curtis_hedman

<p>I have a very old 6x7, and as I recall, the mirror lock-up is a symptom of a nearly dead battery. Is yours reasonably fresh?<br>

For the winding problem beyond the 10th frame, check to see if the 120/220 switch on the end of the camera is set correctly. If it is set to 220 and you use 120 film, I seem to recall the initial wind-to-start will be wrong, and the shutter will continue to be cocked up to 20 0r 21 exposures.</p>

<p>Curt</p>

<p>I believe I read somewhere that the jpeg preview image when shooting RAW only is of fairly low quality, but if you shoot RAW+ the preview is a scaled version of the recorded jpeg image, which can be considerably better than the "preview" version in RAW only. I shoot RAW+ almost all the time, with jpeg set to 16 Mp and "best" three star compression (which is actually not the true best or four star setting!) and I find the preview holds up under high magnification - all the way to 32X. Can anyone confirm this?</p>

<p>I think you misread the instructions a bit - you need a 32 Megabyte card (MB), not a 32 Gigabyte (GB) card, to do a firmware update... but now you will have a great big capacity card for when you feel like trying full HD video recording!</p>

<p>I believe 3.51 is the latest version of Remote Assistant. Per the Pentax site, here is what 3.51 offers:<br>

PENTAX REMOTE Assistant 3 (Ver.3.51)<br /> * Support K20D <br /> * Support limited synchronize of shooting condition between different camera<br /> * Support custom image<br /> * Shorten the displaying of lens name on Image data pane <br /> * Addition of lens data - [smc PENTAX-DA18-55mmF3.5-5.6ALII], [smc PENTAX-DA55-300mmF4-5.8ED], [smc PENTAX-DA*200mmF2.8ED[iF]SDM], [smc PENTAX-DA*300mmF4ED[iF]SDM] and [smc PENTAX-DA35mmF2.8 Macro Limited]<br /> * Improve superimpose indication in viewfinder when setting AF area Auto. <br /> * Improve dialog display when using continuous shooting (Lo)<br>

smc PENTAX-DA 18-250mm F3.5-6.3ED AL[iF] can be displayed<br>

Only lens data is updated therefore, please execute the update after installing PENTAX REMOTE Assistant 3<br>

The item of "2nd synch" was deleted from a menu of the flash mode of the shooting conditions panel when the camera mode is set on "X"</p>

 

<p>I've used Camera Lens Rentals a couple of times - really good folks to deal with! Here is their web site:<br>

http://www.cameralensrentals.com/<br>

Curt</p>

<p> </p>

<p>See Page 136 of the K-x manual -"Taking Pictures Continuously"; Press four way controller "up" in capture mode - the [Drive Mode] screen appears... select the mode you want. Has nothing to do with AFc or AFs.</p>

<p></p>

<p>Thanks, Andrew... Since this is a MF lens, I have to input the focal length when I turn the camera on, so that comes through on the EXIF, and SR gets the right number (more or less!). The Tamron SP 01F teleconverter actually has an 'adjusted' aperture scale on its body, so I was hoping that it would do the conversion to the maximum aperture transmitted to the camera body... but as noted, it doesn't seem to work that way...</p>

 

<p>I recently decided to try using a 01F "flat field" Tamron Adaptall 2 teleconverter with my Tamron Adaptall 90mm f/2.5 macro lens (Model 52B). I was surprised to find that the lens+teleconverter+PKA mount seem to report the aperture of the lens to the camera, not the 2 f-stop reduced aperture resulting from the 2x converter, even though the aperture scale on the converter does show the "adjusted" aperture setting. My K10D seems to think that an f/2.5~22 lens is mounted, as those are the aperture values it allows me to set. Interestingly, the camera delivers correct exposures across the aperture range. Has anyone had a similar experience? I don't see it as a real problem so long as I let the camera decide on the exposure - I'm guessing that it works because the camera actually works in "stops down from fully open" rather than absolute aperture values... at least in Av mode. Are there exposure modes in which this situation will cause a problem? Might I have a defective 01F?<br>

Thanks for any insight!</p>

<p>Curt Hedman</p>

 

<p>Don't know which model might be considered "top", but I've gotten a lot of good years and many fine images with my Pentax SuperProgram, and it still is a reliable performer. Has a good suite of auto and manual exposure options, and a bright viewfinder. I have a Winder ME-II on mine, just for the convenience of not having to take it away from my eye to advance the film.<br>

Curt</p>

 

