C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →slr-35mm
The Pentax LX Quartz Date is a variant of the 1980 LX professional flagship, distinguished by the integration of a quartz-controlled date-imprinting function directly into the camera body rather than as a separate accessory back. Introduced approximately 1985, it retains every characteristic of the standard LX: the weather-sealed copper-aluminum body, interchangeable finders, the hybrid titanium-laminate shutter with mechanical fallback at 1/75s, 1/2000s, and B, and the defining off-the-film OTF metering system that reads light reflected off the film surface in real time during the exposure. The date function imprints day, month, and year information into the corner of each frame using a quartz-regulated LED exposure, distinct from the add-on Data Back LX accessory.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
Develop 35mm film
Labs in our directory that process 35mm film.
Before you buy used
About this camera
The professional LX with a factory-integrated quartz date back — same weather-sealed body, with datestamp imprinting built in.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | Pentax K (KA) |
| Years | ~1985 - discontinued |
| Shutter | 125s - 1/2000s electronic; 1/75s, 1/2000s, B mechanical fallback |
| Flash sync | 1/75s |
| Meter | TTL OTF (off-the-film) SPD |
| Modes | Manual, aperture-priority |
| Weight | ~ (similar to standard LX at ~565 g) |
| Battery | 2x SR44 / LR44 (mechanical fallback works without) |
| Date back | Integrated quartz date imprint |
The Pentax LX ran from 1980 to 2001 with unusually few engineering revisions to its core mechanism. Pentax extended the body's commercial life through a sequence of limited and specialist variants: the LX Titan, the LX 2000 (1996 anniversary), the LX 250 Quartz (extended-exposure specialist), the LX TTL Quartz, and this Quartz Date variant. The date-imprinting function was a common professional request in the mid-1980s, when documenting field photography, wildlife records, and scientific specimens frame-by-frame was a practical requirement. The LX's existing modular back system — designed to accept the Data Back LX accessory — made a factory-integrated date variant a straightforward engineering step.
Production numbers are unknown. The Quartz Date surfaces far less frequently than the standard LX on the used market, suggesting limited production or a geographically restricted distribution.
For working professional photographers in the 1980s who needed frame-level date documentation without external accessories, the Quartz Date offered an elegant solution: one body, no add-on back to carry, no K-mount compatibility issues to manage around a bulky Data Back. The LX's OTF metering and weather sealing remained intact. The date circuit operated independently of the camera's main electronics.
The variant is now of interest primarily to LX collectors, who tend to seek complete variant sets, and to photographers who value the documentary function for personal records or scientific use on film. The used price sits modestly above a standard LX to reflect scarcity.
Pentax K-mount: K, KA, and KAF lenses mount with full aperture-priority coupling; KAF lenses work in manual focus. The LX accepts any Pentax K-mount lens and most M42 glass via the standard Pentax M42-to-K adapter (with stop-down metering). Recommended companions: SMC Pentax-A 50/1.4, 50/2.8 Macro, 100/2.8 Macro, 28/2, 35/2, 135/2.5. The full LX accessory system applies: Motor Drive LX, Winder LX, FA-1 (eye-level pentaprism), FB-1 (sport finder), FC-1 (waist-level finder), and magnifier finder units. Note: the Data Back LX accessory is redundant on this variant.
BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
View profile →C41
Kodak Ektar 100 is a fine-grain C-41 color negative film with saturated color and high sharpness.
View profile →Pentax LX Quartz Date
Image coming soon