Mark's Sears KSX-P Page
Released 1983.1-13-24: It's only the 13th of January, and I've already broken my New Year's Resolution not to buy any more cameras. I was going to fill out the collection with lenses, flashes, and other accessories, but no more cameras. If you've been following this "adventure" you may remember my purchase of a Chinon CP-5 which was destroyed by leaking batteries. It's an amazing camera, full of weird ideas that almost worked that nobody wanted, even at a great price. The Sears KSX-P is the same camera sold at Sears. It's got the same three contacts for the "active auto-focus" lens, 2 program modes that work with any K-mount lenses. And it works on AAA batteries that can destroy the camera if left in too long. I think I passed on this camera a couple of weeks ago, because it looked like trash, and the photos of it were terrible. All of them. They're hiding the mirror, the shutter, the film door, the attached lens, everything. But I rolled the dice on it anyway. This is the face of addiction. It was "buy it now" for $12 bucks, plus freight. The current price was only $8, but I feared some other collector would bid it up, so I took it early. Came to $27.58, or $13.79 a piece. An ad I found from 1985 sells the camera on build quality. Gold contacts, a Seiko metal shutter, hardened steel gears and shafts, and a ball bearing film advance mechanism. It's plastic over aluminum alloy. Came with a 2 year warranty.
Metering: It has exposure memory and AE lock. The meter is center-weighted average. DX coded or Manual ISO selection and + or - 1 stop exposure compensation.
Shutter: It's Seiko metal bladed vertical curtain shutter goes from 30 seconds (in manual) to a thousandth. It supports unlimited multiple exposures.
Focus: Auto-focus with the two clunky, and probably unobtainable AF lenses, manual focus with any other K-mount lens, or others with an adapter.
Viewfinder: A pentaprism viewfinder with LCD display shows all camera functions, with split image and and microprism focusing.
Exposure modes: Two program modes. One is for high-speed with more depth of field. The other is slow shutter speed and shallow depth of field. It also supports aperture priority auto exposure, manual, and bulb.
Flash: A dedicated flash sets the sync speed to a 100th (a 60th on generic flashes) and shows ready in the viewfinder. Sears Auto / Thyristor flashes 8025, 8028 and 8032 are dedicated to the KSX-P.
Film transport: Auto film loading.
Batteries: It needs 3 AAA batteries to fire, available anywhere on the planet.
Lenses: There were only 2 auto-focus lens models, a 50mm and a 35-70mm zoom, and I haven't found either for sale yet. But all is not lost, as it works just fine on any K-mount lens you have, even using it's 2 program exposure modes.
Accessories: There's a built-in interval timer. It supports a crazy data back with a keyboard, the Chinon AD-510. There are two power winders, the PW-600 and PW-610. These replace the grip / battery holder and power the whole camera with 4 x AA batteries. There's even a wireless remote control with a hundred foot range. There are different audio indications for many conditions which thankfully can be silenced. I probably won't recall what the morse code sounds mean.
Limitations: Alkaline batteries are it's weak point. If left in the camera they will destroy it.
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1-26-24: Finally arrived in working condition. Alkalines inside were low but still worked. Rewind crank broken off as you can see below, I took the crank off my dead Chinon CP-5.
1-29-24: This went to the front of the line. Shot all in program program mode. The whole roll, including the sprockets, came out darker than I like, think my water temp was a little low. It could also be that the meter's off, or it doesn't like my 1.3 volt NiMH batteries. I'm happy it works as well as it does. The spot problem seems to be solved. This is Kentmere 100 x 24 exposures, developed in Caffenol-C for 11 minutes. The flash tests were taken with my Hanimex CB2200, because it has a PC cable. The hot shoe on the camera doesn't work. The customary "River View" shot (#3 here) was taken with my Pentax A 50mm F1.7. From there on I used an untested Pentax FA 35-80mm F4.5 to 5.6 lens. I'm not qualified to judge optical qualities, I'm happy if they work smoothly and don't fall off.
