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HISTORY!
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HISTORY OF
THE SITE |
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| I
am a long term fan and user of Pentax cameras. My first Pentax was a KX
which my wife bought me as an engagement present nearly 30 years ago. More
recently, I bought an older screw fit Pentax without a manual. Having
searched everywhere, the only place I could find to obtain one was the USA
Pentax site. They do provide a comprehensive source of manuals all the back
to pre Spotmatic days. The only problem is that they are scans of B&W photocopies
are so much of the detail is lost. During the search for the manual, I came
across a wealth of information on Pentaxs. Many of the sites I visited are
on the links page. Inspired by the work they had done and encouraged by
fellow members of the Pentax User Forum, I decided I would produce copies of
the manuals I had. Had I known the work involved, I might not have started
but from there it got bigger and bigger. I was sent several manuals by
members of the Pentax User Forum and I obtained many more from searches in
local camera shops and such places as eBay. There are still many waiting to
be scanned. However, I decided to go on line and will add the other manuals
as time permits. |
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ABOUT THE
MANUALS |
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manuals are all scanned at 300dpi in full colour (or grayscale for some of
the very old B/W manuals( and saved in jpeg format. The scans are then
carefully touched up to remove any "print through" from the
scanner and to touch up any marks from creases, tears etc. Some of the
scanned manuals are better than others and this more often than not reflects
the quality and condition of the source manual. They are then
combined in Adobe Acrobat to produce a PDF file. These tend to be very large
(between 25 and 100Mb). As a result they are compressed, again using
Acrobat, and the results are what you see here. Having seen the number of
people selling pdf manuals on eBay, I have password protected the files. It
would appear that most are downloading other peoples work including the
manuals from Pentax USA and making a profit for little personal effort. The
purpose of this site is so that you can get them for free. The password for
all the manuals is Pentax. I am about a third of the way through the manuals
I have and already the scans total over 3 Gb of files. Unfortunately the
compressed versions don't have the clarity of the "full" versions
or the original scans. I hope in the future to be able to produce the full
manuals on CD or DVD and will send them out for a nominal fee to cover the
cost of the blanks and postage. In the meantime, if you need a better copy
please contact me and I will see if I can help. I am also prepared to
provide the original scans on the understanding that they are for personal
use and not for any commercial gain. |
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THE
FUTURE |
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| Hopefully,
the site will move to a new home with more space and better bandwidth. I
will add as many manuals as I can and I also intend to produce as much of
the promotional material such as catalogues. If you have any manuals not
list and would be prepared to loan them for scanning or can send me scans, I
would be very grateful. |
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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| I could not have produced
this site without the help and support of many people. The inspiration came
from site such as the AOHC, Bojidar's KMP, Stan's and the m42 project.
Without the encouragement of the Pentax User Forum, I probably wouldn't have
started. In particular, I would like to thank Gordon, Kimbo,
Brian and Matt from the forum for donating to the project.
Finally and
most importantly, I would like to thank my wife for putting up with me and
being a "computer widow" whilst I have been doing all this. I will
grab you Auto 110 manuals soon! |
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