[rachcobb]

Ok, so I know this is a little premature but I'm hoping someone will know exactly what I am doing wrong and say "duh, try this"

So my Dad has an old 35mm slr camera and gave me the camera and lenses he had (I know the camera is a Pentax {I have to get to the house and pick them up}) but when I was testing them out one afternoon the pictures kept coming out solid black??? I have a k-x

I'll post tomorrow with exact brands and names of everything.

BTW, I am new at ALL of this and just learning, so PLEASE be gentle....

Thanks

[epqwerty]

Did you put off the lens cap.

My guess is that the lens may be a M series. In which case you need the green button to get the right shutter speed and set the aperture for stop down metering. That is all I can think of without more details.

[joakimfors]

- Enable aperture ring use in the settings
- Set mode dial to manual (M)
- Set aperture on the lens
- Use green button to set shutter speed
- Shoot
- Post pictures

[rachcobb]

The camera is Pentax K-1000 big lens is makinon mc 1:4.5 f-200mm, on camera smc pentax 1:2 50mm, also 2x converter for pentax-k

[Lowell Goudge]

in looking at the replies and your list of camera and lenses, I suspect that you have correctly set the function Use aperture ring, otherwise the shutter would do nothing at all.

the images coming out black suggest extreme under exposure.

try 2 things.

1 set the camera to Av mode, this will trip the shutter and meter with the lens wide open. You should see an image of correct brightness.

then in manual mode press the AE button. This should momentairly stop down the aperture and set a shutter speed to be consistent with the aperture setting.

Picture should again be correct.

All these points are in the manual. BTW

[jjdgti]

in looking at the replies and your list of camera and lenses, I suspect that you have correctly set the function Use aperture ring, otherwise the shutter would do nothing at all.

the images coming out black suggest extreme under exposure.

try 2 things.

1 set the camera to Av mode, this will trip the shutter and meter with the lens wide open. You should see an image of correct brightness.

then in manual mode press the AE button. This should momentairly stop down the aperture and set a shutter speed to be consistent with the aperture setting.

Picture should again be correct.

All these points are in the manual. BTW

Interesting ways to test the manual lenses. Thanks,

[Ira]

On the K-x in M mode, you set aperture, and use the ev+- button to lock in the shutter speed. On the Kx, Av mode underexposes seriously with old M lenses, so I wouldn't start with that.

And lens is set to M-- which means flip the switch so the M is SHOWING and don't flip it in the DIRECTION of the M. And use fixed ISO, not auto.

[boriscleto]

On the K-x in M mode, you set aperture, and use the ev+- button to lock in the shutter speed. On the Kx, Av mode underexposes seriously with old M lenses, so I wouldn't start with that.

And lens is set to M-- which means flip the switch so the M is SHOWING and don't flip it in the DIRECTION of the M. And use fixed ISO, not auto.

The OP is using K-mount lenses so in AV mode the lens will always be wide open. The K-x only underexposes M42 lenses that are stopped down.

The OP doesn't have to worry about whether the lens is set to Man or Auto because the lenses are K-mount and don't have a Man-Auto switch.

[rachcobb]

Ok, so this is with the macro lense...still have mastered the other one

[Nick Siebers]

Looking good, keep it going!