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05-22-2016, 01:38 PM - 17 Likes   #1
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How To: Convert SDM to ScrewDrive + Video

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!



The video is here:

Below you will see the process I followed. Again, I have the forums here to thank for giving me this information. I hope it helps you.




Too Much for you? Go here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/24-photographic-equipment-sale/311609-sal...ersions-3.html

Wanna give it a try? Keep Going.

NOTE: I am not responsible for any damage that my occur to your equipment. Continue at your own risk.

Stuff you need:
Dropbox- Pentax Hack Files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k464hmts3b9yk98/AAB-TIg_f-HfSowrT7096_YMa/enable%20Debug%20Menu?dl=0
Lens Hack Directions: How to deactivate SDM and allow for screw drive autofocus with DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 - Le site des amateurs de PENTAX
Pktether: Since the site is down due to malware, here is a link to the most recent version on my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2uv9RXId6z4eUE2OTZmVTMybFk
If the site ever gets fixed... you can go here. BUT DON'T right now (05/24/16) PK_Tether – Tethering Software for Pentax DSLR Cameras
Nopad++ (text editor): https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.9.2.html
Pentax Forums Other Links:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/208353-how-...-2-8-a-41.html


My Steps
1.) Download PKTether (pktether site)
2.) Download Camera Hack files (drop box)
3.) Download Notepad++
4.) Open Pktether
5.) Place SD card into camera, connect camera to computer (USB cable)
6.) Turn on Camera In PKtether activate DEBUG MODE
7.) Copy Hack Files to SD card
8.) Disconnect camera from USB cable
9.) Power Down Camera, Power back on
You are in Development Menu
10.) Scroll down to "Lens Rom Camera=SD" and hit OK. (it should go black, and then you will see the same screen again)
11.) Power off camera, Move SD card to PC and open it
12.) You are looking for the LENSEEP.LNS file. MAKE A BACKUP of this file - THIS IS LENS COPY SPECIFIC - ONLY YOUR FILE WORKS WITH YOUR LENS!
13.) Open LENSEEP.LNS with Notepad++
14.) Replace ALL instances of "C0" in column "03" with "80". DO NOT REPLACE any instances of "C0" outside of column "03".
15.) Move the new LENSEEP.LNS file to your SD card (replacing the orginal, remember to back up the orginal)
16.) Power Camera on
17.) Scroll to "LENS ROM DAT SD= CAMERA" and hit OK ( you will see "Wait..." and then some text)
NOTE: It failed the first time for me, needed to do it twice
18.) When Complete, lens should be in screw Drive
19.) Disable Debug Mode
A.) Use camera settings Menue Button Scroll left until you see "Test Mode" Disable Debug Mode Hit OK
B.) Connect to PKtether, Click Debug Mode Off


Last edited by Blacknight659; 05-24-2016 at 07:24 AM.
05-22-2016, 04:01 PM - 1 Like   #2
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I wondered how all this worked. Thanks, for all your work and the video.


I'm one of those that finds this daunting, most interesting, but daunting.
If "crosses fingers" the 300mm SDM goes out, I sure hope UncleVanya is still on the marketplace.
05-22-2016, 06:56 PM   #3
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Great video and I'm sure it will help me someday!

I'm assuming this is reversible? You could go back and forth between SDM and screw? (Maybe I switch a SDM lens to screw to preserve the SDM [decrease wear on it] but go back to it if I have a shoot I really want to be quiet focusing)

Obviously the screw drive is louder but can you provide an idea of speed and accuracy difference? I think I have read that in K3 the screw drive might be faster?

Thanks
05-22-2016, 07:14 PM - 1 Like   #4
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Thanks for this post Blacknight659, I was just perusing that French website but their English "Then change the code "C0" by "80" in the colonn 03,for the following lines" had me totally lost. I assumed it might mean what you wrote, but I feel much more confident now that you've confirmed it.
Ordered a Kenko 1.4x AF(non-sdm) Teleconverter off the 'bay to match with my DA* 50-135. I'm thinking this combination will work in FF mode on the K-1 where the Pentax DA 1.4 Rear Converter fails. Nice to know that I'll have AF working too, I'm predicting the lens will insist on SDM even when there is no SDM contact between the lens and body.


