Wow, nice thinking. I might try it if I want to get more serious about macro photography.

Agree about eBay - most of my cameras, lenses and gear (including above-mentioned set of macro tubes) have been from eBay.

Ah well, thanks for the advice.

I picked them up for a fiver, so I've got a good quality solid set of tubes for the same price as a crappy set from China on eBay, so I can't complain.

Just got them to have a play really - I haven't done any macro photography before.

Cheers

I recently bought a set of old Aico automatic extension tubes for my k-r. I was expecting to be able to use the aperture control on the camera body, since the tubes have the mechanism to transmit the movement through them. However, the camera doesn't recognise the aperture setting when I put an auto lens on. There are no electrical contacts on the tubes. Are they an older format for purely mechanical aperture control? Is there any way to get the k-r body to actuate the aperture manually?

I have read about removing anodisation to make electrical contact, but a bit confused on this matter.

TIA

Got it. Tried a few different settings before I realised that I had to change the AF mode - I had it set so it didn't autofocus when half-pressing the shutter button, only when I pressed the AF/AE-L button.

I'll see how this works for me before I consider changing the focus screen again.

Thanks for your help.

Dave

Thanks for your reply. I was reading up about the autofocus settings in the manual this weekend and came across the 'in-focus' hexagon you mention. I can't get it to appear in manual focus though - did you have to activate it? I get it in autofocus, and I'm using the kit lens, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Hi all,
Just bought a Pentax k-r, my first DSLR, and was a bit confused about the plain focus screen, having only used a manual focus film SLR before.

Having looked into it a bit more, I can see I'm going to have to replace the focus screen if I want to focus manually (and I don't want to have to rely on autofocus all the time!).

I just wondered if anyone has tried one from this seller on Amazon:link
(I think that's interchangeable with the k-r)
If so what did you think, quality-wise?

Thanks,
Dave