journal features

buh-bye Pentax MX

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Tokyo, 2008.01.06

I did something today which I've only done twice before. I threw out a non-functioning camera. My Pentax MX, bought for ($far too much) only two years ago, has utterly stopped working. The kicker came when I realized that not only was the mirror no longer coming down (only an occasional problem in the past) but the shutter wasn't even working at all (previous problems were simply that the meter couldn't accurately set shutter speeds at higher than 1/250 of a second.

I have to hand it to the guys at Map Camera in Shinjuku, they know how to make a buck on bad product. I'd already sunk additional money into the little thing to try to get it working again, but it was all for nothing.

rand()m quote

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov