I appreciate everyone's reply to my question. My extension tubes don't have any electrical contacts. They must be pretty old. KEH charged me $144 for them, and now I'm thinking maybe I didn't get such a good deal. They are in great condition, though. I don't care at all about manual focusing. What I care about is that the camera (using its spot meter or center-weighted meter) gets the right exposure. I see the shutter speed in the viewfinder. Do you think that the aperture is the setting that I have it on (I rarely use the "A" setting). I use the PZ-1p hypermanual mode and set my aperture right on the lens. I guess I am just not sure if the camera is using the F-stop that I have set on the lens I'm using. Are you saying that it is using that setting? I really appreciate your help. Thanks. Kathy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat White" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 5:39 PM Subject: Disappointed - Pentax technicians couldn't answer extension tube question.
> Kathleen, do you know what year your extension tube set B was made? It > probably communicates all the features that were transmitted at that time. > Older cameras, like the MX for instance, read out the aperture in the finder > by means of a little window on the pentaprism, which looks down at the > aperture ring. Naturally, that doesn't work when using an extension tube or > teleconverter. Later cameras and lenses have electrical contacts to > communicate with each other, but that didn't begin until 1983, with the KA > series lenses. > > Take a close look at the extension tubes. They'll have a mechanical linkage > to stop down the lens (that's the Auto part), but probably no electrical > contacts, which would be needed to transmit the f-stop info, nor a drive > mechanism for autofocus. At present, I don't believe Pentax makes extension > tubes which permit autofocus. Kenko makes a tube (not a set) which does > allow AF. > > However, the lack of AF and aperture readout shouldn't stop you from > happily using your extension tubes. I have an extension tube set K, > probably dating from the early '70s, that works fine with my MZ-S. It has > no linkages whatever, and is really just a set of tubes. Having to stop the > lens down manually is an extra step, but for occasional use, I don't mind. > > I agree that the folks at Pentax (if it was a technician you spoke to) > should have been able to tell you this, but a junior technician might have > been in diapers when your tube set was made, and not familiar with it at > all. Hope this is helpful. > > Pat White > > >
