Shooting manual lenses on Pentax DSLRs
One of the best things about shooting a modern Pentax DSLR is having access to 35 years worth of wonderful K mount lenses- all with shake reduction! That’s a feature no other camera manufacturer can claim. The problem is that using these lenses effectively on a DSLR is somewhat of a black art that requires the camera be set up properly. Read on for step-by-step instructions of how I set up my Pentax K10D DSLR for use with a manual lens.
Old K mount manual lens selection is a blog article all to itself. Rather than discuss the pros and cons of specific lenses, I’m merely going to group them into two major categories: “A” lenses and “M” lenses. A series K mount lenses (like the 50mm f/1.7 shown above) can be thought of as essentially manual focus lenses on a Pentax DSLR.
“A” series lenses have an “A” position on the aperture ring. Engaging this setting locks the aperture ring and allows the camera to control the aperture setting with one of the E-dials on the camera body. The camera can be shot in any mode (with the camera automatically adjusting the aperture setting as required) just like with a regular modern AF lens with the only difference being the requirement to manually focus the lens. Placing the aperture ring in any other setting than “A” essentially turns it into an “M” lens. More on that in a moment.
When using any manual focus lens you need to tell the camera what the focal length is of the lens being used to get the best SR performance. To do this, simply turn the camera off, mount the lens, make sure SR is ON, turn the camera back on, and select the focal length of the lens being used on the rear LCD when prompted. You can do this after the fact using the menu system, but the fact is you should always turn the camera off when changing lenses anyway and Pentax makes this process practically automatic (assuming you have the SR turned ON when you turn the camera back on). Another benefit of doing this is that the focal length you input here will be recorded in your shot EXIF data- making it easier to tell which lens you were using later.
If your manual lens is a zoom it seems there is some conjecture over what you should do. Ideally, you would input the focal length you are shooting at but that seems rather tedious. Most of the info I have read says you will get the best results by using the shortest focal length setting for your lens. I would agree with this but I also think that you should use the longest setting if you are shooting primarily at the long end of the zoom range. It only makes sense as the SR would need to move a lot more to compensate for the exaggerated movement of a long telephoto focal length than at a shorter one.
You won’t have to mess with the SR setting when you switch back to a modern AF lens as the lens will communicate with the camera and make the adjustment automatically. You will need to repeat this process anytime you mount a manual lens and/or cycle the power switch with a manual lens attached.
Logic would dictate that if you are shooting with a manual focus lens you should switch the camera into manual focus mode and this is the case most of the time. When shooting in MF with a manual lens you will still get focus confirmation when your subject is in focus via the center focus point illuminating red briefly in the viewfinder, the focus indicator lamp lighting (also in the viewfinder) and the audible focus lock beep (assuming it is enabled). See below:
From what I can tell, the camera will only use the center focus point with older manual lenses (A and M). You can select other focus points with modern AF lenses when in MF mode. I always use the center point, focus, recompose, then shoot anyway. But that’s just the way I roll. Dialing in accurate focus can be tricky as the range of movement of the manual focus lens’ focus mechanism and front/back focus issues can throw the focus sensor off. The focus indicator will often stay illuminated over several degrees of focus ring rotation (in-focus range). This can be especially frustrating when using fast lenses with extremely short depths of field while trying to achieve critical focus on a specific point of the subject. Trial and error with lots of high magnification LCD review is the best way to get it right. Each lens will likely have its own characteristics that will need to be learned. A good excuse to take lots of pictures :D Here’s an article covering MF technique.
Another focus technique with manual lenses is “catch-in-focus” or “focus trap.” With this technique you set the camera to AF-S mode, fully depress the shutter then manually dial in the focus. As soon as focus is achieved the shutter will release. Problem is that it will either fire at the beginning or at the end of the in-focus range (depending on which direction the focus ring is being rotated) and the actual desired focus point may be somewhere else within the in-focus range. Also, if you are shooting at the slow end of hand-holdable shutter speeds you can actually get what I’d call “focus blur” as you focus through the desired focus point while the shutter is open. I find the focus trap technique most useful when trying to catch action shots and/or when shooting at smaller apertures in bright light. I find it basically useless when shooting wide open and/or in low light.
Metering is another issue with manual lenses. With my A series lens the camera uses the metering mode selected on the dial (spot, center weighted or pattern). However, with my Takumar 135mm f/2.5 M series lens (pictured at the top of the page) the camera defaults to center weighted averaged metering despite the fact that the selector is set to pattern. The other thing is that the exposure does not lock when you achieve focus in MF mode like it normally does in AF mode (with any lens in MF). So, if you do like I do and focus, recompose then shoot, you will likely get a different exposure when you recompose then you did when you set the focus. In pattern metering mode with my A series lens I rarely find this to be a problem as the pattern metering seems pretty adept at figuring things out. However, I occasionally have to use the AE-L button in high contrast situations to get the desired exposure, especially with my M series lens. Spot metering is typically useless unless you use the AE-L function.
Another metering issue is a bit more complicated. It seems that the metering system in the modern Pentax DSLRs is not optimized for use with the older manual lenses. I have read a lot about this and still can’t quite explain what is going on. Bottom line is that you may need to adjust your exposure up or down depending on the combination of camera/lens/aperture/subject being used. When shooting my A series lens in Av mode (as I typically do) I generally dial in around +0.7 to +1.0 EV compensation at f/1.7. If I shoot at smaller apertures I can often back off this setting depending on the subject matter. However, I do pretty much the same thing with every lens I use on my K10D so this is an area where experimentation is definitely required (on a lens-by-lens basis).
At this point you have pretty much all the information needed to get started shooting with an older A series manual lens. However, there are still a number of things left to do before you can even take the first picture with an M series lens. After following the directions above for mounting the lens, inputting the focal length and changing the focus mode, you will likely be greeted with a locked up camera and the dreaded flashing “F–” screen:
(Please excuse my cracked LCD cover. This camera gets a lot of use.) Seems to me Pentax should have made this “F—” instead ;-) What this is telling you is that the camera can not control the aperture of the lens mounted. What you need to do is tell the camera that everything is OK and to let you have control of the situation. To do this you have to navigate to the Custom Function menu and change the “Using aperture ring” setting to “Permitted”:
I guess Pentax sets this to “Prohibited” by default to force newbies into researching the use of manual lenses on their DSLRs. Whatever. This is likely the single most asked question of first-time M series lens users on a Pentax DSLR. Do it once and you won’t have to change it again. While you are in the Custom Function menu, check and make sure that the “Green button in TAv & M” setting is at the default setting of “1″ (”Program Line”). More on this in a moment.
Now that you have done all of this, you should see something like this on your status display:
There’s still an “F–” showing in the display but now it should be steady and not flashing and the rest of the controls (including the shutter) should now be operational. The “F–” now only means that the camera doesn’t (and won’t) know what aperture setting the lens is set to. Now we are getting much closer to being ready to shoot. Before we do though, I need to cover another detail. And yes, you will get to shoot pictures eventually :D
There were two surprising things for me the first time I went through this process with my first M lens. I eagerly tore open the box from KEH, mounted up my lens, selected Manual exposure mode and proceeded to peer through the viewfinder the first time in preparation for taking my first shot. Right off the bat, I was surprised that the aperture did not close down when I rotated the ring on the lens like it used to on my old K1000. It makes sense, keep the viewfinder bright for focus and composing and stop the lens down only when the shutter releases. This brought me to my next conundrum: there is no active exposure meter display with an M lens. All I could see was a shutter speed and that damn F–:
I was shocked. I thought for sure I’d have a nice little exposure bar graph in the viewfinder with which to dial in the exposure just like I do with my AF and A series lenses in Manual exposure mode. Of course, I realize now that if the camera is holding the aperture wide open all of the time, and it has no way of knowing what the chosen aperture setting on the lens is, it has no way of calculating the given exposure. Duh! After fiddling blindly with the shutter speed and aperture ring and getting a few horribly mis-exposed shots I knew there had to be a better way- either that or my old Tak didn’t work with my K10D. So, I got on the internet and did a little searching. That’s when I learned about “stop down metering” and the purpose of that little green button when shooting in manual mode.
Here’s how it works. In Manual exposure mode, you select your desired aperture using the ring on the lens, the desired ISO via the LCD, focus, compose, and press the green button. The camera will then briefly release the aperture so that it closes down to the desired setting (read: “stop down”) and take a meter reading. It will then offer up a shutter speed that represents a neutral exposure reading for the scene. At this point you can simply take a shot, review the results and adjust the shutter speed up or down to achieve the desired exposure for the scene. You will have to repeat this process for each new composition until you get to the point that you can just calculate the desired exposure by eye- like we used to do with old manual film cameras ;-)
This use of the Green button for stop-down metering seems to be the preferred method for most Pentax DSLR owners using manual lenses. As is often the case with these sorts of things, there are other ways. For instance, by holding the optical Depth of Field preview function closed (the icon to the right of the ON label on the power switch shown in the photo above), you can manually stop down the lens. The camera will then display the traditional bar graph exposure meter for you to adjust exposure with like with an old K1000. While this works, I find it rather awkward to use as my shutter speed control has been re-mapped to the front E-Dial wheel. YMMV.
My preferred method for shooting my M series Takumar 135mm f/2.5 is to shoot in Aperture priority mode (Av). The metering functions just like it would with any other MF lens and I can use EV compensation like I normally would. The main potential drawback is that the lens is always shot wide open- despite what the setting on the aperture ring may be. For me this is less of an issue as I typically like to shoot wide open anyway. If I need to stop down for some reason I typically resort to the DoF preview method as I like to see the exposure meeter. It correlates better with what I am used to seeing through the viewfinder when I shoot my other lenses.
This is by no means a complete tutorial on using manual lenses on Pentax DSLRs. There are a number of nuances for different lens and camera combinations and countless permutations of old lenses, each with its own idiosyncorosies. I offer up this “guide” as merely an informational starting point to help clear up some of the mystery for anyone looking to give an old manual lens a try. Here is another excellent step-by-step guide for shooting manual lenses on Pentax DSLRs. Be sure to research your specific lens/camera combination for more detailed specifics. Be aware that there are some K mount lens variations that do not work with modern DSLRs for a number of reasons. Do your research! That being said, many older K mount lenses represent terrific values and often will outperform their modern counterparts. This is one area where “they don’t make them like they used to” can really be true!
Several people have asked so I added this shot of my “studio” set-up I used to take the pictures in this blog post. I used a Panasonic Lumix FX07 pocket camera with a custom WB setting and + 7/10 EV exposure compensation. Framing up tight in macro mode helps keep the kitchen out of most of the shots. While most of my studio shots thus far have actually been shot in a small studio I have access to at school, it’s often easier to just do this little kitchen set-up at the house. I’ve been doing this enough that I’m contemplating mounting a small retractable white vinyl window shade to the bottom of the cabinet for an instant pull-down seamless backdrop. That is if the wife will allow it ;-)
May 13th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Thanks for that clear explanation that clarified several points that I needed to work out
almu
May 14th, 2009 at 2:42 am
hi, im using a pentax k200 and i have a 600mm mirror telephoto which is fixed at f8, so do i need to tell the camera somehow that its at f8??? i can get some pics if i change the iso to 400 but other than that i struggle for a clear pic?
May 14th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Louis-
You do not need to tell your camera what aperture your 600mm mirror is. Just set your camera to aperture priority (Av) mode and manual focus and you should be good to go. Remember to set the focal length of the lens for the SR to work properly. One of the problems you are going to run into with this lens is camera shake. The long focal length will greatly magnify any camera movement causing motion blurred photos. The slow f/8 minimum aperture means you will need a lot of light to get decent results (bright sun). Hand held you probably need to be shooting at 1/250 second or faster. This means you will most likely have to crank the ISO up to get the shutter speed up. Otherwise, you can use a tripod and the 2 second self timer. Just make sure your subject isn’t moving :D
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
Hint: Replace the focussing screen by a split-field one. It’s so much easier focussing with manual lenses!
May 24th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Thx, very detailed and helpful~~~
May 28th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Thanks Robert.
I admire people like you who are so willing to post useful information for us “others” on the web. :-)
Very useful to learn that in AV-mode the camera only shoots at biggest aperture. In my view it makes that mode pretty useless, i.e. if you want to get good quality pictures with your lenses (unless you really want a shallow depth of field). Most lenses need to be stopped down *at least* one F-step in order to render good sharpness and minimal distortion. Therefore, Manual mode is pretty much the only quality option. Unfortunaely, the Green button gives very unrelistic values (on my K10d); almost always on the slow side. There may be a pattern however, which can be helpful to know (that is I am correct; I was just (re)checking it on my Pentax-M 50:1.4). It seems that the Green-button value is pretty much correct in relative darkness (e.g. in a room where only little comes in); in a normally lit room it seems to me that you should 10X-increase the time, thus when the Green-button suggests 5 sec. you should select approx. 1/50 sec.; outside in a half-cloudy weather increase the speed by 20X (1/60–> 1/2000). So, in a bright sun the best try to start with would be a factor of 40.
Two conclusions to make: 1) Using the M-mode is not for the hurried photographer; 2) With *practice* that might change :-)
I hope this is helpful (excuse my English),
Baldur
May 28th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Does this guide apply equally to M42 screwmount lenses (with the proper Pentax adapter rather than “guaranteed work 100%” garbage from evilbay :P) as it does to K-mount MF lenses?
May 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Baldur-
I would say that if you are having to apply those kinds of multipliers to your Green button readings to get acceptable exposure then something isn’t right. My Green button exposure readings are usually very close on my K10D when using manual lenses that are either wide open or stopped down. Of course, the metering defaults to center-weighted so you have to adjust exposure for the scene, but that is not typically more than 1-2 stops. Reevaluate your set-up and do some static tests to make sure everything is set-up right and functioning properly.
David-
I can’t comment on M42 lenses as I have no experience using them. I suggest you search http://www.pentaxforums.com. There are plenty of M42 users there :D
May 29th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Thanks Robert.
After reading your response, I did a more formal testing, a comparison between two of my old lenses; the Pentax-M 50mm:1.4 and a Pentax-K 120mm:2.8.
The results: The K-120mm worked almost perfectly with the Manual mode; hardly any exposure adjustments were needed at any light level. The M-50mm, on the other hand, behaved as badly as yesterday (I’m angry at it! urrgh!).
The sense morale: Test your old glass before putting it to work on your digital camera.
Take care, Baldur
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=31981335
June 9th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I am so glad I came across your website. I am new to taking pictures (don’t have clue on using the Pentax). I like it and just purchased a Pentax K100D SLR Digital. Im studying the manual. I also purchased a Quantary autofocus lens 70-300mm F4-5.6. We see a lot of deers, in our neighborhood, during the year; a few of them rome in our back yard. When I attached the lens to my camera I noticed in the viewfinder the F– was blank and the AV was blinking. The camera was telling me that a lens was not attached (but it was). How do I set my camera to accept that lens? Do I use the illustration you provided? What books are good for “newbies”? My alternate email is pennysj@state.gov. Thank you.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Sonja-
Thanks for the note and welcome to the Pentax family! Most likely all you need to do is set the aperture ring on your lens to the “A” position (and make sure it locks in place). Also, be sure the lens is seated all the way. If you have done both of these things and you’re still seeing the F– message their might be something wrong with your lens. Hope this helps you catch a shot of those deer!
June 18th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Thank you, Robert, very useful and generous. It helped me to get started with my KM (known to you across the big sea as the K2000) and old M lenses. There are small differences in the required procedure. Typically, I only found out afterwards that the user’s manual of the KM actually contains some useful info on how to use old lenses. I thought Pentax wanted to discourage their use.
I’m only just getting started, but I hope to get lots of pleasure out of my new KM and my old lenses, thanks partly to you.
June 21st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Excellent article. Thanks a lot for sharing all this information
June 24th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Hey Robert,
thank you for this effort. Such a good read.
I am about to buy the smc-a 50mm/1.2, and i want to test it in the store of a dealer.
Maybe i did not get it from your article, but my question is:
is there any way, that the “F–” will disapear or is it ALWAYS there.
Will the aperture be in the EXIF?
Yours
Deimo
June 24th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Deimo-
I’m envious of that 50/1.2! If you are shooting an A series lens and its aperture ring is locked into the “A” position you will see the aperture on the LCD & viewfinder and in the EXIF data just like any regular fully automatic AF lens. Enabling SR and setting the lens’ correct focal length is the only way I know of to get an A series MF lens’ focal length to show up in the EXIF.
Enjoy!
June 25th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
thx Robert,i hope it’s gonna work with the used lens i want to buy on saturday!
July 7th, 2009 at 3:52 am
I have followed your instructions which have been a huge assistance. I am using M series lenses, 45 – 125 f4, 55 f1.8, 135 f3.5, 200 f3.5 with a K20D. The results have been very good but I am having trouble with focus. It seems to be very hit & miss. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can improve focus performance. Is a split screen likely to assist?
July 7th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Les-
Manual focus on a DSLR can be quite tricky. ONe of these days I will write a detailed blog post about it. For now, here are a couple of pointers.
The main problem is that the Pentax AF indicator illuminates over a fairly wide range of focus. You have to figure out where within that range that the lens you are using is actually in focus (and you have to do it for EACH lens as they may all be different). With my 50 1.7 I find that actual focus is achieved at the center focus point when the focus indicator lamp first lights as I transition from close focus to infinity. (My 135mm f/2.5 Takumar is somewhere in the middle of the in-focus range). The problem is with a split screen is that the image in the viewfinder does not always look sharp. In fact, if I focus to what looks sharp to my eye I usually am off by a fair margin.
There may be a trick with your K20D that will help here. My understanding is that you can fine tune the focus point on certain lenses (front focus/back focus) with a K20D. It is possible that you can do some testing and make adjustments to your K20D to make all of your manual lenses more consistent. It is also possible that your K20D won’t recognize which manual lenses you are using rendering the focus adjustment useless. My suggestion is that you try the technique I described above and take a look at this article:
http://pentaxdslrs.blogspot.com/2008/06/part-1-autofocus-adjustment-for-pentax.html
I have a K10D which has no focus adjustment so I’m stuck with just trying to learn where the actual focus point is within the indicated in-focus range for each of my manual lenses. Shoot enough with each of your manual lenses and you’ll figure it out.
Good luck and thanks for stopping by!
July 15th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Great article. My K10D will see more of my old A50 f/1.7 !
July 17th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Thank you!
I’d say, it is a complete tutorial for using a manual focus lenses on Pentax K10D. It conforms per 100% with my experience I have gained in a more than a half year use of mf lenses (although I have no experience with A lenses, all of mine are M).. I wish I could get all these answers when I have put on a mf lens for the first time. :) But I have managed to arrive where you are in tech regard. And I have to add that I have got used so much to using them that I have no out of focus shot (almost).
