daveish182

Ebay is a cheap way to buy FD lenses, but you have to be cautious of who you buy from.There are many camera dealers on ebay as well as private sellers who know what they are selling and describe accuretly but often the bargains can be found from sellers who have less photographic knowledge, I dont do paypal myself as I've usually no money in the bank and prefer the delay of paying by cheque but this seems a sensible way to buy. Also look out for sellers offering a refund policy. Another thing to remember is not to get carried away and pay more than you really wanted to in the heat of the moment,although the lenses you re after don't come up as frequently as many so you may not have the luxury of waiting a short while for another to come on.

Thanks for the info I'll have a search for others like it, maybe that will give me some clue.

www.adaptall-2.com has a lens test of this lens.

Best place to pick up an adapter would be ebay,KM adapters are common and KA a little rarer but available, they sell for around 30GBP in the UK. Regarding the price, you could check ebay for finished listings to see what the lens has been selling for, from what I've heard about the lens it's one of the best of it's type but I've never used it.

Hi, I've just spotted a M42 mount 40-85mm f3.5 Formula 5 lens on ebay. Anyone

heard of the brand? Just curious really I probably won't try and buy it but it

would be good to hear it's a true optical star, lol and I could pick it up

dirt cheap. Sounds like a good focal length range on sub-miniature digital.

A scan of a 5X4 inch print at 1000dpi would give you a file of around 50mb in colour, 17mb in greyscale.

Maybe I misunderstood the size of the prints you were working from,you mentioned 9X12 albums not prints but the math works anyway, if your photos are 5X7 inches just work out how much bigger your print is going to be and multiply 300dpi by that.File sizes would be larger.

Aiming at an image around 300dpi in your finished print I would have thought so, basically just multiply 300dpi by the increase in size of the print, so if it's gonna be double the size then 600dpi.

Also, files would be alot smaller if you used .jpeg rather than .tiff as a file type when saving but with a chance of some loss of quality.

If I were you I would scan your prints in colour and if you plan to enlarge by double at a setting of around 600dpi (maybe you could get away with 400dpi), save your scans and adjust in photoshop or whatever image manipulation program you have (dust removal/brightness/contrast/convert to b&w/tone etc..)Each file would be quite large at around 90mb,if you scanned in greyscale this would drop to around 30mb.At 400dpi files are down to around 40mb in colour and 15mb in greyscale.

The Tamron K mount adapter I have is marked "for PENTAX K M" but I don't have a Ricoh XR-P mount to compare it with. The best I can do is a picture of the Tamron K mount and a Sirius lens mount marked KR which is actually XR-P fit. My finger is pointing at the offending pin. Hope that helps.

I got mine fixed for 50GBP via ebay, seller id: jonnywood.(800+ positive feedback)

Just an idea, Tamron made a Ricoh XRP mount which is like the Pentax KA mount but with an extra pin which will catch on the MF/AF pin on AF bodies.

The lens should fit. I have two old manual focus Tamron lenses that I'm using on a *ist DL with no problems. Could it perhaps be a fault with the mount? Have you tried attaching it to any other K mount body? Other than that I have no ideas, sorry.

I think prices for the T90 in the U.K. are generally between 100GBP and 200GBP from dealers and ebay prices were often reaching the lower end of this last time I watched them.

I am quite willing to accept that sub-miniature digital will give very good quality compared to 35mm film (depending on which camera, which film etc..)and full frame may surpass it but one thing which has a massive effect on the sharpness of an image is the lens. Mount a jam jar on an any digital SLR and I very much doubt that your images will beat 35mm with a good lens.Also you just can't (without adding fake data)enlarge a 6MP digital image as far as you can with film, even scanning at 2800dpi files are just larger. I do have a 6MP DSLR by the way so I'm not just defending film because it's all I use, which I think a lot of digital converts do. Hey I'd be defensive of digital If I'd just spent the price of a house in some parts of the world on a camera which given modern manufacturing quality is unlikely to last more than a few years, that's if it's not replaced by the latest model (with more pixels or anti-shake or whatever) which seems to be the way a lot of people behave.The statement that a 6MP DSLR will take a "better" picture is just laughable.

A previous poster states "In fact, even a 6mp camera takes better, sharper pictures than film" The word RUBBISH comes to mind.

Sounds to me like a problem with the FD mount on the lens, I'd take the mount off and then re-attach it to the lens making sure it's fitted correctly.If this doesn't sort it maybe replace the mount.

I bought a Canon FD 85mm f1.8 lens a few years back with a couple of small scratches to the coating on the front element expecting little effect especially with the hood fitted and not shooting into the light but I regularly got a triangular shaped patch of flare on my negs so replaced it swiftly. Ideally I would avoid marks to the glass if you can.

I'm surprised you didn't check the lens out when you received it or before you sold it.

I don't think anyones mentioned the Tamron wide-angles as another option: SP 17mm f3.5 (adaptall 2), 21mm f4.5 (adatamatic), 24mm f2.5 (adaptall and adaptall 2). I have no expereince with the lenses but generally I think Tamron have a reasonable reputation regarding the quality of their optics.

Here's a picture showing the two mounts with the button on the top lens shown at the bottom of the lens.<div></div>

Depending whether your lens is "breech" or "bayonet" mount you either turn the chrome mounting ring (last bit of the lens before it reaches the camera)anti-clockwise or push the small button near the mount end of the lens and twist the lens anti-clockwise as far as it will go and the lens should be released. Someone else may be able to describe the process more simply.

Looking at the picture I would have thought this is a hopeless case.

Here's my attempt with some brightness and contrast adjustment and a bit of burning in:

You could try this program (there's a free download):

http://focusmagic.com/