K lens on DS

Help. Have just been to get my hands on the new DS today at my local camera shop and they tell me that the old basic K mount lenses of which I have several and dont want to part with, will not work on the DS. They say only KA and later lenses will operate. Anyone out there who has experience or knows if and how they will work, I would be glad to hear from you ASAP. Thanks

I have a *istD - not a DS and this works with old non AF lenses. Its preferable if you have lenses with the 'A' setting on the appeture but certainly on the *istD there is a setting which allows you to use lenses that do not have the 'A' setting. How much has changed on the DS I don't know - anyone out there got a DS? Can you confirm if there is similar settings or not.
When I went to buy mine I took my 'old' lenses with me to try so I could confirm if there was compatibility or not.

Rob

Still learning how to use my istDs, as I only got it yesterday

PENTAX K-, KA-, KAF- and KAF2-mount 35mm-format lenses can be used without an adapter or modification. PENTAX screw-mount 35mm-format lenses and PENTAX 645- and 67-system lenses can be used with an adapter. Some functions may not be available with certain lenses.

Have tried out various early K lenses from my collection including 40mm pancake + Tamron SP500 with K adaptor and they work fine

Not obvious at first what to do, but camera comes with 'Using Aperture ring' set to prohibited on custom menu. This means the camera won't function if aperture set to anything other than A ( or no A setting as on early lenses). Set to permitted and there is no problem.

Page 101 and 179 in the manual give the details



Hope that helps

Thats similar to how it is on the *istD
You just need to 'allow' it in the setup.
Rob

Give the camera shop staff hell for being ignorant nitwits.

Thanks very much all of you, off next week to have another play and chat will advise shop of George's advice

Just thought I would let you know got my DS for Christmas what a cracking bit of kit , tried all my old lenses "Superb"

Hi people,

I still don't clearly understand something crucial. If I have some old manual focus third party K-mount lenses (with aperture rings and NO A setting) that I wish to use on a *ist DS, will I only be able to achieve a correct exposure through trial and error in the manual setting? Or will I be able to use the TTL light meter regardless of lens?

In other words, let's say I decide to turn the aperture ring on my old lens to f/11 for a given shot and I set the shutter speed to 1/250th of a second on the *ist DS. Assuming that setting will render an underexposed image, will the camera tell me so or will it be completely clueless because of the old lens that I'm using?

Thanks in advance.

Antonio

I have extracted the following from page 179 of the *istDS manual (download it from http://www.pentaximaging.com/customer_care/manuals_literature )


Manual operation:-
Quote
Pictures can be taken with the set aperture value and shuttr speed. In the viewfinder [F--] appears for the aperture indicator. When depth of field is checked (Preview), AE metering is switched on. Exposure check is possible.
Unquote.

All Lenses having a 'K' Mount will work with the DS in Manual mode. Screw mount lenses need an adapter but will still work.
I have some old 'KA' lenses and they work great with lens set to 'A'.
The only manual lens I have (no 'A' setting is a fixed aperture Tamron 500mm mirror lens, and that works great too.

For a more complete list of capabilities and available lens functions, download the manual.

Its fairly safe to use the following rule of thumb:- If it was made by Pentax, for a Pentax SLR, it'll probably work with a Pentax SLR (including the new digital SLR's) with some minor limitations. That said, it may not be true 100% but everything I have, including AF280T, AF400FTZ, AF360FGZ flashguns and ALL of my old 'KA' (20+ years ) lenses work fine.

HTH.

M lenses work fine with the *istDS, but it is a bind switching the aperture ring permission on and off if you have a mixture of lenses.

Because of this, apart from perhaps taking a series of macro shots with my SMC Pentax-M 50mm f4 Macro lens, I have decided to use A series lenses and later with the digital bodies. Then there is no problem at all.

: Why keep changing the aperture ring permission : . I don't think it affects any lens operation if it is left enabled. I have a mixture of F, FA, DA, A, and manual non-pentax lenses and I have not noticed anything odd with the operation of any of them.

I think it does when you try to use a lens with no aperture ring, or use a lens on the A setting, because then you lose functionality as per the list in the instruction book.

I have my use aperture ring permission set to allow and with my kit DA 18-55 lens (no aperture ring) or my Tamron SP 500mm Mirror (f4 fixed aperture) on everything 'seems' to work OK. The lens stops down with preview in all modes.

What I have discovered is that the A lenses don't give an exposure measurement unless the lens is set to A or M (use preview to check exposure in M Mode and adjust shutter speed). To summarise:-

With 'KA' lens fitted:-
Lens set to A - Everything works in all modes
Lens not set to A. Mode set to M, use preview to make exposure check and adjust shutter accordingly.
Lens not set to A, Mode not set to M or B, exposure is automatic and the only indication of the exposure is the captured image. Exposure compensation can be used to correct an incorrect exposure.

I think I might have stated the blindingly obvious here. Apologies if I have.