elvin_haak

<p>Well, Comparing bodies...<br> I have more and use the one I like more for 'the job' and the lens I take with me.<br> For example: with the MZ-5 I can do some bracketing and repeat-photographing very fast so it is very suitable for sports, but also for doing macro since it is very easy to use "spot-metering" and it is working very nicely with non-A-lenses: if you turn the ring on the lens away from 'A' it is in manual-modus or half-automat. The flip-control combined with the two wheels that you can turn (and they don't turn by accident) to select a modus is real good for me.<br> But: with the MZ-10 I can use lenses that only work well with an 'A' since I can then select the aperture from within the body. I have some lenses without an aperture-ring and also one on which you can hardly turn the ring if it is attached to a body like the MZ-5/MZ-10/MZ-xxx because of the little flash on top of the body. Those lenses work fine on the MZ-10. It is more difficult to control for many things for me and I miss some settings. The automatic controls that you can select on the left can be very handy at times (for example taking the sports-setting so that the automatically selected aperture is relatively wide so that the shutter is faster.<br> Well I have them both and also some other bodies so I can select which suits my needs best in the way I like it with the lens I want to take with me.<br> Like I wrote, I'd try to get the MZ-10 working simply by cleaning it and running a couple of fresh/new films through it and maybe get the MZ-7 as an extra body so you can choose in which situation you like to use which. It is also handy that you don't have to switch the lenses from your body so you could leave the wide-angle lens on one body and work with the tele-zoom in the other for example. Or of course use black-and-white film in one and colour in the other...</p>

<p>Maybe to be clear, the ZX-7 is not an 'digital body' in the way that is it is a digital camera.<br> See for more info http://www.pentaxforums.com/camerareviews/pentax-mz-7-zx-7.html<br> It is still using film so it is not any kind of 'digital camera' although the controls are "digital"/ controlled with electronics instead of the old-fashioned knobs and dials.<br> to avoid confusion...<br> About the price and use of a 'digital camera' that uses a digital sensor instead of film and 'real film', there is also the liking of the film and of course all the other costs that you get with digital photographing. For one, you need a fast computer, accu's, SD-cards, backup-media and so on besides de camera itself. <br> A film and processing doesn't normally cost 30 Euro's or so, but a lot less and you will probably not find a good second hand body with charger, working batteries (that will work long), and so on for under 300 Euro's. If you already got a computer and so on it is still a lot of extra costs. Besides that old bodies don't give the quality that you get nowadays from newer bodies. <br> I have had some digital bodies as well like a K-100D and it was using a lot more batteries at the end of its usefull life then in the beginning. Not usefull anymore even with new battteries since after about 5 pictures the battery ran empty.<br> But main thing: the feel of digital is different then from analog (film) photographing. Very hard to compare.</p>

<p>Well,<br> For a short explaining about the 'A', this is a setting on the aperture-ring that locks the lens in its smallest Aperture (for example f/22) and it then can be controlled directly out of the body. As long as you can 'unlock' the aperture (depressing the 'A' and turning the ring yourself) all the exposure-functions of for example the ZX-5 (MZ-5 is the same model, for European market) or ZX-5n are availlaible, including the Manual (M) and Aperture-Priority (AV) modus. <br> If you have a lens that doesn't unlock and only has 'A', with these bodies you cannnot use the 'M' and 'AV' modus but all automatic moduses will still work.<br />I have an MZ-10 (same as ZX-10) for some lenses that don't have this ring since all modus are availlaible from the body also without the locking mechanism or withouth aperture-ring. Only a few models exist that can use both types in all modes.<br> MZ-10 (Zx-10) also provides some automatic recognision program-modes (with the smile) which balances automaticallly between speed and aperture on a different way than the automatic program-modus in for example the 'P' or the 'Auto'-modus on the MZ-5 / ZX-5.<br />Both types of body support panoramic setting with a simple switch.<br> About the vignetting: both bodies and also lenses are made for 35mm, thus normally no extra vignetting. Als not if you would use the lenses on an digital body with a crop-factor (but why should you, you have a nice film-body).<br> The problem with rewinding to fast could be related to stiff-wounded film that has been lying around for a long time, maybe in combination with a body that hasn't been used often enough so it runs a bit sticky. You can try just to run a fresh film through it a couple of times and just clean it out and a good chance that it works very well also with older 'sticky' film. it is like the door in a house: if you don't use it for a long time it tends to go a bit harder but after 20 or some openings it goes ligher again. And of course it is never a good thing to use old sticky film ;-)</p>