<p>Are you using the latest version of Pentax Remote? I believe it is 3.51.<br>

On my system, Windows does recognize the connection, but then I launch Remote Assistant and it recognizes the camera. Not doing anything special as far as I can tell...</p>

 

<p>If you are willing to go with manual focus, the Tamron Adaptall SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4 is a pretty good lens, though not as fast the lenses you've had. It also requires the somewhat difficult to find/expensive to purchase Tamron Adaptall 2 P/KA adapter for best functionality on a Pentax dSLR. I have one of these lenses, originally purchased for my Olympus OM-4t, before I made the leap to digital... I found it quite good on the Olympus, but have only just obtained the P/KA mount so I can try it on my K20D.<br>

Curt</p>

 

<p>Check out the following link: http://www.1001noisycameras.com/2009/09/cool-stabilization-test-with-surprises-lens-vs-sensorshift-pentax-k7-and-olympus-ep1.html<br>

This describes a test done with a K7 and an Olympus E-P1 and stabilized lenses. Interestingly, it would appear that the K7 did better with both in-body and in-lens stabilization turned on, while the E-P1 did much worse in that case... the tests were done by a Japanese journal, and a link to a translation is provided. Not enough testing was done for a definitive conclusion, but at least someone thought about giving it a try!</p>

<p>This sound like one of the last "Pre-Spotmatic" models, though mine (with a similar clip on light meter) is a Pentax SV. I would say that it is more of a collector's item than a day-to-day user... the light meter requires a mercury battery (or substitute) to function. This is one of the "SM" line of Pentax cameras, where "SM" stands for "Screw Mount", referring to the M42 screw mount lenses, as opposed to the "K" series, which use a variation on the "K" Bayonet design to mount the lenses.<br>

The camera may be in fine working condition, and M42 lenses can generally be found almost anywhere, so this could be a reasonably low price entry into the Pentax SLR world... but you may find it limiting fairly quickly, compared to one of the later generation Pentax SLRs. I rarely run film through mine, which was given to me some years ago along with a few interesting SM lenses.<br>

Curt</p>

 

<p>My understanding is that the original Adaptall mount (I have one for Olympus OM bodies) did not have a means of detecting and transferring the mounted Adaptall lens's wide open aperture to the camera body. Instead, each Adaptall (original) mount came with a fixed open aperture indication, so you had to have an Adaptall mount that fit your body AND was designed for the particular Tamron lens you wanted to mount. The design aperture was engraved on a small brass or steel 'pin' on the camera body side of the mount. The Adaptall 2 update was to improve the design such that the lens body's minimum f-stop was passed through the mount, meaning one Adaptall 2 mount could be used on any Tamron Adaptall 2 lens with full aperture coding. As to the tab that you reference, I can't help you - the one OM Adaptall mount that I have does not has such a tab.<br>

By the way, finding a P/KA Adaptall 2 mount is getting to be a really rare event... I have managed to locate a couple, but have found that one "works" better than the other in emulating the "A" part of the functionality - sometimes the electrical contacts seem to not quite connect properly unless I jiggle the lens mount to body interface. Gravity seems to play a part, too. The mount + Lens works fine for 'landscape' photos, but fails for 'Portrait' orientation shots unless I gently push sideways on the lens body!<br>

Curt Hedman</p>

 

<p>See page 180 of your K10D manual; the camera automatically sets the flash into a non-labeled 'digital mode' when the metering system is active. As Andrew pointed out, the AF-360 FGZ pre-dated the digital Pentax models, hence the confusion. You can see the focal length read-out on the flash change when you half press the shutter release to turn on the metering system, then revert back to 35mm mode when the metering system times out. This sort of suggests that the camera body tells the flash what head zoom position to take, not just which entry in a look-up table in the flash firmware to use, allowing the pre-digital product to function properly with digital bodies! Good thinking on some designer's part, I'd say...</p>

<p>Very hard to see much corner darkening in this image - but I pulled it into Photoshop Elements 7 and used the 'camera correction' filter to lighten the corners slightly (+15 on the slider) and it did look a bit better. I would suggest taking a photo of a uniformly lit, single color wall, ceiling, or even a cloudless sky to fully assess whether the extent of corner darkening. An old film-version (full frame) 28mm lens should produce very little vignetting on a K10D, unless the lens itself is damaged.</p>

