I would like to thank my followers for all of the comments left on my last two posts. I appreciate all the tips as I continue to trouble shoot my Pentax ME Super. One of the first things I did, after looking at the first two rolls of film I shot was to visit Flickr and search for photos that were tagged with "Pentax ME Super" and "Kodak TMax 400". This is very easy to do in Flickr and returned many photos which gave me an idea of how my photos should look. After looking at the Flickr photos, I was encouraged, since many of the photos look pretty close to my better shots. I had more success with my second roll of film, but still felt the light meter was erratic, and could not be trusted. Researching the many on-line forums I found that this is a common problem with the Pentax ME Super. It also appears that this can be easily fixed. Before I send off the camera for repair I decided to shoot one more roll of film and not rely on the camera's light meter to set my aperture and shutter speed. To do this, I used the tried and true "Sunny 16 Rule" for exposure, which just about every good photographer knows about. So I loaded the camera with my last roll of Kodak TMax 400, and with the ISO set to 400, I set my aperture to f16 and my shutter speed 1/500 of a second off I went on a bright sunny day. This was my most successful roll, containing many more keepers. Some of the better shots are below.
Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT 2015
I'm encouraged by these results, and I plan to have the camera sent off to a local shop for some cleaning and maintenance before I shoot anymore film. At least know I know I can't rely on the camera's light meter, and will determine my exposures in other ways.
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