More likely because for most of the last year Fuji have been giving away two free £400 lenses when you buy a £800 body! I tried one but didn't get on with the viewfinder. If you want a digital Leica and happy with APS-C, used M8s are now similar prices to used M6s.

If it can open aperture meter with any K mount lens it would help pull many more users to the camera. Nikon pretended to offer full backwards compatibility with the Df, as I understand it you have to set the aperture twice (once on the lens, once on the body) to the same value.

Open-aperture metering with M42 lenses was never possible on K mount cameras, only the SMC-Takumars had an aperture simulator but the K->M42 adapter has no mechanism to transmit this to the body.

John.

It's important to realise that all lenses have aberrations, these are present whether you use film or a sensor. For the same frame size, these aberrations are likely to be much more significant to reductions in IQ than any difference due to film versus sensor. It is also important to realise that aberrations generally become more significant further away from the centre of the lens, this happens on all lenses to some extent, although _very_ expensive lenses are affected less. On APS-C, 'FF' lenses are only using the centre of the lens, thus these aberrations are minimised compared to use on a full frame format.

Typical issues towards the edges/corners include: loss of sharpness, increased CA, increased barrel/pin-cushion distortion, very slight vignetting (i.e. measurable scientifically) etc. Most of these are insignificant in most work, but significant barrel distortion (mostly wide-angles) is very obvious if there are straight lines at the very edges of the frame. These are issues that will be more obvious on 'FF' than APS-C, but these are fundamental to the lens design and occurred on film 'back in the day' anyway.

Most Pentax branded film lenses will minimise these aberrations to a point where they are not significant (the exceptions are most likely to be the cheap 'kit' zooms sold with AF SLRs in the mid-late '90s). My M28/2.8 shows barrel distortion on straight lines at the very edges of the frame on film, it will do this on a 'FF' DSLR as well, although a similar 'affordable' new lens may not be any better (FA Ltd/Leitz/Zeiss glass may do better but at a much higher cost).

So compared to APS-C, you will gradually lose more IQ towards the edges/corners, but this will also be the case with new modern 'FF' lenses. As for using most K/M/A/F/FA lenses (especially primes) on a 'FF' DSLR, I doubt the fact it's a sensor rather than film is going to be significant. There are enough other areas (composition being the biggest for me) where you can get it wrong which are infinitely more important.

John.

That was the claim for 'Predictive AF' in the '90s. The camera would work out how fast the subject was moving relative to it and set the focus for where the subject would be when the mirror lifted and the shutter opened. The Z-1 was supposed to be able to do it.

I've resisted posting to this thread because my opinions are quite blunt - I don't give a damn. If a lens doesn't give me the results I want I stop using it, doesn't matter if it's old or new. Newer doesn't mean better - just ask the EOS shooters who'll pay more for a 40yr old Super-Tak than the 'new' EF mount equivalent, despite all the interface problems they create.

There are so many other more important variables to get 'spot on', insignificant differences in IQ are, well, insignificant...

I bought an OPTEC strap with 'Pro B' ends for my 6x7 because I hadn't found 'proper' 6x7 strap lugs at the time. The first thing I did was tie-wrap the two halves of each plastic 'snap buckle' together for safety. I didn't trust them if the camera snatched them if I dropped it. I have a 6x7 & 67, I now use two straps on one body and one strap with two pairs of 6x7 strap lugs on the other (over cautious perhaps - well you get four strap lug mounting points so why not).

The green button is far more useful than that.

Pentax's HyperProgram/HyperManual modes (introduced in the Z-1 film SLR in '92, present on the K-5 and I presume other 'double dial' DSLRs) offer a simply amazing photographers interface. Now simply identified on the mode dial as 'P' & 'M' they are enormously versatile:

HyperProgram (P): Allows seamless switching between Av & Tv by spinning the appropriate dial. Reverts back to the selected program line by pressing the green button ('IF' button on the Z-1). Thus providing P, Av or Tv with a couple of clicks.

