So now you are comparing working cameras (newish *istD) to older but broken ones? That doesn't make much sense.
There is nothing wrong with the way they sensed the cams on the K/M lenses. They did it for about 30 years so I think you have to give the engineers a little more respect than that. I am not saying the part never wears out but you don't remove a MAJOR IMPORTANT feature like open aperture metering and AE because someday a part might fail or wear out. That makes no sense. There all all sort of things that can and so wear out after usage. The solution is not to remove them, the solution is design them better and I have no reason to believe the Pentax Engineers were no capable of doing that after 30 years of field experience. In fact ALL SLRS wear out. They do not last anywhere near as long as the lenses. THAT is why I take issue over the lack of support of the K/M lenses on new expensive models like the *istD. Pentax buyers need to keep replacing the bodies for their lenses and to abandon good features on perfectly working older K/M lenses for no good reason is not right. JCO -----Original Message----- From: William Robb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 12:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: *ist series support for setting the aperture on the lens(was: ist D AE mode for K & M lenses) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Antonio" Subject: Re: *ist series support for setting the aperture on the lens(was: ist D AE mode for K & M lenses) > Except reliability also means consistency - if it never works then it is > 100% consistent and hence reliable, whichh I wuold imagine was Peters spin > on things. Who is Peter? Anyway, my experience with pentax AE is limited to the LX, Super Program and Program plus. On all three cameras (well 6 if you count samples I have used) I have had inexplicable underexposure errors randomly, but fairly frequently. Honestly, I don't know if it is caused by the ISO resistor, or the aperture estimator resistor. I do know that replacing the ISO resistor on the LX (I had all three of mine replaced with new ones last service) did not correct the problem. As you said, reliability and consistency are closely related. I honestly cannot depend on Pentax AE in the form I am used to using it in to be consistent, therefore it is unreliable. Regarding the istD and it's use of pre A lenses, the metering method is 100% consistent and reliable. This is an improvement. It means I can use pre A lenses using an automatic exposure method with an assuredness of correct exposure, something I have not enjoyed in the past. I am willing to take the extra button push to get an exposure that I am certain is correct, over an exposure that may be incorrect, especially since on a film camera, I have no way of knowing if the exposure was right or not until some time after taking the picture. William Robb
