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Comment by Driftwood posted on Kr - AF Fine Adjustment at 19/01/2012 - 14:42
Darren - to give a beginners-eye view on what's been said above (and hence will almost certainly be corrected by the old hands) the mount Pentax use (i.e. the method by which lenses fit to their cameras) - called the K-mount - has remained pretty much the same since 1975. Hence any Pentax K-mount lens made since then will fit any Pentax K-mount camera body made since then - including the K-r we both have.
Bear in mind, however, that while the lens might fit - and work - with a modern body, older lenses might not have all the functionality you'd get in a modern lens, i.e. you might not get autofocus and/or auto aperture, so you need to know what you're doing - or be willing to research / experiment and find out. For instance, the 1980s 50mm prime (non-zoom) lens I've got needs aperture and focus to be set manually on the lens, but with a couple of tweaks in the K-r's menus, the camera can be set up to work out the exposure automatically. It might not be as convenient as a modern lens, but it cost me under £20, and is as sharp as modern lenses costing ten times that amount.
There's also an old 'universal' mounting standard called M42 (as David mentioned), that can be made to work with modern Pentaxes using an adaptor ring, with similar limitations as described above.
This backwards-compatibility is one of the main reasons I went with Pentax rather than Canon or Nikon (which have both changed their mounts several times in the last 30 years, limiting the availability of cheap, older lenses).
Right - Someone with a Clue will be along shortly to point out all the errors in the above explanation...
Bear in mind, however, that while the lens might fit - and work - with a modern body, older lenses might not have all the functionality you'd get in a modern lens, i.e. you might not get autofocus and/or auto aperture, so you need to know what you're doing - or be willing to research / experiment and find out. For instance, the 1980s 50mm prime (non-zoom) lens I've got needs aperture and focus to be set manually on the lens, but with a couple of tweaks in the K-r's menus, the camera can be set up to work out the exposure automatically. It might not be as convenient as a modern lens, but it cost me under £20, and is as sharp as modern lenses costing ten times that amount.
There's also an old 'universal' mounting standard called M42 (as David mentioned), that can be made to work with modern Pentaxes using an adaptor ring, with similar limitations as described above.
This backwards-compatibility is one of the main reasons I went with Pentax rather than Canon or Nikon (which have both changed their mounts several times in the last 30 years, limiting the availability of cheap, older lenses).
Right - Someone with a Clue will be along shortly to point out all the errors in the above explanation...
Comment by Driftwood posted on New year, new member, new camera at 31/12/2011 - 20:05
OK, OK, it's not 2012 quite yet, but I'll clearly be far too hungover tomorrow to post coherently, so thought I'd say hello now.
Anyway, just bought myself a new K-r with single-lens kit (from Clifton Cameras - having had a surprisingly bad experience with SRS), and very rapidly added a load of 2nd-hand lenses as well (thank you EBay). So far I've got a 50-200 D-Xenon, 70-300 Sigma, and a lovely old Pentax-M F/1.7 prime.
I should probably stop now before my wife kills me, but I *just* need to add a decent flash to the line-up. Anyone got any experience of the Sigma EF-610 DG ST or Metz Mecablitz 44 or 50 AF-1 with a K-r? The latter's probably pushing my budget a bit, so I'd be interested to know if the extra money over the 44 is worth it?
Anyway, probably far too much waffle for a first post, so a belated Merry Christmas and a premature Happy New Year to all.
Anyway, just bought myself a new K-r with single-lens kit (from Clifton Cameras - having had a surprisingly bad experience with SRS), and very rapidly added a load of 2nd-hand lenses as well (thank you EBay). So far I've got a 50-200 D-Xenon, 70-300 Sigma, and a lovely old Pentax-M F/1.7 prime.
I should probably stop now before my wife kills me, but I *just* need to add a decent flash to the line-up. Anyone got any experience of the Sigma EF-610 DG ST or Metz Mecablitz 44 or 50 AF-1 with a K-r? The latter's probably pushing my budget a bit, so I'd be interested to know if the extra money over the 44 is worth it?
Anyway, probably far too much waffle for a first post, so a belated Merry Christmas and a premature Happy New Year to all.
Comment by Driftwood posted on New year, new member, new camera at 31/12/2011 - 12:31
The consequence of this is that I've potentially saved myself £250, as I had a big downer on the lens and assumed I'd have to go for the Pentax 55-300 to get the sharpness I wanted. Now that I'm picking out the eyes of pigeons roosting on trees 40 yards away, I think the Sigma will do me just fine for the foreseeable.