The electrical contacts transfer aperture information to the body and are essential for program exposure modes on the more recent cameras, so without them you're stuck using stop-down metering in M mode on the digital bodies. So yes, you will miss them. Tubes with contacts do come up on ebay from time to time, so keep looking.

Steve

http://www.siblingmedia.com/

Does anone know/use anywhere that does large print sizes economically? Pro-am imaging do 18x12 very reasonably, but they don't seem to go any bigger. When I say large I'm wanting at least 36x24, ideally larger.

thanks,

Steve

Quite. Personal use of information is specifically exempt from the act, as is use for the purposes of journalism, literature or art.

Inside a shopping mall you're probably on private property, so you would need permission.
What on earth is wrong with photogaphing a roundabout? Certainly nothing legally, assuming that it's in a public place.

There's a good summary of the law and photography at http://www.sirimo.co.uk/ukpr.php.

Steve

Yes and yes.
You only need to turn the lens round for magnifications of greater than 1:1. This is a lot higher than it sounds, and you're unlikely to want to go that close to begin with. Also, you're stuck with manual metering for obvious reasons.
Extension tubes would be your best bet, but you need to make sure to get ones with electrical contacts (the seven little metal pins) to use program exposure modes. These are available new from Kenko or second hand from various manufacturers.

You don't mention what lenses you have: any of the 50mm primes will give very good results on extension tubes.

Steve

http://www.siblingmedia.com/

The basic optical design is the same for all the 50/1.4s (7 elements in 6 groups), but there is supposed to be a slight difference between M and A. I don't have an M to compare, but my Super-Tak definitely seems to have a different optical quality to the A and FA. Not necessarily worse, just different. I can't see any difference between the A and FA optically.

Of the autofocus variants, the FA has a much nicer build and manual focus feel than the earlier F. SRS here in the UK have the FA listed at £165 new (though I don't know if they have any stock). Either is a bargain at $50.

Lets hope your seller doesn't read this forum...

Steve

PS I'll match Mongoose's $50 and raise you $10.

http://www.siblingmedia.com/

The A 70-210 is the only one of the three that has a constant f4 aperture through the zoom range. The F and FA are both f4-5.6.

The little lever that controls the aperture suddenly stopped working, so all lenses were permanently stopped down. Which was a bit annoying, particularly as I'd only had it for a month.

Fortunately I haven't got round to off-loading the *istD yet, so I have a back-up. Enforced use of the *istD really makes you appreciate the K10D, though...

Steve

http://www.siblingmedia.com/

Insulating tape is a bit of a no-no, as it tends to get gunged-up when attaching and removing lenses. I have tried taking my Kenko PzAF 2x apart and physically removing the data pin (not too tricky) but it didn't work: the camera still managed to read the focal length from the lens. No idea how: perhaps there's more going on in the K-mount than Bojidar would have us believe.

Interestingly enough, there are electronics inside the TC: a small circuit board with an IC and a few components between the two sets of pins. I had assumed the pins just went straight through as the TC seems to be invisible to the camera; quite what the electronics are there for I don't know.

My short-term solution for this problem was to purchase a Pentax A 2x-S TC. Loses you AF, but I nearly always focus manually anyway. Haven't been able to test it out on the K10D yet as it's back with Pentax being repaired.

In the longer term, I really hope Pentax include the ability to over-ride the SR focal length, or add a multiplier, in the next firmware upgrade.

Steve

PS It may just be a coincidence, but ebay prices for the 1.7x AF converter seem to have gone through the roof just lately (McBrian excepted).

http://www.siblingmedia.com/

The same is true of Kenko/teleplus Pz-AF 2x MC7, Sigma EX 2x, Sigma APO 1.4x, and also I suspect any TC with all 7 electrical contacts. The first six pins encode max/min aperture info for A series and later lenses: it is the seventh pin which communicates the lens focal length info from F onwards.

The upshot of this is that SR doesn't work properly when using these TCs. Which is a real pain for me, as I often use the F* 300mm f4.5 with one or other of the above teleconverters. I haven't done a scientific comparison, but I certainly get the feeling that SR makes a lot less (relative) difference when using the TCs.

I really think there should be an option in custom function to over-ride the greyed-out SR focal length for precisely this reason. As has been pointed out in other threads, the SR menu has apparently already changed since the original publicity material was printed, so I was hoping the firmware update might fix this. I know they're 3rd-party TCs, but there must be a lot of users out there with them.

Steve

http://www.siblingmedia.com/