There's nothing like a vintage manual camera without all the bells and whistles of the modern Auto Focus Single Lens Reflex (SLR) film cameras or the even newer Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR)cameras. The new cameras can perform all manner of fancy functions, and if you read the hundred page manuals, can produce professional results for amateur photographers with litle effort. However, if you drop a new camera, or if you get it damp, or if one of the little plastic pins that hold the gears for auto focus or aperture breaks off (and the list goes on and on), your camera will likely no longer function. And if the battery goes dead, your camera is totally dead! With a vintage manual camera, like the Asahi Pentax K1000, you pretty much have to run over your camera with a tank to make it stop functioning, and it will give you reliable service in all conditions for YEARS without special treatment. If the battery happens to go dead, you can do like anyone who is used to his MANUAL camera, and accurately set the aperture from experience. I have taken many excellent pictures this way WITHOUT a light meter. An original Asahi Pentax K1000 from the late 1970s is a very desirable and well built camera, that was built in Japan by Asahi Optical Company (Asahi Kogaku), before the manufacturing of the famous K1000 was moved to several other countries (and the ASAHI label was removed). These earlier, solider, members of the K1000 family are what many experienced photographers still look for for backup and back country cameras. These are STILL the back bone of photography classes in schools. What makes the K1000 so unique is it's simplicity. While everyone else during this time period was adding all the bells and whistles of auto-focus, programming, electronics, etc., the Asahi Pentax K1000 continued to be built with the ability to function well with NO battery at all. The only reason for using a battery in the K1000 is to operate the light meter, making it virtually foolproof in the field, with very, very little that could go wrong with it! The Asahi Pentax K1000 (later marked the Pentax K1000) is a great camera for beginners, students, and serious photographers who love to have full control over all aspects of their art. It uses the K-mount lens, which offers tremendous options for a wide variety of other choices. It uses a horizontal travel, cloth focal plane shutter made of rubberized silk, with a speed range of 1 second to 1/1000 of a second and B (bulb), with a flash X-sync of 1/64 of a second. It is finished in black leather body with chrome top, bottom and lens mount. The K1000 is almost all metal, mechanically controlled with springs, gears and levers, instead of chips, wires and led screens, and is a manual focus SLR with manual exposure control. It is fully operable WITHOUT batteries. It needs one LR44 or equivalent only for the light meter, with is a simple center-the-needle galvanometer needle pointer that moves up and down between a + and - visible vertically at the right side of the viewfinder. Note that this meter does not have an on/off switch, so the lens needs to be covered when not in use, or the battery needs to be removed. To some, this might sound like a silly design flaw, but the reality is, switches can break, and the K1000 left it out, making it even more foolproof. Personally, I would recommend that anyone using a manual camera like the K1000 should get a hand held meter and never even put a battery in this camera! You just can't go wrong that way! Furthermore, once you get used to your camera, you can learn to take great pictures without a light meter. It's not difficult and a lot of fun.