How can you tell...

if a lens is a pentax mount and which type?

Dave

I am not sure exactly what kind of information you are wanting, but I will have a go at it anyway. Third-party lenses with Pentax bayonet mount often have a "PK" engraved somewhere on the mount (obviously:lol. For information about the different types of SMC Pentax mounts I would recommend studying the homepage of bdimitrov about the evolution, names and features of the Pentax K-mount:


http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/technology/index.html#general link

Happy reading

I guess you will receive more expert advice from more competent forum members.

Bjørn

If you look at the back of your Pentax lenses you will see the construction and be able to compare it with any other lens. A K mount will be quite distinctive.

As for which type, the essential bit will be are there electronic contacts or not. If there are, then full metering will be easy with DSLRs. If not, it's down to stop down metering and some limitations in accuracy.

Looking for the A on the aperture ring is the quickest way of telling if it's an A lens or not.

Watch out for PK/R lenses with the Ricoh pin. I handled one recently which had an "R" setting after f22, presumably this is for the program mode on Ricoh bodies.

(The pin gets jammed in the screw drive of Pentax AF bodies, making lens removal very complicated).

I'd second what dangermouse said. Got a manual lens a couple of months back with the dreaded pin on, nearly broke my camera trying to get it unstuck

But, at least it's realy easy to remove the pin

http://www.theatreofnoise.com/2008/05/ricoh-lenses-on-pentax-cameras-ricoh.html - great guide on how.

Thanks for the tips.I feel a bit mire confident looking at 3rd party s/h lenses now