Mirror Lens for *ist 35mm camera

Some years ago, I owned a Tokina 500mm Mirror Lens for my Contax RTSII. While it was perhaps not quite the equal of the Zeiss equivalent , it took some nice pictures.

I would like to by something similar for my *ist. I am put off by two worries

1) there are not many about, new or secondhand, is there a good reason for this?

2) will the *ist be able to cope with a manual mount and a fixed aperture?

Any help much appreciated by this new member

Peter

Peter,

Mirror lenses do seemed to have waned in popularity in recent years. There are a few on sites like Ebay, but not many. I hope by the end of the week to be able to fully answer your question, I am expecting the arrival of an *ist and will try it with my Sigma 600mm mirror lens - I will let you know how it goes.

I posted on this subject under the "Pentax SLR Cameras" forum. I have had difficulty with my *ist when using my Centon 500mm fixed aperture, manual lens. The *ist is unable to work out the aperture, and therefore the metering doesn't work. Fortunately I also have an MZ6, which has almost the same capability of the *ist, but does meter correctly with the Mirror lens. The same is true for the reversing ring used for close up. So, although I use the *ist whenever I can, it's lighter, smaller, more accurate exposure, faster focus, and more versatile, but I can't dispense with my older cameras.

Hi,
My son has an *ist and although it will work with "A" lenses all my others are useless. He nearly didn't get the ist because of this. A shame really because one of the great things about Pentax has always been their backward compatability. Oh well that's progress! I believe it is the same for the MZ60. You may be able to unlock an ist by custom function 17 but how well this works, I don't know. I think this has to do with the electrical contacts, most of which affect the metering and give the max and min aperture for the matrix metering. It would seem daft to have an "A" setting on a fixed aperture lens but that's how it goes.

Regards
Kim

This *istD will work fine, just get a firmware upgrade. Even my screw mounts lenses work well with my ist.

RW says that a firmware upgrade has sorted out his problem with fixed aperture lenses. Can you tell me where and how I can get a firmware upgrade please? Would this be over the Internet, from Pentax, or from a dealer?
:

Hope you can help, as you've obviously had it done (or done it) to your *ist.

Chacked out the site, but the only infromation is on the *istD, not the *ist. Does anyone know if there is a similar possibility for the *ist?

I am sorry, yes I am talking about the istD.