old lens on new camera ?

It must be similar to the old artillery and mapmakers trick , of putting your thumbs and forefingers together and squinting through the tiny diamond shaped hole at a distant object.
It work really well in bright sunlight and you want to see something on a distant hillside ...jeff...

On my K7 when working with manual focus lenses I do get the centre focus point flashing (in red) briefly when focus is confirmed. But I have to say that the reality is this indication is really more of a 'range' for focus - its not really a pin sharp exact point. Good as a quick guide, but I still find I need to use my eyes very carefully from that point on.

The centre point flashing does not indicate in focus, it is the green heagon that indicates in focus. This seems to be quite a common misconception as it crops up from time to time on the forum.

Thats very interesting, thanks! I checked the manual and it does indeed refer to the 'Focus Indicator' (with a picture showing the green 'heagon') as indicating 'in-focus'. I'm sure I have seen references to the red focus point flashing in other internet resources, such as those various guides to using manual focus lenses that are about.

In any case, I'll start to look at the heacon now! I must say, it is easy to disregard it, I find it doesn't grab attention along the bottom there. But what therefore is the flashing centre focus point indicating? I do have 'Catch - in focus' active - could this be it?

The red lights tell you which focus point is active.

Yes, that would be so in AF, but in Manual focus I understand that only the centre point is used - so I was wondering if it is actually responding to something different than what the green heacon is showing?

No, it's just the same. The green hexagon indicates that the camera has found focus.

When using manual focus on the K-r when the green confirmation is on I also get the centre red point flash, I just took it as an indication of where the camera is confirming the focus point is, although I have not tried moving the focus point in manual mode I but would imagine that it can still be moved.

The red lights do indeed just indicate where the camera is focusing. It's all explained in the manual.....

I didn't think this was the case - I understood (at least on the K7) that without an autofocus lens mounted, then the only af point that is active (and therefore will flash) is the centre one.

So if I can put together what has been said here, it is the Green Hexagon that offers focus confirmation, but the red flashing centre-point that tells us it is the centre part of the viewfinder that is actually in focus. But I don't think any other point can flash red and indicate in manual focus ? so we can only really get focus confirmation for objects in the centre of the frame. Does that sound like it?

I assume you're right Greg - I wouldn't know becuase it's 10x easier to focus/recompose than move the AF point using the arrow buttons.

Another point to bear in mind is that the AF sensor picks up a larger area than the red dot you see on the screen, leading to false focus confirmation. This happens all the time so you need to use your eyes too!

I'll have to sort out my username sometime ! I'm Nigel, I'll put it under my posts from now on.

As we're talking about manual focus lenses this may all be irrelevant - don't have the camera to try with me, but I guess you can't move the AF point select with a manual lens fitted?

Most photographers who 'grew up' with older cameras with only centre weighted metering and no focus point flashes, certainly find it intuitive to 'half-press', reframe then shoot. For handheld shots I rarely find anything practical. Every manual and guidebook we read now has details about moving your focus point to cover the subject, and using the AF-lock button.

But I find in reality that the extent that the points cover across the frame is not really wide enough - I'd prefer some to be right out nearer the far edges. Maybe I'd get this on a higher end model.

When shooting landscapes on a tripod its usually easier to forget about the focus points, just manual focus at the hyperfocal distance and dial in the appropriate aperture.

Older manual focus lenses will only support limited features, so centre point focua is, I think, normal.

There are many features in cameras these days that help beginners, but actually to use will slow us down if we know what we are doing already. I find the idea of wasting time selecting a focus point a bit bizarre when we can focus, reframe and shoot far faster.

You should also be getting a beep when the Green Hex light
comes on ? I'm not sure if you have to turn it on. On the
original ME-F it was on a switch.

The Green Hex Light also behaves differently if you are
using the infra red remote... it just flashes and then goes
out with normal use it stays on for about 5 secs.

You also have to wait about 5 seconds if it has beeped once
before it will beep again.

Your lens ADJ needs to be set right for it to be of any use.

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You can turn the beep off Algi. I have as I hate beeps and such noises. I soon got used to the green hex and don't find the beep necessary.