Dear Balazs

Your photos show a Helios 58mm f2 lens and from the side view it would seem to be a later version than my old one from my Zenit E 35mm camera.

However, it is more than likely an M42 thread and there are adapters widely available on Ebay, I got some for around £2 to £4.

I posted a similar question recently - see the thread on this forum entitled.....'Using Helios 58mm on K-r'

BEWARE - take note of the advice in that thread concerning adapters which fit INSIDE the K-r ! If you get one with a small spring on the side REMOVE it FIRST or it is likely to jam in the camera !!!

A safer bet are adapters with a flange which sits OUTSIDE the K-r. The only disapdvantage with these is the small distance it places the lens away from the sensor resulting in lack of focus at infinity (at f2 !)

Also, here is a quote from the USA Pentax Forum ...
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/187767-old-lenses-...

"It's common for folks with just a few M42 screwmount lenses to buy just one Official Pentax adapter, a narrow-flange guy that's safe and somewhat tedious and not super-cheap. The narrow flange allows lenses to reach infinity focus. Mount the adapter in the camera and it becomes an M42 camera with no aperture automation.

Those of us with many M42s tend to buy batches of cheap clones of the Official Pentax. These may be marked as Bower or FotoDiox or other brands. These are usually fine, but remove the screw and clip or YOU WILL GO APESH!T as the adapter jams on the camera. We mount these on the lens, not the camera. Use a PK rear lens cap as a wrench to tighten the adapter. I've had adapters on some lenses for so long that I've almost forgotten they aren't native PK.

A third type of adapter has a wide flange that does not allow infinity focus. These are cheap and safe, no possibility of jamming on the camera. I use these with old teles that normally focus past infinity, and for macro and closeup and portrait and other work where infinity doesn't matter. On something like the Takumar 200/4, it pulls the focus range in to about 1.5m-150m."

As I said before TAKE NOTE of the warnings !

I hope this helps ?

Peter

I must say I've been fascinated by the responses to my original question and have come to the conclusion the the old saying "There's nothing certain 'cept death and taxes' still applies to electronic backups !

However, it would appear that the general rules of multiple backups, probably on multiple HDD's, either 'raided', separate or ideally both systems is the way to go.

In the end it comes down to that modern day business concept of 'risk assessment' and how much do you plan for the 'plane falling out of the sky' scenario ?

I was told some years ago that my family motto was 'catus semper viret' which translates as 'The cautious man always flourishes' ! Seems to be the answer !

Peter

Just to throw another 'spanner into the works' how about these new SSD's (Solid State Drives), which I would imagine are effectively like a very big flash memory card ?

Does anyone know anything about the long term reliability of these ?

Whilst they are considerably more expensive than conventional hard drives, the latter do have the uncertainty of mechanical failure as alluded to above !

On another note, since I currently save all images as both RAW (dng) and jpg files I could save a little space by only archiving the RAW files and re-processing them later if required ?

Peter

Many thanks to all of you for some very useful comments and to johnha in particular for the very instructive link which is just what I was looking for.

I'm the sort of person who doesn't like relying on 'clouds' so although many people advise web storage I'll still not go that route.

Instead, it looks as if the standard backup principles of multiple hard drives is the way I'll stay at present but I'll also explore the CF idea as I gave some CF cards and a card reader.

Whatever, I WON'T rely on the SDHC cards !
What's more I'm going to check on all my CD archives and make sure (a) I can still read them and (b) if I can't I'll make a second backup from the hard drive onto another hard drive !

Many thanks again

Peter

We all know that we need to make backup copies of our image files and up till now I have been using a mix of external hard drives and burning to CD or DVD. However, I've seen lots of articles recently about the dangers of using CD/DVD since they only have limited life ?

Now that SD/SDHC memory card prices have fallen I'm tempted to invest in some lower speed (e.g. class 4) 16GB cards and slide the write swith to lock. 7DayShop have some Sandisk 16GB class 4 at £14.99 for 2.

Meanwhile, I've been stocking up on class 10 cards (usually 8GB) as my general use and keeping these with the original files on instead of wiping them for re-use.

What advice do other Pentax User members have ?

Peter

This lens should really NOT be overlooked - especially as it effectively cost just £70 as part of the twin lens kit !

I've just posted another shot from this lens on the gallery. This time with the lens at 50mm. The gallery view doesn't do real justice to this lens as when viewed at full size the writing on the red banner is clearly visible giving the phone No & website and the views inside the cabin are also clear. And all that in an untouched JPEG straight from the K-r on 'learner mode', i.e. P !

Peter

I got the DAL 50-200 as part of my K-r twin lens kit and have to agree that is is an excellent light 'carry around' lens.
I got the DA 55-300 later for bird photography and appreciate the extra length. However, I can't say that I've noticed much difference between them in IQ ? But that is probably down to MY poor performance !

However, the lightness of the 50-200 makes this my preferred 'jack-of-all-trades' for convenience when I want to take the camera with just one lens.

I've just posted another shot using this lens - the JPEG straight out of the camera 'warts n all', but I can't see any warts ! (If there is any blur it would have been me shaking with the cold !)

Peter

Many thanks for the update, Brian.

I'll certainly get one of the battery holders - at that price it's a 'no brainer'.

Meanwhile, I've just received a new converter from Hong Kong for the grand sum of £2.09 with free postage ! Came in 7 days from estores on ebay where I got my lens hoods for the DAL kit lenses. This one is flanged to sit OUTSIDE the K-r and is black anodised Al. I tried it with my old Prinz 135 and it is fine.

For now I'm happy to use 'M' and press the green button but when I get the battery holder I'll follow your tips to experiment. Incidentally estores also have one but theirs is dearer (£4.09 instead of £3.80 !!!)

Whatever, the better battery life is worth going for alone !

Thanks again for all your help - I'll keep you posted on developments.

Peter

If you are on an extremely tight budget and you have the basic 18-55 kit lens already it might be worth 'splashing' the grand sum of £4.49 on a set of extension tubes from Hong Kong :-

See the link below to ebay:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Macro-Extension-Tube-Ring-for-Pentax-K10D-K20D-K100D-K...

I've used this seller before for lens hoods and a converter flange and am happy with the delivery time and quality. For this money it is worth a 'punt' ?

If the link doesn't work simply paste this into the ebay search box (as I did):-
Macro Extension Tube Ring for Pentax

You'll get lots of offers but the one from estores is the cheapest so I'll probably get a set myself for my K-r !

Good luck

Peter

Good luck

Many thanks for the warning, Brian.

My adaptor does indeed fit inside the camera giving the advantage of focus to infinity. As it happens, I found that it would not fit with the small spring attached so I removed that and tried again with success.

However, being the cautious type, I made sure the converter was tightly screwed onto the Helios first and also checked that it would de-mount from the camera before I used it. Following your experience I'll probably superglue the converter onto the Helios now and meanwhile I've ordered a different low priced flanged converter from Hong Kong.

Thanks again

Peter