andrewk wrote: My new split focusing screen arrived yesterday from focusingscreen.com, about two weeks after placing the order. The total cost inc UK VAT and a ParcelForce "Clearance Fee" of £13.50 was just over £85. I built up the courage to fit it in my K200D this morning. It went quite smoothly, so unless you are even more dithery than I am (unlikely), you'll probably have no particular difficulty.
I've had a quick play with the K200D this afternoon, but it's been heavily overcast and tippling down with rain & sleet, so I haven't ventured out. Having said that, pointing the camera into the gloom through wet double glazed windows taking shots of a satellite dish, a neighbours Land Rover and trees and taking shots of furniture inside the house with curtains open/closed and with lights on/off is pretty much a worst case, so when the sun comes out, it'll be even better than I've seen so far.
Briefly:
In daylight, the K3 focusing screen works very well with every lens I've tried so far - a XR Rikenon 50mm f1.7, Pentax 18-55mm Mk2 kit lens at 55mm (so f5.6) and Pentax 75-150mm f4 zoom. Even an old manual t-mount Tamron 400mm f7.5 set at f11 was usable - the screen was darker as you would expect, but the split image wasn't blacked out and still worked. For comparitive purposes, I tried the same lenses on a Ricoh KR10 Super film camera, which has a similar split image focusing screen - and there's not a lot of difference.
Indoors with curtains open but no lighting switched on and the 18-55mm kit lens fitted, the split image screen was still very usable. Although you can provoke one half of the split image to darken a little by shifting your eye to the corners of the viewfinder, that didn't happen if you used it normally. With curtains closed and no lighting on, you are in trouble - but then again, the camera's autofocus didn't work either. With a single 10w halogen spot in an otherwise darkened bedroom, focusing manually using the split image screen with the kit lens at 55mm (hence f5.6) was OK too - so focusing any manual lens I'm likely to use in a relatively dimly lit pub or club should be a breeze.
I know from a previous test that the K200D's autofocusing is pretty accurate with the kit lens. Focusing using the split image screen pretty much agrees with the K200D's autofocus using the kit lens - and with the focus confirmation hexagon when using a manual lens, which is comforting. So far as I can tell, the matrix metering and centre weighted metering works fine but spot metering was way out, over exposing by maybe a couple of stops - which is pretty much in line with what the reviews I've read previously suggested.
Overall, I'm delighted with the new focusing screen and am glad that I bought it. If you have used a film camera with a split image screen and are happy with that then I think you'll also be happy using the focusingscreen.com K3 screen.
Andrew
Did you receive any shims with the K3 and did you need to use any?
My new split focusing screen arrived yesterday from focusingscreen.com, about two weeks after placing the order. The total cost inc UK VAT and a ParcelForce "Clearance Fee" of £13.50 was just over £85. I built up the courage to fit it in my K200D this morning. It went quite smoothly, so unless you are even more dithery than I am (unlikely), you'll probably have no particular difficulty.
I've had a quick play with the K200D this afternoon, but it's been heavily overcast and tippling down with rain & sleet, so I haven't ventured out. Having said that, pointing the camera into the gloom through wet double glazed windows taking shots of a satellite dish, a neighbours Land Rover and trees and taking shots of furniture inside the house with curtains open/closed and with lights on/off is pretty much a worst case, so when the sun comes out, it'll be even better than I've seen so far.
Briefly:
In daylight, the K3 focusing screen works very well with every lens I've tried so far - a XR Rikenon 50mm f1.7, Pentax 18-55mm Mk2 kit lens at 55mm (so f5.6) and Pentax 75-150mm f4 zoom. Even an old manual t-mount Tamron 400mm f7.5 set at f11 was usable - the screen was darker as you would expect, but the split image wasn't blacked out and still worked. For comparitive purposes, I tried the same lenses on a Ricoh KR10 Super film camera, which has a similar split image focusing screen - and there's not a lot of difference.
Indoors with curtains open but no lighting switched on and the 18-55mm kit lens fitted, the split image screen was still very usable. Although you can provoke one half of the split image to darken a little by shifting your eye to the corners of the viewfinder, that didn't happen if you used it normally. With curtains closed and no lighting on, you are in trouble - but then again, the camera's autofocus didn't work either. With a single 10w halogen spot in an otherwise darkened bedroom, focusing manually using the split image screen with the kit lens at 55mm (hence f5.6) was OK too - so focusing any manual lens I'm likely to use in a relatively dimly lit pub or club should be a breeze.
I know from a previous test that the K200D's autofocusing is pretty accurate with the kit lens. Focusing using the split image screen pretty much agrees with the K200D's autofocus using the kit lens - and with the focus confirmation hexagon when using a manual lens, which is comforting. So far as I can tell, the matrix metering and centre weighted metering works fine but spot metering was way out, over exposing by maybe a couple of stops - which is pretty much in line with what the reviews I've read previously suggested.
Overall, I'm delighted with the new focusing screen and am glad that I bought it. If you have used a film camera with a split image screen and are happy with that then I think you'll also be happy using the focusingscreen.com K3 screen.
Andrew