PK mount lenses

Can anyone give me an idiot proof guide as to how to set my shiny new K-7 to use old K mount lenses please. The 35mm gear had been banished to the loft for several years and I'm hoping to use some of the old lenses for a while until I buy some more modern ones (or drop hints for birthday).

Sorry if this is an old chestnut of a question.

Any help would be appreciated

John

Yes it is an old chestnut but here goes...

Somewhere buried in your menus there is an option to "allow use of aperture ring". Turn that to 'on'.

If you are using the original K-mount lenses (the so-called 'K' series lenses) or the M series ones, you have to use manual exposure mode. If you are using A series or later lenses, i.e., those with an A on the aperture ring, all modes are available.

Assuming you are using K/M series, you press the green button to shut the lens down to your selected aperture momentarily and take a light reading.

With the K10D and K20D this will usually be wrong and over-expose. With the K-7 I believe the results are more reliable but as I have never used one I do not know.

I find the easiest thing to do is make sure the preview image you get when you take the picture is overlain with the histogram. Adjust the exposure until you have no blown highlights. I usually take several shots of a nearby piece of grass to get the exposure in the right ballpark and then go from there.

Remember to set the focus to manual.

That is it, I think.... have fun. I use old manual glass 75% of the time.

K.

You can also use Av mode, but the lens will be held at the largest aperture regardless of what you set with the aperture ring.

I find the K-m is about on the money with K lenses down to f11, but underexposes horribly at smaller apertures. You can of course meter at f8 or so then calculate shutter speed manually (as in increase exposure length by a stop for every stop down of aperture).

I don't follow that bit? to use Av you have to set the aperture ring on "A" and set the aperture via the camera.

Dangermouse is talking about K and M series lenses.

K.

I found this web address a few weeks ago whilst rooting about for info, certainly better than having no idea at all! For some reason the web address doesn't start with www. Not sure why but it seems to work.

link

OK, so what is the advantage of using Av mode with lenses not capable of Av?

Not much, most of the time! I'm just pointing out that it's possible.

It can be useful if shooting moving subjects in low light with certain lenses. I used it with the 120/2.8 for a couple of stage shows as that way I just had to focus and press the button when something worth capturing was happening on stage. f2.8 looked fine from the distance involved.

I'd never have thought of that. You learn something new every day.

Thanks guys, you've just reminded me why I sold all my M lenses!

The K/M series lenses would be fine if the metering with them on the K10D/K20D wasn't bordering on useless. Although the A series lenses are more convenient they do feel plasticy in comparison. I've never handled an A* series lens to compare, though. Anyone have an A* 85mm I could 'borrow' for a few years?

K.

I have been messing about with a Tamron 17mm and none "A" adaptall mount so I've tried it with different bodies.

K200
[IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv154/bforbes/manualk200.jpg[/IMG]

K20
[IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv154/bforbes/manualk20.jpg[/IMG]

K5
[IMG]http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv154/bforbes/manualK5.jpg[/IMG]

Now I see what you mean Kris

TBH the stop down metering really doesn't slow me down that much. How often do you shoot below f11 in a hurry anyway? I found that if I left the K 28/3.5 on f8 and just remembered to press the button before shooting the metering was pretty much spot on. Thanks to the depth of field of this lens it was focus free most of the time as well.

I have found that the degree of error varies from lens to lens as well as the f-stop you are using. Given that my usual method of shooting with modern lenses is: shoot, check histogram, adjust EV comp, re-shoot, using manual lenses is almost the same with just the "get it in the ballpark" step at the start of a batch of images. I very rarely find the K20D's metering spot on first time with any lens, old or new.

K.

There are a few good posts on the US forum about a month ago where someones actually plotted a graph of the f stop variation from the meter reading with each lens. Not too hard to do anyway. Sorry I don't know what thread it was