Finding my Asahi Pentax

Fossicking through the history held in antique shops is one of my favourite things to do. In late November of 2021 my partner and I started in Peregian then drove along the coast to Noosa, looking through all of the antique stores we could find on Apple Maps. I always try to find the shelf with the old cameras, many of which are retired paperweights – perhaps fixable but I can never know. This particular shelf had an Asahi Pentax S1a that I have now fallen in love with. Compact and heavy, a camera with the lever to roll the 35mm film across… I can finally feel like I’m actually doing it! There is something a little magic about the craft of the analog film camera. I feel so much closer to the creation of the image. The camera has never felt more like a tool to me.

I picked it up off the shelf and opened the back. It was clean, the cover tight. I closed the back, pulled the lever, and clicked the shutter. It fired sharply and the shutter opened back up swiftly. I turned the price tag over, attached to the strap ring with twine – $250 it read. I put it back on the shelf. After looking through old match boxes, pocket watches and zippo lighters for a moment I picked it up again and took it to the shop owner.

He was crouched behind his short desk, hiding behind his collected antiques and white untamed facial hair. I asked him if he knew if the camera worked, he opened the back, closed it again, pulled the lever and clicked the shutter before replying, “well I don’t actually know, I don’t think the take up spool turns properly… I could do it for $95.”

Cheeky bastard I thought. Sold.

I ruined the first colour roll I put through it, because I ignorantly opened the back when I couldn’t work the spool in reverse.

I put a roll of black and white Ilford Delta 400 through it many months later and fell in love with the character this camera can capture.