2026-10-23 Pentax ESPIO 135M Camera

The Pentax ESPIO 135M was introduced in 2000 towards the end of a long line of ESPIO cameras. I have about 11 of the various ESPIO versions out there, mostly being one-of-a-kind but I have three ESPIO 135M's. Of the two I had already, one 135M has its remote and one has serious display problems.

This one showed up at a thrift store for under $3 in its original pouch case and neck strap. The neck strap had the particular little widget that makes opening the battery compartment a lot easier.

It is hard to form an opinion of a camera that is now largely obsolete. It shoots 35mm film providing a huge amount of help to get great exposures and sharp results—but there are some built-in negatives.

The 38 mm to 135 mm zoom is pretty slow going from a best aperture of f/4.8 at 38mm to the worst aperture f/12.5 at the 135mm end. The zoom has eight elements in six groups with super multi-coating. You can gain a bit of shutter speed back by always using ISO 400 film, as daylight conditions work a lot better with hand-held action shots. It can shoot at night, particularly with a tripod and the remote trigger, but the flash doesn’t reach far either. The camera has a panorama switch that sets the viewfinder for panoramic framing as well as masking the film gate.

Nobody ever bought an ESPIO 135M for weird lighting conditions. ESPIO 135M’s were bought because they are really good at tourist shots without the operator having to know a lot about photography. Skilled photographers could get excellent results with the ESPIO 135M because so much was built into the package.

And frankly, it is a very attractive camera…

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