The only difficulty is to shoot a subject that comes closer, you cannot get it into focus fast enough.. the only lens managing to keep a subject in focus has been smc pentax-m 28mm f2,8 lens (the most recent buy that I have enjoyed a lot, because you can advance with a camera very close to a person to get a nice portrait, the others require a plenty of room (long distance shooting), maybe an explanation of a conversion factor could be added to your tutorial).
Besides this one I am using also these:
Tamron Adaptall 2 80-210mm f3,8 tele macro lens (this one has became my fave walk around lens – very sharp and precise, great exposure, easy to focus, extends your creativity to macro shooting, if you find something tiny and nice while having a walk)
Tamron Adaptall 2 70-210mm f3,8 tele macro lens (a newer version of the previous one, that originally has been purchased for Oly OM10 by my hubby)
Makinon 135mm f2,8 portrait/macro lens (very nice silky portraits, a long distance needed or using a macro option, if there is no room available. I have got great scene shots with this one from my seat during the concert of my daughter, although I had to put on a CP to reduce the light accessing a sensor)
SMC Pentax AF Zoom 35-70mm f2,8 lens (this is the first af lens with a motor (recquires 4 AA batteries) that pentax has made but it was discontinued right after, and I didn’t get it work, of course). It is really sharp, makes nice colors and some say tricky to focus, but it has been my walk around lens for a while and I have had no out of focus photos).
PS. In addition I have 2 af lenses that I have bought with K10D as a double lens kit, but since I have seen the quality you can get with cheap mf lenses, i almost don’t touch them, only if I need a wide angle (another thing to be mentioned in tutorial is that you cannot get a wide enough angle lens due to the same conversion factor). Maybe someone can correct me, because technically I cannot explain the things better than it has been done here. Not my interest at all. :) I just feel ready to share my experience.
Well..my long-term plan is about to get a few nice limiteds of pentax. Shooting only manual can be really tiring sometimes. :)
Thank you for sharing!
My best regards,
Irena aka DigitalGal in online forums
August 25th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Thanks for a very useful, well written article. I’ve been thinking about buying a Pentax DSLR to utilise my 30-year-old K mount lenses and accessories.(My lenses are actually the M series introduced with the MX and ME cameras, the M reputedly standing for “Miniature”. Lens nomenclature can be a little confusing.)
These are great optics butI didn’t realise the issues involved with using them on a modern DSLR. Your article has certainly saved me possible disappointment and frustration. I’m not sure I want to go there yet.
In the meantime, I’m going to stick with my digital compact camera (Nikon Cooolpix).
September 25th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Robert,
How do u determine the DOF on a *ist DL and a K10d?? When I turn the on/ogg switch to the right the viewfinder turns dark..?? How can I determine the DOF in such a scenario? Also, when using the manual lens and the exposure graph kicks in and starts blinking- what should I do in that case to adjust the correct exposure(should I + or – the exposure)??
September 27th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Thank you for a great article,it got me to get out a SMC Takumar 1:1.4..50mm and have a go on my K200D ,at least I could shoot,but now to experiment for best settings. I found a treasure…Jay.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Seems to me that my old Edixa 1:1.9 50mm lens works with AV mode and setting the lens to Manual mode. I had to play with the EV stops, but it seems good!
Great article, many thanks!
Tomorrow I’ll try the Edixa 70-230 telephoto for fun.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
The best way to do this is to think of the whole thing as one giant trip to the gym. ,
November 14th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Wow.
Thanks.
Great, great info. here.
Bookmarking …….100% complete
:^)
December 6th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Great article, thanks
December 18th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Many thanks for a carefully written, lucid and practical article. I recently bought a new “old stock” K100d Super from Asda, of all places, reduced to half price! I don’t care about it “only” having six million pixels but love the way it’s built, the in-body shake reduction and backwards compatibility. Not being a wealthy man, but wishing to acquire extra lenses, your article gave me the confidence to search e-bay for suitable lenses to go with the 2.8 standard lens which once belonged to my father. I purchased a Tokina 70-210 A zoom which looks like new and a rare Kenlock 28mm 2.8 which is heavy and beautifully machined. With p and p they each cost about £10! The build-quality of these pre-digital lenses is astonishing.
