Manual lenses on a K10d

What sort of settings would be required to use any manual, (I have some at the moment) lenses, on my K10d.

I am going to take shots of and with the lenses that are on another of my topics but I do need a starting point.

All help gratefully received.

Regards

---

Colin

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

You need to allow aperture ring, it's a setting in the cutsom menu. I don't know which number...
That's all basically if you don't have auto aperture.

You can use M & Av. With M mode press the green button to do a stop down metering.
Av will be behave differently depending the lens. Some lenses stay open and only close when you press the shutter just like the problem is without those lenses set on auto aperture the lens stays open when you press the shutter. When the aperture close when your turn the aperture ring then you can use the lens also in Av but still M-mode is the best mode to use, simply press the green button to do an automatic metering.

---

Stefan


K10D, K5
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, D-FA 100 Macro, DA 40 Ltd, DA 18-55
AF-540FGZ

I have several manual lens that I use with the K10. Stefan has set you right for their use and much fun and success can be achieved with these lens.

regards Thoramay.

You need to enable the use of the aperture ring and also tell the camera the focal length of the lens for shake reduction.

In Av mode with a K mount lens the camera will meter and shoot with the lens held at the largest aperture. If you use an M42 lens with an adapter then you can set the aperture on the lens and the camera will sort the exposure out, but it'll be much the same as the old Spotmatic in that you open the aperture to focus and then close it before pressing the shutter button

In M mode the camera will use whatever aperture you select, in this situation you set aperture then press the green button to stop down and take a light meter reading. The camera will suggest a shutter speed which may or may not be helpful - I tend to use digital preview/histogram to check the exposure before actually taking the shot. In my experience apertures smaller than f8 tend to cause trouble with underexposure and need some manual fiddling with shutter speed to get good results.

---

Matt

Shooting the Welsh Wilderness with K-m, KX, MX, ME Super and assorted lenses.

Thanks Stefan & Thoramay,
Will try some settings during the week.

Regards

---

Colin

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)

I just notice my wonderful English, I hope it's understandable

Basically for Av the camera will not stop down the lens so the aperture stay at the setting that it is.
That means that if you've a stop down lens that normally close down when you press the button that that not happen so you shoot with the lens wide open, when the aperture close when you use the aperture ring then the Av mode work as it should.

ps. Good one Matt, I forgot the Shake Reduction

---

Stefan


K10D, K5
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, D-FA 100 Macro, DA 40 Ltd, DA 18-55
AF-540FGZ

There is another way apart from the green button! Here is how I use manual lenses with all Pentax bodies. It works well and is quick when you get the hang of it. I prefer it to the green button but each to their own.....

INITIAL SET UP - WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN THE MENU BEFORE YOU GIVE IT A GO

(1) set the depth of field preview (the ring around the shutter) to optical rather than playing on the rear LCD. This means you can use this button to stop down the lens and the viewfinder will give you stop down metering.

(2) set camera to enable use of aperture ring as Stefan has said

(3) set an edial to control shutter speed in manual mode. On the K10D or any twin edial body I would suggest you set the rear edial to do this - you'll see why below.

WHEN YOU USE THE LENS

(1) set the aperture you think you want to use

(2) with your eye to the viewfinder, turn the optical depth of field preview on (all goes darker depending upon the aperture you have set) and use your thumb to adjust the shutter speed with the rear edial until you have the exposure that you want. The viewfinder display will tell you what the camera thinks you should do but....

(3) my experience with the K10D was that it tended to overexpose photographs with my old manual lenses, so I used to underexpose compared to what the meter told me to do - generally by 2/3 EV (but obviously you also need to adjust this depending upon the subject matter). The K-7 seems to be more accurate so far with these lenses.

Hope this helps. May be worth experimenting and see which method you prefer?

Jon

---

Jon

Some occasional random stuff at The Photographers Block: link

Thanks Jon,
Will have a play with the lenses and setting next week, there might even be some posted on the forum or not

---

Colin

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)