That makes at least two of us. You might remember the reliability challenges I had earlier this winter with the Pentax ES II in January and February, which were mostly that at some point through the roll, the shutter would begin to remain open. Not every time, or course (that would be too easy), but somewhat intermittently.

At first this reminded me of one of Nikomat ELs I own, which showed (and still has¹) the same problem, so I thought that it might just be an unreliable camera. It wouldn’t be the first time and for what I paid, I was hardly going to ship it back to Japan!

Some nice people online thought that it sounded like it was just sensitive to temperature and that my problem, in fact, sounded like theirs when they would take the same (or similar) cameras outside in the winter. While I was perhaps a little skeptical at first, I was willing to give it a try.

With a high of 17℃ last Friday, I loaded a roll of Fuji 200 into it and placed it in my work backpack. Since it would be warm and sunny after work, I would take a nice loop around Centretown to find out!

I don’t want to call it too early, but it is just possible that this ESII is as much as a temperature princess as I am.

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— Charlotte ♥ (@lottiejoy.ca) April 17, 2026 at 3:16 PM

Okay, and enjoy the warm temperatures and sunshine.

…and wouldn’t you know it?

Not one gremlin showed up!

The camera worked as it should have, with even and proper exposures. No sounds and no hesitance. Nothing at all to put me on edge.

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1. Since the meter works well and the shutter is accurate, I keep it is a backup. I just can’t use it in aperture priority. ↩︎