I second this, particularly if the M42 lens in question has the M/A switch, since you can focus on full aperture and then flick the switch to M to meter and shoot. It's actually pretty easy.

As long as you make sure you get a multi-coated version, from what I hear the J9's are pretty good.

I often use my Tamron 90mm F2.5 for fencing action shots in dingy gyms. It's probably verging on too slow for your purposes, but is cheap and very high quality even wide open.

I have several polarisers, all of them linear

I also have several Pentax autofocus cameras

my experience is that not one Pentax AF camera is actually upset by the use of a linear polariser. I have used ME-F, SFX, Z50p, MZ7, *istDL2 and K10D with success.

your mileage may vary.

I thought it was supposed to have been fixed in 1.10? certainly haven't noticed any since applying that patch although I haven't really had to use 1600 ISO since then either (fencing season is over).

Still haven't been able to get the Virtual Private Networking to work though.

certainly looks sharp to me at this size, probably not the equal of an 85mm prime but then neither is the price!

All I've ever heard is that the Sigma 70-300 APO is very good value. I have a Zeiss Jena branded 70-300 which as far as I can make out is an early version of this lens and it is comparable to my Pentax SMC 80-320 if not slightly sharper. I use the Pentax mostly because it has better colours, flare resistance and AF speed.

I like them, they do just look like monos to me but then I always think the best PS work should be undetectable.

Apochromatic

means it's corrected for chromatic aberration across the visible spectrum, or possibly a specific method of doing this. Sigma like APO lenses, and I can't say I blame them.

I managed some hand held shots at 200mm and 1/4sec on Wednesday. Can't pretend they all came out tac sharp, but most were sharp enough for 6x4 at least.

sorry to hear you are having trouble.

before we can be any real help, we are going to need some more info. Exactly which flash are you trying to use, and on what model of Spotmatic?

Have you had the combination working before?

Have you ever had any flash working on your spotmatic? or used this flash on another camera?

You might be able to fashion a crude adaptor using a Pentax body cap, a Canon back cap and some determination. Unfortunately this will act as an extension tube and you will loose infinity focus. Might be worth a try if you are feeling practical and have a good macro lens in Canon mount, otherwise more or less pointless.


It is also technically possible that someone could make an adaptor involving optical elements to correct the focus problem. As far as I know no one has made such a thing for Pentax to Canon FD, you could possibly get one made but it would probably cost more than replacing your lens collection. Also this type of adaptor always acts as a short teleconverter, loosing you light and image quality along the way.

Even if you do one of the above you will still only have preset stop down metering available to you.

Really your best bet is to take a trip over to eBay and check out the Pentax lens section. There are some very fine old lenses in K bayonet fit which will work wonders on your DL. Anything with an A setting on its aperture ring will work great, lenses without this must be used stop down but on the DL this works rather well (the infamous K10D exposure problems do not apply to you).

well I can't be certain not having seen the machines in question, but I'd say those demo boxes were just badly set up and displaying a 4:3 resolution (say 1024x76 on their 16:9 screens and stretching to fit.

My dad has a widescreen 15" on his lappy, no distortion whatsoever as long as it's set to a proper wide screen resolution.