As you say, part of the fun is in experimentation and with digital instant review, exposure and focusing inaccuracies are easily remedied. The standard lens has a wonderful short depth of field (sometimes too short!) and I used it exclusively one day to take some portraits with lovely defocused backgrouds…your 1.7 lens must be really something! The 28mm becomes 42mm on the K100 which is close to the (expensive)lovely silver pancake lens Pentax make, so it’ll be interesting to spend a day playing with that.
Isn’t it great having things slide seductively into and out of focus and reconnecting with aperture and shutter speed combinations?
Keep up the good work.
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Robert thank you for the time you invested in making this guide. One of the main reasons I purchased a K10D was the numerous lenses I had stashed away with my K1000 and a Sears wanabe. Thanks again.
Merry Christmas !
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Great artical – thanks!
Strangely these techniques are not obvious or well documented (if at all) in the manual and would take quite some time to figure out unless someone told you about it!
I have been experimenting with my Pentax-A 50 1.7 off the “A” position and I’m now not worried about using manual lenses. If I see a cheap one I like the look of I will now buy!
January 8th, 2010 at 4:12 am
I tank you a lot, Robert, for this accurate article that is very helpful for me.
I’ve recently bought a K10D, just because convinced I could use my older K-lenses, and I was completely disappointed when I saw that nonsensical and nasty F– indicator after mounting manual lenses!
I really appreciate people like you who have the passion of shearing knowledge and information.
Thanks again.
Luigi
January 20th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
First , thanks for leaving great instructions…lowered my blood pressure when I found this article. A few minutes of easy clicking the new kit lenses which are fine on the Pentax K-m and giving pretty good results with a bit of fiddling with the settings and then I reached for the too long redundant ,beautifully machined lenses of yesteryear.
Pentax M range of lenses were stored for the last 10 years unused and not worth selling at peanuts prices and now they are back to life on the K-m digital body..so glad I didn’t give them away!! The instructions and settings detailed above look fiddly when you read through all the steps, probably a couple of times to get your head round it, but after one evening getting used to the set up I am already finding within a few seconds in Manual or AV mode results are superb.
Don’t be put off, if you’ve got some manual lenses they will work no problem plus the bonus of focus indicator, camera shake etc all apply to the manual lenses with no extra fiddling.
I also had a sinking heart when the aperture ring didn’t seem to have any affect but one tip (Pentax 2000/K-m, not sure about others) is that the Av+/- button can be pressed to stop down..in M mode. Either way the lenses do what they always did with a bit of new tech. thrown in to boost the performance you can’t go wrong . I estimate it took around 50 pictures to get the hang of it so just delete those and off you go and it really is only a few seconds once you have made the menu changes (only ever have to do this once!) and know the routine. Use the kit lenses and wallow in the old manuals when you have a bit more time and want to take something other than snaps.Top bloke, thanks again.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Hi,
thank you for a thorough explanation. I gotta quick question on setting the focal length. Would I have to take in consideration of
that 1.5 multiplier rule for setting up SR? So for my 50mm f1.4 would I enter in 50 for the focal length
or 75 (50 X1.5)? Sorry its a stupid question but I am just starting up with my k-x and bunch of my dad’s old M lenses :)
Thanks
February 1st, 2010 at 11:17 pm
I have my Pentax K-7 since July 2009. Today I got my Pentax M 50mm f1.2. I noticed that need what I adjust to put input focal length. I don’t know what number??? it say 8 to 800. huh. Can you tell me, please? Thanks.
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:40 am
You enter the focal length of the lens being used into the SR settings. So, for a 50mm lens you select “50″. It’s still a 50mm lens regardless of the effective focal length ;-)
February 4th, 2010 at 11:50 am
That was a great article and very helpful to me as I am new to photography and I was straggling with just that problem.Many thanks