Except for macro and extreme telephoto shots I do not really see where losing internal metering is a great hardship. Quite frankly losing the auto-diaphragm would be more of a problem to me the way I work (As I have mentioned on the list many times, I tend to use a incident meter most of the time anyway). Thankfully, you don't lose that when you set the custom function mentioned above. I think that if I had the camera I would invest in an A-series macro, though come to think of it I do not have a macro lens anyway (grin).
What is missing in the camera is the mechanical lever that feeds back the aperture ring position to the meter so the camera knows what f-stop is set on the lens. That only affects the metering. All the work arounds I have heard mentioned here on the lists would lose the auto-diaphragm, so are not viable in my opinion.
William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Owens"
Subject: Re: IstD and Macro?
When our local Pentax rep was in town a couple of weeks ago, I tried this with the M100 Macro. I set the aperture ring to f8.0, looked into the
front
of the lens and tripped the shutter at 1/8 sec. The lens DID stop down.
It
seems that all you lose with a K or M lens is metering. A hand held meter should work in these situations.
I tried it, and yes, the lens stops down, but not until after the exposure has completed. I have no idea about the hows or why, I am just reporting what I saw.
William Robb
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
