I just found out.

I have an IR remote control - cost about £10 and has been through the washing machine a couple of times and still works. Using this in conjunction with mirror up mode is better that using the self-timer as you don't touch the camera at all and you can give the camera longer than two seconds to settle down fully. Plus you can pick the exact moment to expose the image rather than predict two seconds in advance (good for something like waves).

Yes, definitely .... We are very lucky to have custom options as well surrounding remote control operations. I also prefer the two-press approach. When in 'Remote plus Mirror Up' Drive Mode, I have it set so that the first press raises the mirror, then second press triggers the exposure. A nice process that, as Dr O says, allows great precision.

Will try that with the remote, can test it in the house first, sounds like a good idea and looking at Dr O's, work speaks for itself.

Good idea with the mirror up feature. thanks for that.

The viewfinder problem, i encountered a few times.. I like fiddling around with pin hole lenses.
This means exposure times , Even in bright sun often of 1-10sec .

When one buys a Pentax Camera, a little completely useless small plastic push on cover comes with it.

To fit it, If you can find it in your gadget bag, or remember where you left it, or worth, it got lost, you have to remove the rubber eye cover first and then slide the thing on. in the meantime you drop the eye cover in the sand or it falls down a cliff.

If the Pentax designer would not just sit on front of their computers, but actually use the cameras in a real live situation, they would have fitted a sliding cover. This has been done on other cameras before.

Regards, Horst

That's exactly why I use a plastic lens cap - it's a 51mm push fit (goes over the outside of a standard 49mm filter ring). The metal push fits off Takumars are just as good but they could scratch the monitor surface. ......... I like the mirror-up suggestion

For long exposures I've glue a small piece of black velvet to a flash socket cover, unobtrusive, easy to lift up and doesn't interfere with the eye cup for viewing.

Thanks for that. I will try it.
I still think, Pentax is slack by not incorporating a sliding cover instead of a completely useless and thoughtless plastic push on cover.

Regards, Horst

something else on my "to do list" but always seems to get forgotten about until I lightly knock the camera trying to cover the viewfinder

Brilliant. That's given me something to do on Christmas Day.

Okay, I decided to do a couple of tests. I think the results may persaude more people to cover the viewfinder.

Of course, when you shoot hand-held you normally cover the viewfinder with your eye and the exposure time is short anyway. When I'm shooting on a tripod I always try to remember to at least shield the viewfinder with my hand and will always try to use the cover if using a ND filter.

I think there are two problems with light entering via the viewfinder:- Over metering and light getting onto the sensor.

Over metering
Here's the status screen of Manual mode with a lens cap over the lens (so pretty dark image coming in). With the cover over the viewfinder and the settings I used, the meter read 0EV. Then with the cover removed and light through the viewfinder, the meter over-read by more than 3EV (this would cause underexposure in automatic modes).







Light getting onto the sensor
Here are two, 30 sec shots taken at ISO80 with the lens cap on. One with the viewfinder cover, the other without. (Note I've amplified both shots by 5 stops in ACR). This is why you can get streaky images with long exposures if you don't cover the viewfinder and it's essential if you're using something like a 10-stop ND filter.

The effect won't be so bad at shorter exposure times but it will be worse at higher ISOs

Light entering during the exposure is definitely a thing,

I tend to be all manual for that type of shot, so metering is not so much of an issue then, but the light leaks look like low contrast washed out sections. It doesn't happen all the time, so assume the angles of incident are important, but it ruins a photo easily, and can be hard to spot on the rear screen alone out in the field.

It's probably something to watch when shoting away from sunrises and sunsets on a tripod. The light levels are relatively low, apart from a stonking big yellow star shining straight through the viewfinder.

On a number of Pentax digital slr's one can also simply switch over to the live view feature to eliminate any movement caused by the mirror

Surely, if you are looking at live view, the mirror is up so the sensor can report what it's seeing. When you want to take a picture, it has to drop back down to cover the sensor and then slap back up when the shutter releases? Sounds like (literally sometimes) a lot of banging about that one could do without?

I don't think so David. In live view, why would the mirror need to cover the sensor, prior to releasing the shutter? After all, you're not doing that in mirror-up mode.

I just tried it out and it doesn't sound like there's any mirror action on pressing the shutter button in live view.