<p>Nor did mine... but I bought the recommended Pentax Clip-on rectangular hood. That hood, however is designed for the FOV of the lens when used on a 35mm film body, so it's a little bit wide when used on a digital body. Being a clip-on, it doesn't reverse and stow over the lens... I rarely dig it out and put it on when using a digital body; more likely to use it when shooting film.</p>

<p>Curt</p>

 

<p>FL is FL, as Justin says, and the "Crop factor" from 6x7 to APS-C is about 3, as Miserere says... but to confound things a bit more, what happens with 'perspective compression' when one goes from one image size/format to another? Say I mount my 6x7 105 f/2.4 on my ZX5n... the lens certainly stays a 105mm, so photos taken with it should be essentially identical to those taken with my 105 f/2.8 Takumar, but as noted, the 35mm frame only sees the center chunk of the total coverage circle of the 6x7 lens. Moving the lens to my K10D, again the lens is still a 105mm optic, with extreme overkill in terms of the image circle it produces versus the size of the sensor... This would indicate that the 'perspective compression' effect is strictly focal length dependent - not at all influenced by imager size. So while we seem to use 'crop factor' to suggest equivalency to longer focal lengths when using smaller sensors, this is more of a 'magnification factor' and misguides us when thinking about depth compression in the recorded image. Beyond this, I believe that basic lens depth of field remains constant at any aperture regardless of sensor size, except that depth of field is defined in terms of circle of confusion at the sensor, so the depth of field as seen in the recorded image probably varies with the 'crop factor' or 'magnification factor'... but I may be completely off base on that one!</p>

I found the following when I had trouble getting my 360 to work:

 

OK, so I figured out my problem... somehow, the flash got switched to "Slave 2" mode. Once I discovered this and changed it to "Slave 1" mode (by holding down the "light" button for 2 seconds, per page 49 of the instruction book), everything went back to normal, by the book operation. Of course I have no idea how the flash got set to "Slave 2" mode, but not doubt I somehow pressed the right combination of buttons!

 

Turns out you have to think of your K10D like an MZ-S when reading the flash manual...

 

Hope this sorts it out for you.

 

Curt<div></div>

What sort of problems? My 80-320 FA works just fine on my K10D, and I use it fairly often.

 

Curt

Matt --

 

I agree that a good EXIF reader will tell you what mode was selected, i.e. the switch position (by the way, I prefer PhotoME to Reveal, for the additional data it displays), but does that say for sure what the microprocessor does with the data?

 

By the way, while poking around in the PhotoME display, I found the neat option to display graphically the LV recorded by each of the metering segments. It looks like all segments are always recorded in the EXIF stream, but they are used in different manners depending on the selected mode... would be neat if this data could be superimposed on the thumbnail, like the selected AF point(S) can be!

 

Curt<div></div>

MM -- The brand or type of card MAY have a bearing, if the card does NOT store the information recorded by the camera - i.e. random dropped bits/write errors/read errors, etc. These probably shouldn't be thought of as "image quality" issues in the purest sense, but more as "data quality" issues. And most often such data quality issues will be catastrophic to the image, I should think. Arguably there is a data quality difference between brands of cards...

 

Curt

Hummm again... MM, wouldn't you get similar results if the K10D internally defaulted to center weighted, even though the switch was set to multi-mode? I wouldn't expect it to not meter all all in multi-mode, just switch to center weighted (and not bother to tell you, of course!) if it did not 'like' the mounted lens...

Glad to hear that all "A" lenses support multi-segment meeting... out of curiosity, how did you confirm that it works? I did a brief check with my Tokina AT-X and didn't see much change in the metered read-out when I switched between center weighted and multi-segment modes, but I didn't do any exhaustive or even well-controlled testing. I did see more of a change when I put on a DA lens... I didn't get so far as to capture a couple of different meter mode images and check their exif data in PhotoMe...

Hummm... I was under the impression that it was only PENTAX A-series lenses that permitted multi-segment metering, not any lens with an "A" setting. Of course, that would mean that the K10D can somehow tell when a non-Pentax A lens is mounted! Interestingly, I was told at one point that the K10D uses a "look-up table" in the software to compute the exposure reading... which understandably would only have values for Pentax lenses. The flaw in this idea would be how new Pentax lenses would be incorporated, unless the chip in the lens is the place where this data is stored. I believe that MTF data specific to each lens is stored inside all Pentax autofocus lenses (Post A-Series), which is used by the MTF Priority mode.

 

Having no hard documentation to back any of this up, I can only speculate!!! However, I do have a Tokina AT-X 35-70/2.8, so I can go off and do some expirimentation...

 

Curt