is the K10D compatible with old Pentax K-mount MF lenses?

loupiote said:

i have several very good (but old) pentax K-mount lenses, but none of
them have a A position for the diaphragm. they are all completely
manual lenses, but excellent optical quality.

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Older completely manual non-A lenses are all I own. In fact, they are the reason I bought Pentax DSLRs, so I could continue to use my favorite lenses. I use the M setting and test exposures when the opportunity exists. Years of practice at manual exposure setting keeps me pretty close to he correct exposure most of the time, and previewing the results in odd situations lets me correct where needed.

--
'Sacramento' Bruce Conklin

CacheValleyBranch said:

loupiote said:

i have several very good (but old) pentax K-mount lenses, but none of
them have a A position for the diaphragm. they are all completely
manual lenses, but excellent optical quality.

Click to expand...

Older completely manual non-A lenses are all I own. In fact, they
are the reason I bought Pentax DSLRs, so I could continue to use my
favorite lenses. I use the M setting and test exposures when the
opportunity exists. Years of practice at manual exposure setting
keeps me pretty close to he correct exposure most of the time, and
previewing the results in odd situations lets me correct where needed.

Click to expand...

thanks for the feedback.

although i would be much happier if the body could detect the diaphragm setting (technically possible, of course, since all my old pantax bodies can detect the diaphragm settings on those lenses), and if it could correctly set the shutter speed accordingly (i.e. if "A" mode could work). that would be perfect. only focussing would need to be done manually.

the other problem with using old lenses with a new body is that the new DSLR body don't have split focus screen. it's sometime really hard to have an accurate manual focus without a split screen. on some dslr cameras, the focus screen can be changed and it is possible to replace the default by a split screen, but often that screws-up the metering system, so it's not a perfect solution.

do you know if focus screens can be installed on the digital pentax bodies, and if yes, do you know if it also screws-up the metering (like it does on the sony alpha)?

loupiote said:

allenlx said:

loupiote said:

well, as of today, the only camera with a really good low-light
performance (i.e. very low noise) is the canon 5d, but it's a bit
pricy ($2400 for the body only), since it's a full-frame 12
mega-pixel sensor...

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It's all relative. For less than a tenth the price you quote, any of
the 6MP Pentax DSLRs will produce very usable results at ISO 1600,
and fair (better than nothing, and enough to work with) results at
3200. If you get the K100D then all of your lenses are effectively
stabilised too which lets you use a lower shutter speed. Of course
all of this is moot with a good flash unit which is likely to be my
next purchase.

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one tens of $2400 is $240, but Pentax *ist bodies go for about $450
on ebay, not for $240. and you can hardly compare 6-megapixel with
12-megapixel. so that works only for people looking for 6-megapixel.

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You're right, more than a tenth. I had thought *ist DL prices were lower than they are. I was just replying to your very general statement. After all, the 5D doesn't have the biggest sensor out there, MF digital goes a lot larger, so shouldn't that be the best kind of camera for low light? Like I said, it's all relative.

Matthew

--
John/Matthew Allen
Bofferdange, Luxembourg
Matthew's Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewallen/

allenlx said:

You're right, more than a tenth. I had thought *ist DL prices were
lower than they are. I was just replying to your very general
statement. After all, the 5D doesn't have the biggest sensor out
there, MF digital goes a lot larger, so shouldn't that be the best
kind of camera for low light? Like I said, it's all relative.

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i was not talking about medium format cameras, i was talking about 24x36-type DSLR. and the 5D is the cheapest one with both a full-size sensor and more than 10 mega-pixel, i think.

loupiote said:

the other problem with using old lenses with a new body is that the
new DSLR body don't have split focus screen. it's sometime really
hard to have an accurate manual focus without a split screen. on some
dslr cameras, the focus screen can be changed and it is possible to
replace the default by a split screen, but often that screws-up the
metering system, so it's not a perfect solution.

do you know if focus screens can be installed on the digital pentax
bodies, and if yes, do you know if it also screws-up the metering
(like it does on the sony alpha)?

Click to expand...

When I started out in 1961, I used a fantastic high tech gadget called a Wesson Mater III light meter. Since there were no auto-exposure cameras available at the time, it gave me confidence in reading the light for each shot.

My K10D has a Katz Eye screen with microprism and split screen. I MUST have a focus aid in the viewfinder, a lot of my lenses are old M or A lenses and they don't autofocus. But, I often focus manually anyway. Just more used to it I guess.

My current light meter can spot-meter, synch wirelessly to the strobes, compare readings of highlight and shadow and do all sorts of stuff I learned how to do myself.

So either use the stop-down feature in the camera, or buy a LIGHT METER. What photographer doesn't own a separate light meter?

--



'We have met the enemy, and he is us!' - Walt Kelley

My direct experience has been that the Pentax K10 can handle both the old Pentax screwmount (M42) lenses and the lenses in Pentax bayonet mount. I even put a 50mm f/1.7 Chinon lens on it the other day and it worked just fine.

Manual focusing with the current crop of cameras is difficult at best (we're all besotted with letting the camera do everything for us, including focusing) and the ground-glass screens are not really optimized for manual focusing.

The other day I ordered a Katz Eye ground glass with split-image rangefinder (140 USD). Opinions seem mixed as to whether this complicates metering but, since the auto exposure metering can get confused with anything other than the current crop of lenses, this probably won't add to that problem. [Too bad you can't manually enter lens info into the camera, as you can with the shake reduction feature.]

FWIW, I almost exclusively work in aperture selective mode, and let the camera calculate the exposure time, so this facilitates using these old and odd lenses.

One of the things that has always attracted me to the Pentax has been the ability to use other lenses. I even use lenses for Leica (Visoflex) and Hasselblad on the K10.

Cheers,

Tyler Monson
Seattle, Washington USA

Dana G said:

What photographer doesn't own a separate light meter?

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i don't. it really depend on what type of photography you do.

separate light meters are great when doing studio work or when you have the camera on a tripod and have time to check the light.

but i can almost never do that, so i always rely on the camera metering.