[mholford]

So glad this thread is still here. Just finished converting my 50-135 and 16-50 back to screwdrive. My 50-135 I had converted ages ago, but after it was involved in an accident (and repaired) the pentax repair shop had fixed the sdm and reprogrammed the lens back to SDM. But three years later, SDM started acting up this spring (was not responsive until after twisting the lens focus back and forth for a minute) and after a couple of months on the shelf when I went to use it again, it was dead (unresponsive).
Took longer to relearn how to get my old K20 back into debug mode, but once that was accomplished the conversion of both lenses took about 10 minutes.

[scottish_explorer]

can this be done on a k-70? i didn't see the option on the dropbox list of cameras supported. Thanks

[UncleVanya]

can this be done on a k-70? i didn't see the option on the dropbox list of cameras supported. Thanks

Nope. The newer cameras all fail to write (and maybe read? ) the lens eeprom files. I can't remember which the last camera is that work but it might be the k-5. The k-50 didn't work I know.

[albriton]

Nope. The newer cameras all fail to write (and maybe read? ) the lens eeprom files. I can't remember which the last camera is that work but it might be the k-5. The k-50 didn't work I know.

Yes, I ended up buying a K5 on eBay just to make the conversion! I have a K3 bandit was a no-go.
T.

[BigAde]

Hi All,
Long time lurker, but first post.


I have a K-r and have a 17-70mm F4 AL [IF] SDM only lens. The SDM auto-focussing no longer works but manual focusing is still ok, which is what lead me here in the first place.


So, I've watched the video, read the instructions. Found it all quite easy to follow, so thank you very much for that.
Only thing I've found is that on the file in column 03 where the video shows C0, I'm seeing E0 instead in all the same places that you'd expect to see C0.
I've tried switching all the E0 to 80 anyway, the file 'loads' ok, but it makes no difference.


I'm wondering if my lens as it's marked as "SDM only" maybe can't use screw drive at all?
Thanks in advance.

[BigAde]

Screenshot below:

[Adam]

I'm wondering if my lens as it's marked as "SDM only" maybe can't use screw drive at all?

That's correct, the 17-70mm doesn't have the screwdrive AF hardware.

Adam
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[BigAde]

Ah pants, what a waste of time! Thanks for letting me know Adam.

[BigAde]

This odd. Just put the original file back on to the lens and the SDM auto-focusing has started working!
Bizarre. Not sure if it's only temporary.

[BigAde]

This odd. Just put the original file back on to the lens and the SDM auto-focusing has started working!
Bizarre. Not sure if it's only temporary.

Well this is odd. Before attempting any of this, SDM auto-focusing was consistently not working. Now it is consistently working.
Left it overnight, but it's working again this morning. I'm not complaining, but it's an odd 'fix'.

[UncleVanya]

Well this is odd. Before attempting any of this, SDM auto-focusing was consistently not working. Now it is consistently working.
Left it overnight, but it's working again this morning. I'm not complaining, but it's an odd 'fix'.

Wierd and yet wonderful. I don't have a 17-70 anymore to check, my impression was that c0 was used in all the lenses so the e0 throws me off a bit.

[nosliwmit]

Hello everyone!After a lot of searching through the forms and help from dflorez, UncleVanya, and whoever made the dropbox link I was able to convert my lens. I had a hard time understanding the process, but I finally figured it out. I decided something this complicated needs a video. In this video I converted the 50-135mm lens, but I understand the process is the same for the 16-50, 60-250, 200, and 300mm lenses. I hope this is helpful to you and Good Luck!

My DA*300 stopped focusing back in March. I had it repaired by the local authorized Pentax repair shop (Jebsen, in Hong Kong) and it worked for about 6 months and then died. I used the lens only lightly during that period and the lens has been treated well. I think the repair was not up to snuff and I've contacted Jebsen to see what, if anything, they will do for me. In the meanwhile, I have a trip to Myanmar coming up and couldn't stand the idea of having to manually focus (the last failure was just before I went to Australia for two weeks - splendid timing!). I followed the steps here (using my K5) and am happy to say that in about 10 minutes, and with no wrong turns or "oh shit" moments, I successfully converted to screw-drive. The lens is shockingly loud (well, I'm used to it being silent) but it works like a charm. Thanks to Blacknight659 and all the others who contributed to this long, informative thread!

By the way, the pktether.com site is current non-extant so I downloaded from the Google drive provided in the original post. I also used the Notepad program already resident on my PC (I have a Windows 10 PC).

[Berserker]

PK_Tether – Tether Tools

Looks like this may be what you are looking for.

[manuido]

Nope. The newer cameras all fail to write (and maybe read? ) the lens eeprom files. I can't remember which the last camera is that work but it might be the k-5. The k-50 didn't work I know.

I was able to get into the development Menu on my K-3II and found the "LENS ROM DAT CAMERA=>SD" options, but it does no work - basically nothing happens when you click "ok". Is that what you meant by "fail to write"?

[Berserker]

PK_Tether – Tether Tools

Looks like this may be what you are looking for.

Sorry, did not realize this was a referral site.
The link to PK comes up dead.
Again, my apologies.