Recently I tried to help a couple of folks in their quest to get a failing SDM lens "demoted" to screw drive. The problem is that everyone always points to a thread or two that contain a lot but not all of the info needed. I would love to compile in ONE place all the info needed. Ideally I would get someone to volunteer to write or help write an article for the site that took all of the different materials and united it in one place.
Here's what I think is needed:
1) Which cameras can be used for the conversion - including BIOS versions!
a) with SD card method
b) with PKTether method
2) Which lens modes are KNOWN to have been successfully converted?
a) 16-50 & 50-135 are well known to work
b) 60-250 is mentioned as tried but failed a few times but doesn't seem conclusive
c) any others?
3) What doesn't work:
a) bodies that don't
b) bios versions that don't
c) lenses that don't seem to work with the process yet
Sample files. Links to various threads for additional discussion etc.
As an example, everyone thinks the K100D Super works a certain way but today I tried what was failing for another user and could not get any further. The problem is that while enabling the K100D Super for basic AF adjustment debug works, the method listed out there for starting the debug menu doesn't appear to work at all. The keystroke / button press options of the K100D also do not work. The K50 can be set in debug but despite being able to write logs to disk and DSP adjustments to disk I cannot get lens roms to write to SD card.
The point is rather than read a giant thread that's years old and get sidetracked finding the bios version is wrong or the camera model is wrong or xyz is wrong it would be nice to have this all collected and summarized.
Any thoughts welcome - links and contributions welcome but please read what has been collected before reposting the same info.
LINKS:
16-50, 50-135 disable thread. Focused on K20D I think or K10D with older firmware:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/208353-how-...ml#post2203064
Mass confusion over what bodies can and can't disable as shown by this thread:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/241761-chea...m-disable.html
Frustration threads like this showing that people don't know what works and doesn't work:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/288713-has-anyone-been-abl...ing-k-3-a.html