I've looked at the menu on the camera, which explains that when an 'S' mount lens is used (by which, I assume, they mean screw lens) you can toggle between the focus indicator being available or not available

This point was raised in the *istD/DS Yahoo group and this reply was posted:-

'I am a new member. My name is Dennis Simmons, born in the UK but now living in Brisbane, Australia. I joined the group as I was considering purchasing the *ist DS for use with my old K Mount, non-A and A lenses and wanted to read of users experiences with their older lenses. The information I found helped me purchase the camera – thank you! My main use of the camera will be for astrophotography through my 4” refractor which has a computer controlled mount that tracks the stars to compensate for the rotation of the Earth. This will allow me to take long exposure images of galaxies, star fields and nebulae.



I’ve had my Pentax *ist DS for a week now and the lack of favourable conditions has prevented me from using it for astrophotography – sigh! After much playing indoors, I thought that I would share my early findings on the functionality of older K mount lenses, as I found the manual a little unclear and somewhat difficult to follow on this topic. Here are some of my observations. Where possible, I have included a reference to the relevant page (Pxxx) in the Pentax *ist DS manual.



TEST 1 – PENTAX K MOUNT 35mm FILM LENSES NON “A”.

For this test, I used the following lenses (year of purchase):

Pentax 50mm f1.8 (1976) as provided with my original Pentax KM
Pentax 135mm f2.5 (1990)
Tokina 500mm f8 mirror lens (1990)


User Modified settings:

To obtain manually focused and correctly exposed images, I had to change four settings (2 hardware, 2 software) as follows:

Setting 1: On the camera body, set the Focus Mode Lever to MF (P121).

Setting 2: In the [C Custom Settings] menu (P100/101) toggle the option “Fl with S lens used” from the default of “1 Unavailable” to “2 Available”

Setting 3: In the [C Custom Settings] menu (P100/101) toggle the option “Using aperture ring” from the default of “1 Prohibited” to “2 Permitted”

Setting 4: Set the Mode Dial (P104/105) to M for Manual.

When scrolling the [C Custom Settings] menu, the options toggled in Settings 2 & 3 above are the first two lines on the 3rd screen (of 4).



Procedure for taking a picture:

With the above 4 settings in their changed state, do the following:

(a) Dial in the aperture manually on the aperture ring of the non A lens (e.g. f

(b) Compose the image.

(c) Manually focus through the viewfinder.

(d) Half depress the shutter release and hold (illustration on P45).

(e) Press the “AE-L” button and you should hear a noise associated with the iris being manually stopped down (the viewfinder darkens momentarily) as the meter takes a reading.

(f) Now fully depress the already half depressed shutter release.



Congratulations – you have just taken a manually focused, correctly exposed image!



Notes:

1. Every time I forgot to press the AE-L button (step (e) above) to manually cause the iris to be stopped down for metering, the resultant image was totally overexposed i.e. a white screen.

2. In the viewfinder, F - - is displayed for the aperture value regardless of what aperture you have manually selected.





TEST 2 – LEICA SPOTTING SCOPE WITH “T” RING

By following the same procedure as above (except that the aperture in not adjustable) I was able to obtain sharp, correctly exposed images by using the Leica photo-adapter and a T ring.





TEST 3- PENTAX K MOUNT 35mm FILM LENSES WITH “A” SETTING.

For this test, I used the following lenses (year of purchase):

Vivitar Series 1 70-200mm f2.8-4 (1990)
Sigma 400mm f5.6 (1989)
Sigma 24mm f2.8 (1992)


Notes:

1. With the aperture ring set to A, the above lenses could be manually focused. The shutter speed and aperture values were displayed in the viewfinder.

2. There was no requirement to press the AE-L button for stopped down manual metering, as the camera could read the values when the lens aperture ring is set to the A position.

3. If you forget to set the Focus Mode Lever to MF, the shutter will not fire.





CONCLUSION:

So, there you have it. It seems that Pentax has indeed maintained backward compatibility with older K mount lenses. All I need now is some good weather so I can test the camera on my Vixen 4” refractor. Please note that the above information is for guidance only and is the result of an afternoon playing with the camera, it may contain errors and misunderstandings.



OTHER FINDINGS:

1. There is a poor man’s mirror lock up (P55) accessed by using the Function Button to set the Self Timer to 2 seconds. When you release the shutter, the mirror flips up and then after approximately 2 seconds, the exposure is made.

