It uses a horizontal travel, rubberized silk cloth focal plane shutter with a speed range of 1/1000 second to 1 second, along with Bulb and a flash X-sync of 1/60 second.

This consists of a centre-the-needle exposure control system using a galvanometer needle pointer moving between vertically arranged +/– over/underexposure markers to indicate the readings of the built-in full-scene averaging, cadmium sulfide (CdS)battery light meter[6] versus the actual camera settings.

[7] Conventional for the time, there is a film advance lever on the right and a rewind crank on the left on the top plate.

The Pentax K1000 SE substituted a split image rangefinder plus microprism collar focusing screen.

Later (non-Asahi) SE models had top and bottom plates made from plastic, painted to look like metal.

In addition, almost all lenses with the Pentax K-AF and K-AF2 autofocus lens mounts (introduced 1987 and 1991, respectively) also work in manual focus mode.

The sparse information in the viewfinder can make taking photos a little ponderous, as the camera might need to be removed from the eye to check settings, on top of which the meter is slow to respond, even by 1976 standards.

Today, good used versions fetch higher prices than its originally more costly and better featured K Series siblings, partly because those others, made in far fewer numbers, are overlooked or have been forgotten.

At the same time electronics was beginning to revolutionise camera design, and buyers were increasingly expecting automation in place of (or in addition to) manual metering.

The K1000 was thus a Spotmatic F with a K mount, but with the self-timer, depth of field preview, film reminder dial, and the FP flash socket (by now redundant) removed.

Production continued until 1997 when manufacturing costs of its older design and supply of its mechanical and electronic parts (especially precision analogue microgalvanometers for the light meter) finally became untenable.

Production of the largely hand assembled camera was moved from Japan, first to Hong Kong in 1978 and then to China in 1990, to keep labor costs down.

Cheaper plastic was substituted for the originally satin-chromed brass top and bottom plates and aluminum and steel film rewind assembly.