On Thu, Aug 10, 2006 at 04:25:46PM -0400, chuck wrote: > I would like to move toward digital for a number of > reasons, mostly the ability to take lots of shots > and losing the baddies without "wasting" film. > > But, I've got a ton of old Pentax glass, mostly old > screwmount Takumars, but also some more recent AF > zooms for my ZX-5N. > > So I went out today to look at am IST DS (or maybe a > DL??) at the local camera shop just to see and feel > the camera. I liked the feel, and might adapt to all > the controls, but the whole lens thing has me stumped. > > I believe (but the salesman was not sure) that I can use > all my old glass (screwmount with my adapter). But am not > sure if a) there will be any metering at all, or b) whether > I could use an aperture priority setting and set the aperture > manually while the camera sets the exposure. Can y'all > explain what would happen?
I already answered this in rec.photo.digital.slr-systems But, just in case you missed the reply there, I said: Simple enough. Your AF lenses will work just fine - no problems - in P, Tv, Av & M modes, with full aperture metering. Your screw-mount lenses will work with an adapter just as they did on your ZX-5n - you will be limited to Av & M modes, and (because the lens will stop down immediately when you turn the aperture ring) metering will be done in stop-down metering mode. The camera wil happily select an appropriate exposure in Av mode. If you have any other manual focus K-mount lenses, the big question is whether the lens has an "A" setting on the aperture ring. If it does, everything will be fine (although, of course, you'll have to focus manually). Older lenses will have to be used in metered manual mode (not in Av mode) where you set the aperture by hand, and you have to tell the camera to set an exposure (which you do by pushing the AE-L button, whereupon the camera stops down the lens, takes a meter reading, selects an appropriate shutter speed, and opens the iris up again). > and 28-300 would become almost a normal to tele lens with > no wide angle at all. But the kit lens (18-55 I think) looks > like junk and is not much in the tele department either. So then > I'm back to carrying several lenses which can be a royal pain > under some circs. How do y'all handle this? The 18-55 lens is by no means junk. There are several other lenses you might consider (14, 16-45, 12-24, 10-17 fisheye) at various price points, with a new f2.8 zoom due shortly. Personally I find a 28-105 a wonderful everyday lens on a small-sensor camera, but no two users are alike. And again, personally, I'd rather carry a bagfull of lenses than rely on a 10x superzoom to cover all eventualities. If I want to go light I'll take the 28-105, an 80-320, and a 50mm. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
