ-7 is a mid-range camera only bettered by the MZ-6, the MZ-5, the MZ-3 and the MZ-S.

Even though this is officially a mid-range camera, it has a pretty impressive feature set. There are the full range of automatic exposure controls, along with manual control, automatic focusing, auto picture modes, DX coding with override, motor film drive, multiple exposures etc. There is a top mounted LCD which has a lot of the picture information displayed, and a lot of this is also repeated in the small panel to the right of the main display in the viewfinder

Exposure modes

The MZ-7 offers all the exposure modes an experienced photographer could need, as well as some 'beginner' modes. For the photographer, there is shutter priority and aperture priority auto exposure along with full manual operation, and then a variety of 'picture modes' to assist the beginner photographer to achieve the photo they are after.

The picture modes are 'low light', 'sports', 'macro', 'landscape', 'portrait' & 'Green mode'. There is also an 'Auto Picture' mode which will select the best mode for the picture being taken - well, the mode the camera assesses is the best mode. The mode dial lights up with the selected picture mode and interestingly, when the Auto Picture mode is selected the individual mode selected lights on the mode dial. The picture mode selected is also displayed in the viewfinder as a reminder when the camera is up to the eye.

I think the range of modes available made this a good camera to 'grow' with - a complete beginner could use it to get great photos, and once they have some experience they can switch to the more creative modes.

Exposure measurement

By the time this camera was made, the exposure measuring system had developed into a quite sophisticated system. Multi segment metering has been built into this camera, although only 6 segments instead of the possibly hundreds used in modern digital cameras. In theory, the multi segment measurement should mean that the camera will be able to detect high contrast scenes (such as back lit portraits) and automatically apply correction. In my experience, these systems are not foolproof, but they do make a difference in some cases.

In instances where exposure compensation needs to be applied, the switch is just above the auto/manual focus switch and in a convenient place to apply it with the left hand. This contrasts well with the MZ-50, which used the switch in that position to enable/disable the beep the camera makes when autofocussing!

Autofocus

The MZ-7 can autofocus using appropriate lenses and has a 3 sensor system to allow focusing on subjects away from the middle of the frame. The Pentax system used screw drive autofocus lenses where the focus motor is in the camera body, which was starting to become a bit 'behind the curve' when this camera was designed because manufacturers like Canon and Nikon were starting to fit ultrasonic motors to the lenses. In fact, the screw driven lenses are not significantly slower than ultrasonic motors, but they are considerably noisier.

There is a manual/auto switch located on the left-hand side of the lens mount, which is quite convenient to switch to manual focus when the camera is held to the eye.

Drive modes

The MZ-7 takes DX coded film, which is automatically advanced and loaded. As well as the normal single shot mode, it's possible to select continuous shot mode, multiple exposures, self-timer mode and remote shutter release using an optional remote control. There is also a very weird 'panorama' mode, which just frames off a portion of the top and bottom of the picture to only expose the middle of the film. This cropping occurs in the viewfinder as well to make the picture easier to correctly compose. Apparently, when you took the film to the lab to develop you needed to tell them that there were panorama images on the film, so the lab correctly framed them when printing.

Other features

As I mentioned above, there are a whole host of features on this camera, many of which would be familiar to users of modern digital cameras. If it remains working it will be really useful - although in the meantime I've bought a Nikon F80 to use as my main autofocus 35 mm SLR, which I'm very impressed with.

Pentax MZ-7 Specifications

  • Pentax MZ-7 35mm auto-focus camera
  • DX coded film with override and mid roll rewind
  • Auto focus with 3 point sensor + manual focus
  • Snap in focus feature.
  • Aperture priority/Shutter priority/Manual mode
  • Auto Picture mode/Green mode/Scene modes
  • Shutter 1/2000 to 30sec
  • Exposure compensation of +- 3 stops - visible in viewfinder
  • Self timer and remote shutter release
  • Popup flash
  • 92% pentamirror viewfinder with lots of shooting information
  • Kaf lens mount
  • Manual available on line here

How useful was this article?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 4 / 5. Vote count: 1

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this article.

As you found this post useful...

Please consider sharing to social media

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Leave a Reply

Newsletter



    Area of interest

    Cameras & Lenses
    Photos & Films
    Projectors
    Radios & Tape Recorders

    I accept the privacy statement

    You can edit your preferences and unsubscribe at any time after subscribing. Privacy Statement

    All content @SimonHawketts 2024
    Index
    linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram
    ×