I'd suggest looking into the Epson line of printers, they make some of the best photo printers you can get.

I'm more concened with getting the Matrix mode in manual mode. If I set it up right, I could use the lens in manual, just like I do now, but with the fancy Matrix mode.

I actually use a Sekonic incident meter for most of my work, but I thought it might be fun to try out the Matrix stuff to see if its's any good.

I don't expect much from it. I tried my one AF lens with multi-point AF, and all that happened is the lens started gyrating wildly between focus points.

Now I just leave the camera set to center point AF, it's faster and easier.

So you are saying that it's that 6th pin that makes the M lens unable to use Matrix metering on the "crippled" KAF mount?

I wonder if there's a way to fake it, than use the lens in Manual mode with Matrix metering? Interesting. Thanks for the information!

Well, not getting an intelligable reply from anyone, I performed some preliminary tests. The lens tested was the 50mm f/1.4 M lens.

Earliiest results are negative, even with the contact altered, the M lens seems not to be able to use Matrix metering. A 50 f/1.4 A lens has no problem at all, so it must have a ROM chip inside it to communicage with the camera.

Non-AF lenses seem only to be able to use the middle AF sensor, a red light indicates if you're in focus. Selective AF point or auto AF point seem not to be available. No great loss, the AF sensor acts like a focus-aid spot as if there was a microprisim or split image in the viewfinder.

So the camera will use all K mount lenses, but manual focus lenses can only get confirmation via the central point.

This is way better than most autofocus cameras, which are no help at all with a manual focus lens. The *st D is close to perfect.

If they just hadn't crippled the KAF mount.........

Matt, I sent off an email. We'll see if he has tried it, he uses the *st D

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if adding the infofmation contacts to an M lens as in this method would allow sooper-dooper matrix or pattern metering on the *st D with the old M lenses?

I wrote Pentax, but received a canned reply stating that the lens needs to talk to the camera. DUH!! That's what this method is all about!!!

The lens is 18-55mm no matter what. If you put it on a 35mm film camera, it will still be 18mm but won't cover the entire frame, so the edges wil be cut off. Put it on a 110 camera and you've got a telephoto zoom.

But it's still 18-55mm, no matter what.

I use a 127mm lens on my RB67, but the frame is so big that it's just a long normal. If I use a 6x4.5 back, it becomes a moderate telephoto. And if I could mount it on the *st D, it would be a long telephoto. It's still a 127mm lens, whatever you do with it.

I use my old M lenses on the D just like I do on the MX. I only have one of the DFA or whatever lenses, and it won't cover the full frame of the film so what do I care?

I only got it because the sensor on the D is smaller than the film frame, so to get a wide angle of view I need a shorter lens.

It's all good!

You can turn off the various beep and bleeping noises, but the mirror slap is a physical sound you can't avoid. There are "blimps" made to make cameras quiet, sort of like a foam padding thet the lens sticks out of.

You'll probably need to focus manually, as no camera I know of autofouses silently.

I shoot mostly for commercial, brochures, magazine ads, and so on. The 4:3 or 4:5 ratio is better suited to the requirements of magazine pages. 8x10 prints, 11x14 prints, 16x20 posters, and so on.

Just my personal beef.