Diopter fine.

I found an article in Robertdonovan.com that seems to explain the situation. I am sure it would be OK to quote it:

"Dialing in accurate focus can be tricky as the range of movement of the manual focus lens’ focus mechanism and front/back focus issues can throw the focus sensor off. The focus indicator will often stay illuminated over several degrees of focus ring rotation (in-focus range). This can be especially frustrating when using fast lenses with extremely short depths of field while trying to achieve critical focus on a specific point of the subject. Trial and error with lots of high magnification LCD review is the best way to get it right. Each lens will likely have its own characteristics that will need to be learned"

Also elsewhere I learned the DSLR viewfinders are different to film viewfinders and much harder to focus visually, hence provision of automatic focus with indicator which causes problems (see above)

Eain

It all looks sharp in the viewfinder. I am going to have to retry with tripod and live view. Eain

Thank you Paul and Womble.

I didn't want the lens to close down. Aperture ring was enabled. I was relying on my eyes. I believe I now understand why the Xe1 worked well with the lens. It has an electronic viewfinder. I have since read on the internet that focusing with live view is the way forward if it is a static subject. Unfortunately that is not always desirable. Thank you for your comments. Sample photo below. Eain

I have been experimenting with this legacy lens on my K50, gone through all the steps, setting focal length at 50mm, Av exposure at f1.7, very high shutter speed etc. However the photos are extremely soft though they do have a beautiful quality. I used the same lens a year ago with an adapter on a Fuji Xe1 and the photos were quite sharp. Is it possible that the extra distance from the sensor resulting from the use of the adapter brought the lens into a better relationship with the focussing screen or what ever it was the Xe1 used to calculate the correct focus?

I think it is my own carelessness when holding the camera outdoors as opposed to testing it carefully. The screen does disappear very quickly if you touch the shutter button. I leave it at 0 compensation as you suggest normally. The K7 system seems more streamlined. Thanks again for your help.

Thank you for the reply.
When the flash mode disappears (and it does not happene very time) it goes back to the main screen. It only stays visible a couple of seconds. I have just tried it again and it is working perfectly. I wonder if sometimes the way I hold it when hurrying I may be touching the shutter button just enough have it revert. .

I sometimes have a problem adjusting the flash output level on my K50. I press the flash side of the four way controller and it brings up the flash menu. I then go down to the output display just below. However it often disappears befoore I have time to make an adjustment - not always but enough to be annoying. I suspect I am making a very obvious error but haven't been able to identify it. Can anyone advise please?