Focusing manual lenses on K5?

Apart from being the proud owner of a new K5 (how cheap ARE they going to get?!)I snapped up a bargain f1.7 50mm from a very nice forum member.

When I am focussing sometimes the little red light flashes, is this something to do with the focussing and is there a way to assist focussing with a manual lens?

I have seen talk of focus peaking and live view but am not sure what that is about.

Cheers,
Andy

You mean the focus point indicator? Yep that is identifying the focus point in use.

I think that for an absolute indication of being in focus you need to watch for the green hexagon.

The 'little red light' is showing you which of the focusing points is being used to determine focus. In the case of manual focus lenses, only the centre focus point is used, irrespective of where the focus point selector is set. The green hexagon indicator in the viewfinder will tell you if the subject at the centre focus point is in focus or not. If it's lit, you have focus.

The K5 has a button on the back labelled LV (Live View). Press it and check the rear screen.

Also, can I respectfully suggest that you spend some time reading the user manual

Sorry I'm an engineer - I have been trained over many years only to read the manual once I explored every other avenue and broken it!

One other thing that i personally find useful with manual lenses on Pentax DSLRs is the Catch in Focus feature. Whereby you keep your finger on the shutter button and the shutter will fire when the subject comes into focus! The feature has to be set in the camera menu and Autofocus selected on the camera.

Now that's clever, I have used that feature on teh auto lenses and that makes sense to use it on a manual, so I assume when it's in focus it fires the shutter.

Cheers,
Andy

I thought it was essential, when using manual lenses, that the selector was set to 'manual'. Query - Doing otherwise might damage the AF drive?

regards
Bernard

If you have a manual lens and set the camera to AF then you can choose that the camera shutter will only release when the green hexagon is steady and hence the camera knows focus has been achieved.

There will be no danger of damage.

Thanks John - another misconception put to bed

regards
Bernard

All this talk about the green hexagon and catch-in-focus got me curious.

I went back to stock focusing screen (to avoid myself cheating), and headed out with a 85mm I was set to use at f2.0 and f2.8.

After using only the green hexagon and catch-in-focus for a few hours I came back home to review the photos taken.
To my astonishment every single image was front focused.
I did a test using 50/1.7 afterwards, and it was the same case there.

Help, how do I correct the green hexagon on my k5?

(The lenses used was 85/2 m42 and m50/1.7, so I can not do individual lens correction.)

Catch-in focus only works with manual lenses, and when the AF switch on the camera set to AF-S. You may have thought you were using it with auto lenses, but it wasn't working.

It will work on some (maybe all) auto focus lenses having a AF/MF focus selector on the lens body. It works with my Sigma 70-200mm when the lens focus switch is set to MF.

Only works when camera switch is set to AF-S, not AF-C.

You need to adjust the AF Fine Adjustment so that when the camera thinks focus is achieved, focus is actually achieved. Custom parameter #26

If you need different settings for different manual lens then remember the setting sand dial them in when using the lens.

Sorry i have only just caught up with this thread again! It does indeed work with Auto lenses with an AF MF switch. I use it occasionally with my DA* 16-50 and 50-135 lenses. Though it is with my 1970`s 300mm f4 that i use it mostly as every shot is pin sharp even when the subject is only in focus for a fraction of a second. I have`nt used it with my K5 II yet but it should be at least as good!

I have a lot of trouble with screw lenses on my K10D -- especially if I am doing football at full aperture on the 135mm f2.5 SMC Takumar -- all the photos were BACK focussed !! You cannot rely on the Green Thingy to get accurate focus !