The SP 500 was intended to be an economy versn of the Spotmatic. Released in 1971, it is almost exactly in the middle of the Spotmatic run, and is 'limited' in that it has no self timer, and only shows up to 1/500s on the shutter dial.
As many of you will know however, the shutter does in fact have a 1/1000s notch, and does run at that speed. (In fact to have changed the shutter to only run to 1/500 in reality, would have made the mechanism more expensive to make!)
This example has (like most of the cameras I sell) been fully serviced.
That means it has been taken apart. Each part has been cleaned, examined and lubricated. The whole thing is then reassembled, and tested.
The shutter speeds have been measured, adjusted and are accurate.
The light meter works fine, and the meter switch works as it should.
The light seals have been replaced throughout.
Anything else found has been fixed too.
The service alone is a £55 item, and thi smakes this camera cheaper than buying one as seen, and sending it to me for servicing. (It's also safer, some I buy are useful for spare parts only, but even I don't know that untill I have stripped them!)
Like all my fully serviced cameras it comes with a three month guarantee, which allows you plenty of time to give the camera a proper try. (Please note that this is not any indication of how long the camera might last, but rather to give any post-service bugs which might crop-up time to surface.)
(A note on Spotmatic light meters, and batteries.)
The battery that these used is no longer available, but you can get a smaller zinc-air battery which fits in the space, and is pretty well the same voltage. But.... zinc-air batteries run out whether used or not, once installed, and the special one's you can buy for just this job are expensive. But do not worry! In reality the error caused by using standard silver oxide cells is very small, and at most results in 1/4 of a stop or so difference and then only in poor light, so there is no need to use zinc-air cells at all.
Please check the photo's carfully for any minor defects or scratches. (NB, the cataloge number on the bottom does wipe off with isopropyl alcohol!)
(PS: I apologise in advance to anyone living in France, but unfortunately over the past year I (and other UK sellers) have noted an increase in lost parcels sent to French addresses. For this reason I have had to use a more expensive postal service in order to ensure relaible delivery. I do not know the reason for this, but deliveries to France by less expensive means have become rather unrelaible, and the compensation for lost goods paid to businesses is very limited.)