My mother-in-law had a Pentax SF7 (SF10, I believe, in the US) stuck in a box in the back of her dining room cabinet. It has a Pentax Zoom 28-80 lense attached. Everything seems to be in absolutely perfect condition..if a little bit dusty.  

From what I can tell from the internet, this camera  (and lense) seems to be about 16 years old. Does anyone know anything about it?  It has a very strange nonrechargable lithium battery that I don't know if I can find these days. There is also lots of visible dust on the little mirror thing inside.  It feels nice in hand.  Is it worth trying to bring this camera back to life again?

I'm hesitant, anyway..digital photography is so much more affordable for the kind of work I  like to do. I couldn't really make a dark room anywhere, and I'm not about to shell out heaps of money to get film developed.

Anyway, I shall stop rambling. Any insight would be appreciated. :)

Stefanie

Some older cameras used batteries like this one.

http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/index.htm?http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_cr2.htm

Have a look what type it is and Google it.

Threes nothing strange about a non rechargeable lithium battery for an old film camera.

I have an old camera that uses them

Dust on the mirror shouldn’t be a big problem.

Yes its worth tying it out, if only for curiosity sake.

I used to own an SF7 many moons ago (about 10 years or so).

Personal opinions - very nice camera! Not the latest and greatest feature-wise but a solid camera and as you say, it felt good in my hands. I used it as a second body when I was still using Pentax kit.

I'm busy scanning my 35mm negs at the moment so I should be able to show you my results with it soon.

Don't worry too much about dust on the mirror. It can be cleaned out easily enough. Same with the prism. Just be careful not to damage the mechanism. What you need to be careful of with SLR's is damage to the shutter. That can be expensive and hard to repair.

I know that digital is the rage now but I still have a very soft spot for 35mm SLR's. I suppose that's because I used them for many years before going digital.