Pentax MZ-6 (Europe) / ZX-L (USA)

Preview
Functions
Conclusions

Preview

New Pentax MZ-6 is really great camera, made as direct competitor to Minolta Dynax 5, Nikon F65 and Canon EOS 300/300-V. It has almost every function you could expect for camera of this class. The design is perfect, everything placed right. Whan I was thinking about buying new camera, I choosed just this one, because of plenty of features for very good price. I would not recommend Canon Eos 300/300-V and Nikon F-65 because of poor functions this cameras offers. Only Minolta Dynax 5 is camera with similar features.

Pentax has one great advantage over other brands - it has no problem with using old great non-zoom manual lenses. Every lens for Pentax system has ability to switch aperture operation to manual mode. I consider Pentax K bayonet the best - it has great back compatibility.

This camera has an excellent metering system. While you may wonder if a metering system with 35 points is better than Pentax's 6 segment metering, I doubt very seriously that it is. I have gotten accurate metering outdoors, in backlit situations, indoors, low light, etc. The spot metering system also seems to be accurate.

This camera has an "auto" mode that turns it into a glorified point & shoot camera. It works fantastically! When I check the f-stop and shutter speed settings I nearly always find them appriopriate for the situations I'm addressing. If you shoot slides have no fear, the ZX-L does not overexpose. For situations in which I want more control, both the shutter priority and aperture priority modes are extremely easy to use.

The AF system is great, too. It is not loud (though not as quiet as the Canon USM AF system), but it is reasonably fast and quite accurate. The body supports AF tracking for when a subject is moving. I have found that feature to work well, also.

This body has a durable *metal* KAF mount for lenses, which means old Pentax lenses from years gone by will fit. So you might be able to extend your lens collection for this camera by borrowing from friends who have old Pentax lenses they no longer use. For instance, I an old 50mm SMC-A lens from my old P30t with this camera just fine.
The on camera flash is very convenient, and pops up automatically in most situations where it is needed.

I have taken about 15 rolls of print film since getting my camera 1.5 months ago. These include indoor and outdoor pictures, pictures with the on camera flash and a larger flash on the hot shoe. All came out well. Exposure times varied from about 1/500 to 10". I have taken a roll of slides outdoors in bright sunlight with no exposure problems, and at night as long exposure with no exposure problems. This camera is as good for beginners as for professionals. It has six picture modes (Program, Portrait, Landscape, Close-Up, Action, and Night Scene) are easy to set with Mode dial and works fine. If you are more skilled user, you would probably use the semi-automatic exposure modes, like Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority or Metered Manual mode. The Spot/3-point AF lever is located on the right next to the viewfinder but there is no indication as to which mode is being used in the viewfinder LCD. The high-precision, high-speed phase-matching autofocus (SAFOX IV) is rather nippy and locks on tightly to its target with hardly any hunting or minor lens adjustments.

Functions

Conclusions

Read 7,039 times

Reply 

Return to articles