<p>Hi,<br> Well I don't know about CS3 or CS5 but the most acurate output is of course in the original Pentax-software provided with your camera.<br> Just not all lensdata is availlable in software. But look at your camera when you are zooming.<br> With the more modern sigma lenses (which I bought at the time of the MZ-5 and MZ-7) the zoom 'jumps' in steps from 28 to 80mm just the same as it does with the K-r or K-30. At the same time the aperture-reading changes.<br> Remind that the aperture is not changing: the opening is staying the same with the zoom with variabele aperture (sorry, my English...) but the calculation of the apperture is changing according to the zoom-length. This is because of the f is changing and the opening is not changing.<br> Of course there will be less light on the film (or sensor) when you zoom in, this is a bit like cropping.<br> The same happens with your macro: there is less field that gives light to your film and thus this has to be adjusted. Since you use an internal light-meter, the adjusting is done automatically and so the reading doesn't matter much but it is good that the camera can read this info.<br> The lens is giving the info to the camera, according to a table which is in the lens. As a matter of facts the lens is doing this as if it was a series of fixed-focus lenses.<br> Then later the known info is written inside the exif of the recording and the software is trying to figure out what lens is used.<br> Well, not all lenses and lens-data is correctly listed in the software, especially not for older lenses from before the time this info was interesting. So, if you got an older 35-80 from Sigma then I do, you can have other readings. You probably have to buy a newer lens to get the more correct info since there is no real safe way of rewriting the info in the lens.</p>

<p>Actually, camera's like the MZ-7 or MZ-50 are working the same way with these values.<br> This is: the lens is electronically coupled with the body, not with the mechanic coupling for the aperture.<br> Actually, the lens is telling the body a signal that a certain diafragm/scale will be in use and the body selects / calculates a certain value of which therefore the time should be set to.<br /> Since the body is only coupled electronically and this info is provided with open-aperture, this calculation is not always optimal.</p> <p>But, if you recalculate in the way the aperture is calculated it is pretty correct in most cases. Remember the aperture-number is a calculation of f/number, thus the longer the lens, the higher te outcome will be with most lenses. This is extra if the lens is put in macro-setting (yes, there will be less light, as if the "f" is getting longer).<br> So, the aperture itself is not changing (the opening cannot be set smaller fysically), but the effect of the same small aperture it the same as if you would be able to close it further.<br /><br />With most lenses, it is only written like f/4.5 - f/16 with a full opening, but in tele and in macro this can well be effective as f/16 - f/64 <br> If you use these lenses with an older type of film-camera's that have (only) mechanic coupling, the aperture is getting a relative thing: with 'setting' the diafragma-ring on 'A' or by hand to '4.5' the aperture in tele/macro can be effective as f/16 and if you or the camere closes down to '16' this could be effective as f/32 . But these camera's don't know the real f/value. Doesn't matter though: there is less light and the film has some room to play with so in the end the effect on the print is neglected. <br> With the newer analoge (MZ-7 / MZ-60 series) the correct calculation was done for the newer lenses just as would be done now for the digital camera's so that the effective apperture is calculated and written.<br />Older lenses don't always give the right information (why should they - in that time there was a mechanical coupling as well and the camera was doing a relative simple thing, besides that, the zoom was limited for example to 80-200 instead of 18-250 mm nowadays) and can lead to miscalculations that will be visible on digital camera's (and on slides by the way).</p>