2. My old Pentax right angle viewfinder will not attach to the *ist DS, even with the rubber eye guard removed – oh well.



Cheers



Dennis'

Cliff

Does anyone else share my dismay at the lack of reasonably priced, longer focal length, prime lenses? I would love something in the 400/500mm range, but there appears to be nothing available these days apart from mirror lenses. I told my wife that Warehouseexpress have a Sigma at £1000 below RRP, but when I said this still came out at £1499, received a distinctly frosty response

I've been thinking overnight, and am not sure, as said, whether this 'does make sense':-

'Yes. Interestingly enough, they say they used a Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 DC and 55-200mm f/4 - 5.6 DC in each case (+1gb Sandisk Ultra 11 card, for what that's worth)'

If the review is intended as a consumer review it seems to me (after thinking about it in the 'wee' [with two meanings to the word!] small hours), then to use independant lenses is flawed. Buyers will fall into two categories:-

(a) existing users of fim SLRs of ther four brands referred to - in which case they will already have a supply of lenses and will unlikely want to buy an independant lens, ignoring the Olympus which, of course, is a different matter, and I guess buyers of that will be similiar to:-

(b) 1st time buyers of SLRs who are likely to buy the camera (of whichever make) in kit form anyway

There is a third catergory, like me, who, whilst having a number of lenses, brought the kit lens because of its wide angle capabilities, knowing I would loose on my existing due to the focal length shift.

'However, in the 4 way test you mentioned, was any mention made of the lenses used with each camera? '

Yes. Interestingly enough, they say they used a Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6 DC and 55-200mm f/4 - 5.6 DC in each case (+1gb Sandisk Ultra 11 card, for what that's worth)

I suppose using an independent lens is a not unfair way of conducting a comparative test.

I think we need to face the fact that AP. like everyone else, has a 'down' on Pentax generally. It seems to me that unless you are wearing a Canon or Nikon around you neck (so far as SLRs are concerned) you aren't taken seriously. I am concerned that Canon spends a heck of a lot of money promoting competitions (eg APOY, Digital Photographer of the Year in Digital Photo) and appears to arrange a lot of product placement on TV etc. AP loved the top of the range Canon DSLR (EOS1Ds?), costing as near as dammit £6K for a body alone - and I wondered what an amateur camera mag was doing reviewing a piece of kit costing such an obscene amount of money.

Digital Photo also did a 4 way comparison(*istDS, EOS300D, D70 and E300) in current issue. In the image comparison the Pentax gets the lowest score, yet to my eye the images are on a par with those taken with the Canon, which got the top score, and better than the D70 which got a higher score!

I posted remarks like this in a general photo forum of which I am a member and got howled down, being told that 70% of photographers at (I think) the Olympics used Canon. So what? They would have been using top of the range models with lens costing £2K+ - and I'm certainly never paying that kind of money for glass

I learned, via an *istD(S) group elsewhere that there is an upgrade available for the software bundled with Pentax digital SLRs. I found that upgrade on the Pentax site, but it is a 21.5 mb download - absolutely no good for poor souls like me still lumbered with a dial-up connection. Does anyone know if pentax UK have any plans to make this upgrade (which seems worthwhile), available on CD?
Cliff

I have a Jessops own brand flash gun (Centon FH95) with a dedicated Pentax module which I brought to use with my MZ 5n. On enquiring at my local branch whether I could use this with my *istDS, I was told 'no', and they tried to flog me an inferior 'digital' flash gun. I'm a little loth to use it on the DS in case it mucks up the electronics (I used a Minolta Dimage 7i before I brought the Pentax, and know you had to use special flashguns with that because of voltages etc).

I would like to go on using the Centon (a hammerhead gun, and quite powerful). Has anyone else had any experience, or able to offer advice?

Thanks for comments. I always use a card reader - it was converting RAW files once downloaded that was of concern. Yes, the manual is a .pdf file

I have just purchased an *istDS, with which I am highly delighted. However, I am having trouble with the software supplied. I cannot load the electronic manual - does any one know whether it contains anything additional to the comprehensive paper manual? - nor the imaging software which is more of a problem, as I cannot shot in RAW. I have emailed Pentax UK, but no response (does any manufacturer ever respond to emails sent vai a website?)

Has anyone else come across this problem with the software?

I am running a 4 month old computer, with 1024mb of RAM, Windows XP + SP2, and an Athlone 64 3400+ processor