istD and M42 lenses focusing question.

*awo425* · 11-20-2008, 01:05 PM

Question to istD owners.

I have istD and K10D bodies and from time to time I use old M42 Pentax lenses on both with M42 to K mount adapter.

When I am focusing the lens mounted on K10D body I get confirmation beep with red square in viewfinder, but I am not getting this confirmation with the same lens on istD body. Do I need to enable something in istD settings menu?

P.S. I do have this confirmation in istD with FA lenses, both visual and audio

Thanks

JonPB · 11-20-2008, 01:09 PM

The red square doesn't provide focus confirmation, but rather indicates where the AF sensor is looking. I'm not sure about the beep; that's been off for me from day one. There's a green hexagon in the middle of the status bar in the viewfinder that provides focus confirmation in the K10. Does the istD have a green hexagon?

Lowell Goudge · 11-20-2008, 01:41 PM

on my *istD, with Beep on, and a K mount lens, the beep works, the focus indicator (red dot) lights up showing which sensor is selected, and green hexagon lights.

with my 35mm F2 TAK, it does not light.

I noticed this too when I started with the M42 lenses

*awo425* · 11-20-2008, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by JonPB

The red square doesn't provide focus confirmation, but rather indicates where the AF sensor is looking. I'm not sure about the beep; that's been off for me from day one. There's a green hexagon in the middle of the status bar in the viewfinder that provides focus confirmation in the K10. Does the istD have a green hexagon?

Yes istD have this hexagon and it's also working/confirming with DA/FA lenses but not with M42 lenses.

JonPB · 11-20-2008, 04:44 PM

The only way I can get rid of the green hexagon (with my GX-10) is to turn off auto-focus with a half-press of the shutter. Perhaps the istD is disabling the auto-focus sensor when using an M42 mount?

Does the focus indicator work with A, M, or K lenses? If Lowell's istD is typical, then here's something else to try.

On my camera, trap-in-focus will not work with M42 lenses unless I bridge the last two data pins (as viewed, clockwise, starting at noon, looking at the front of the camera). Maybe the istD uses these pins for all autofocus functions, not just trap-in-focus?

dlacouture · 11-21-2008, 02:58 AM

Hello!

Well, you have to shorten the data pins to force the body to enable focus assistance, as with film bodies... I can't remember which ones, but anyone should do the trick...

What is strange is that you get this focus confirm with the k10...

JonPB · 11-21-2008, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by JonPB

On my camera, trap-in-focus will not work with M42 lenses unless I bridge the last two data pins (as viewed, clockwise, starting at noon, looking at the front of the camera). Maybe the istD uses these pins for all autofocus functions, not just trap-in-focus?

I recant. dlacouture is correct. Depressing any of the connections works. I thought I had it figured out and didn't take time to try to disprove the hypothesis...typical.