HyperManual (M): Offers manual exposure as you'd expect, a press of the green/'IF' button sets the selected program line which can then be tweaked with either dial. A press of the exposure lock button will lock the manually selected EV value (combination of aperture & shutter speed), spin either dial and it then goes into Av or Tv using that locked EV value. Thus providing M, Av, Tv or P with a few clicks.

Many readers will be completely familiar with the above, but it's important to emphasise how versatile these modes are and how much better they are than standard 'P' & 'M' modes. Should you wish to work that way, they provide full 'old school' Av/M operation with A/F/FA lenses using the aperture ring and a shutter speed dial should you wish. OK, you have to move the aperture ring into/out-of 'A' but that's a minor issue and not one you'd normally change while framing a subject.

Yes, the DA lenses should have aperture rings (particularly the high-end ones with high prices), but I'd prefer an 'FF' body (with a non-crippled mount) to use my K/M/A/F/FA lenses with.

John.

As has been pointed out, we really need to see the negatives. The K1000 is a basic camera making it fairly easy to check for major faults:

1) Unload any film and open the back (DON'T touch the shutter curtains), set the aperture ring on the lens to the widest aperture (lowest number), set the shutter speed to '1' (one second), point it at a bright light and fire it looking though the back. You should see a large circle of light for about a second. Watching the shutter curtains as you wind on you should see them reset without seeing any light as they do.

2) Repeat (1) with a medium aperture (say '8'), you should see a smaller circle of light for about a second.

3) Repeat (1) with the smallest aperture (largest number), you should see a much smaller circle of light for about a second.

If the above happens, the lens aperture is being stopped-down correctly.

4) Repeat (1) with the shutter speed set to '2' (half a second) and the widest aperture (lowest number). The circle of light should be visible for about half as long as previously.

5) Repeat (4) for each of the other shutter speeds up to '60' (1/60th of a second), for each setting the shutter should remain open for about half as long as the previous setting (listen also). Beyond 1/60th of a second is hard to test as the shutter won't be fully open, creating only a 'slit' moving across the frame.

If the above is OK, then the shutter timing is basically OK.

6) Close the back, set the ISO dial to '100', go outside in reasonable daylight and fill the frame with a brick wall. Set the shutter speed to '60', spin the aperture ring from one end to the other and back, the meter needle should swing up and down and should be in the middle at an aperture of something like 5.6/8/11 (depends on the light level). Try and compare the reading to a known camera with a similar lens at the same ISO.

If the above is OK this shows the light meter is responding to light in roughly the right way.

If all of the above seem to be OK, then the most likely reasons are film handling (loading/unloading/processing), chronic over/under exposure (i.e. user error ) or a light leak through the back.

Regards,

John.

My MZ-M suffered a similar problem when I fired it with very flat AA batteries. The mirror locked up and the film advance stopped mid-wind (the shutter was obviously in mid-cycle when I opened the back). Pulling the mirror down resulted in it springing back up. With fresh batteries I could get it to 'inch' down a few degrees at a time by firing it multiple times, when it got to the bottom the next shot resulted in it being stuck back up.

Taking the batteries out for a few hours and trying one last time resulted in quite a bit whirring and clunking before it came back to life and seemed to work perfectly normally (I haven't had any results back from it yet though).

John.

Isn't this just a K-5/K-3 with an A/F/FA lens on the front (or for a film equivalent, a Z-1 from '92)? Aperture control on the lens or the body depending on whether the ring is set to 'A' or not. The advantage of 'double dial' operation allows you to switch between P, Av & Tv by spinning one dial and allows 'Hyper-Manual' (basically offering Av, Tv, P or M from one exposure mode).

Sadly, removing the aperture ring from the lens and aperture simulator from the camera (aka crippled mount) are probably cost savings that are here to stay.

John.