I'm a K Man.

Pentax has a long history of revolutionizing photography. The Asahiflex and Spotmatic cameras were among the most innovative and creative SLRs of their day. The 6X7 remains one of the highest-quality medium format cameras available with an array of high-quality lenses. The MZ-S, LX, and MX also represent the best of Pentax and cameras that rival or out-compete their peers at Olympus, Minolta, Nikon, and Canon. The KM was never a marquis camera. It differs from the K1000 in the number of options, having also a depth of field preview, self timer, second flash sync, and film indicator. Other than that, it's mechanically and functionally about the same as the K1000. The four K series cameras -- K1000, KM, KX, and K2 -- were great for their time and remain highly usable and durable SLRs.

I definitely don't use my KM enough. Here are some reasons why I should use it more -- it sings with the kit 50mm 1:2 lens.


1/1,000th, f5.6
These are vertical concrete bars on a parking garage. At an angle, with lucky lighting, and the fortune of a yellow filter that matched -- exactly -- the wavelength range reflected by the yellow-painted bars, this image became something highly dramatic, very 1950's suspense film-ish.


This is stitched together from three images. Each were taken at 1/1,000th, f22.


1/1,000th, f5.6


Apple is eating the world in 2012. WWDC stands for WorldWide DevourCon.
1/125th, f11


Let's end with a contrast test. Here are the same images at different aperture settings. Notice as we descend that the images become less contrasty. Fascinating.
1/250th, f11


1/60th, f16


1/1,000th, f2.8