it deppends on the model, my Goodmans one is double sided and geared to work with auto-reverse players. Occasionally it does get confused but it's usually solved by taking the tape out, giving it a good thump and putting it back.

It doesn't work with certain VW players though because the wire causes trouble. It wont fit in the slot in my Dad's VW Bora.

the law has recently been changed in the UK to make those mini transmitters legal here. No help to you Gwyn, but nice for us.

I have a cassette adaptor thingy which I use with my not-quite-an-Ipod, works great. My parents have one which is awful though. Some unknown brand or other. Mine is a Goodmans and works a treat.

Spider much as I would dearly love to use this as an excuse to dig at Canon, the reason is that the EOS line has a shorter back focus distance than just about everyone else. This makes it ideal for mounting other peoples lenses on.

Nikon on the other hand has a long back focus. This means that if you just construct a bayonet adaptor to let you put a PK lens on a Nikon F mount then you are in effect using a short extension tube and you loose infinity focus. Nikon has a pretty good record of backward compatibility with their own lenses, but they really don't want you mounting anyone elses.

The Canon AF system on the other hand refuses point blank to work unless the lens will talk to it (I think it gets lonely) so that Pentax is the only one who's in focus indicator still works with a simple adaptor. You can get electric adaptors for Canon to M42 which fool the AF into working, but they are more expencive.


Col, thats a very interesting description you found! perhaps he likes to take candids without disturbing his subject?

look at this ebay listing!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pentax-Takumar-1-4-50-One-of-Fastest-Lens-fit-Canon-EOS_W0...

I'm pretty sure its a mistype of Porst

They were (are?) a German lensmaker I believe and you see their lenses come up on evilbay every so often. I've only seen the 55 1.2 once, it went for a lot more than the $18 the guy testing the K10D got his for, mainly on the strength of its F1.2 maximum.

from what I have read they are not as good as the SMCP version, but quite acceptable if you can get them at a good price.

It'll be full manual, no electric contacts so stop down metering only and manual entering of focal length.

to try and haul this thread somewhere near the original topic (and don't worry Pete, my spelling etc isn't exactly world class either)

1. What George said is (as usual) correct, however the sensor etc has only replaced the film. No amount of electronic gadgetry can pull detail out of nothing, without a good lens you're still scuppered.

2. You can't go far wrong with a Pentax SMC prime. Some of them are better than others though, and when I am considering one I tend to check out http://stans-photography.info/ which has a nice collection of comments by actual users about most PK fit lenses. Note it does not include M42 mount Takumars or any non-Pentax products.

It's pretty hard to find a good wide angle for a cropped sensor on the second hand market. 18mm was pretty extreme ultra-wide on 35mm film. There were 15mm Pentax lenses in K and KA, but they are hard to come by and rather expencive.

yes I did, and I want to know where he got a Porst 55 1.2 for $18

wow, real life isn't always that sharp

whereas that is a fairly large astro telescope. It has an objective nearly half a meter across!

that thing has a shooting aperture of 7 inches

thats not a camera lens it's a medium sized astronomical telescope