This is the oldest Pentax SLR in my collection (I have an older Asahiflex IIa but that's not officially a Pentax). The Asahi Pentax K model was introduced in 1958 as the successor to the first Asahi Pentax 35mm SLR camera introduced the previous year. It features an instant-return mirror and a top shutter speed of 1/1000 second. The "K" is said to stand for "King", as in the King of Cameras, believe it or not! Regardless, it is a beautiful design and it made the other SLRs of its day look clunky by comparison.

The Auto-Takumar 55mm f1.8 lens was introduced with the K camera. It's a six-element modified Gauss design, and was considered very fast in its day. While over 50 years old, it's still capable of taking sharp photos and has lovely bokeh as well. Note that the lens must be cocked using the lever at its base before each shot to fully open the diaphragm for focusing. It stops down to the preset taking aperture when the shutter is released.

Here are a couple of closeup shots of an African Violet at f2.8 and f5.6 and a shot of our cat Tara taken wide open at f1.8. All shots were taken indoors under tungsten illumination using my K10D.