Last edited by Mock; 05-22-2016 at 07:20 PM.
05-22-2016, 07:18 PM   #5
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Anyone else having troubles with the PK Tether web site? When I googled it Google said "don't go there" they are a corrupt site or some sort. When I followed the link above I got redirected through several sites to an online gambling site?
05-22-2016, 07:29 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by DavidDwight Quote
Anyone else having troubles with the PK Tether web site? When I googled it Google said "don't go there" they are a corrupt site or some sort. When I followed the link above I got redirected through several sites to an online gambling site?
Just enter pktether.com into your address bar, google be crazy. The link above also goes straight to the site for me, running Opera and adblock.
05-22-2016, 07:35 PM   #7
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I did the conversion of my DA*16-50 using a K7 camera after much going back and forth via emails with a very patient PF member here.
All is fine now and the lens is performing just fine.

Now, can you use any camera for any lens mentioned above?

05-22-2016, 07:42 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mock Quote
Just enter pktether.com into your address bar, google be crazy. The link above also goes straight to the site for me, running Opera and adblock.
Yes. That worked
05-23-2016, 06:49 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by DavidDwight Quote
Great video and I'm sure it will help me someday!

I'm assuming this is reversible? You could go back and forth between SDM and screw? (Maybe I switch a SDM lens to screw to preserve the SDM [decrease wear on it] but go back to it if I have a shoot I really want to be quiet focusing)

Obviously the screw drive is louder but can you provide an idea of speed and accuracy difference? I think I have read that in K3 the screw drive might be faster?

Thanks
Thank you David!

Yes this is reversible. You simply need to load your old lens file (why I say back it up) and Boom, it will be back to SDM.

As for the performance, it is much better than SDM. I have found it activates faster (delay from AF button press), Adjusts more quickly, and secures focus more accurately. My lens with SDM activated would hunt in lower light. Basically it lazily adjusted to almost in focus, and then edge its way into focus. With screw drive It seems much more confident in low light, spinning into focus quickly and confidently.

And for the sound, it is actually very dampened for a screw drive. My DA 35mm, DA 50mm, and 55-300mm WR lenses are louder than this lens. I think the noise is more than tolerable. I don't mind the sound at all, in some ways I prefer it.
05-23-2016, 06:55 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Blacknight659 Quote
As for the performance, it is much better than SDM. I have found it activates faster (delay from AF button press), Adjusts more quickly, and secures focus more accurately. My lens with SDM activated would hunt in lower light. Basically it lazily adjusted to almost in focus, and then edge its way into focus. With screw drive It seems much more confident in low light, spinning into focus quickly and confidently.
This leads me to the question, why does Pentax use SDM in selected lenses in the first place then? So many have failed; seems like they would simply go with the screw drive.
05-23-2016, 07:53 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by csa Quote
This leads me to the question, why does Pentax use SDM in selected lenses in the first place then? So many have failed; seems like they would simply go with the screw drive.
Many would agree with you. 1st generation SDM was likely a first attempt to step up to a modern lens motor. Unfortunately, the motor wasn't designed correctly and lead to failure. They "fixed" the issue with newer lenses, however the users here say it is a toss up if you will have problems or not. I understand the new Pentax lenses (24-70, 70-200) are SDM, but I am certain it is a newer technology and probably won't have these issues.

IMO They tried really hard to make a modern and silent lens but the engineering of the motor just wasn't reliable. They nailed it in the IQ department, but the motor can't keep up. The screw drive was added for backwards compatibility to older digital bodies that didn't have the power feature. We have this decision to thank for the screw drive hack that bypasses the SDM motor.

I personally learned to love the screw drive. Coming from Canon, I used to turn my nose up to a noisy AF motor. Now, I don't even notice it.
05-23-2016, 11:53 AM - 1 Like   #12
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This whole thing (thumbs up button) One post, to keep it succinct. Much appreciation for cleaning up the process / documentation!
05-23-2016, 01:23 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by DavidDwight Quote
Anyone else having troubles with the PK Tether web site? When I googled it Google said "don't go there" they are a corrupt site or some sort. When I followed the link above I got redirected through several sites to an online gambling site?
I had issues with the pkthther site too. I ended up using my Android phone to download the .exe and then saved it to my google drive. I probably should have put the into the OP, but I am betting they will eventually fix the issue.
06-01-2016, 09:25 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by DavidDwight Quote
Great video and I'm sure it will help me someday!

I'm assuming this is reversible? You could go back and forth between SDM and screw? (Maybe I switch a SDM lens to screw to preserve the SDM [decrease wear on it] but go back to it if I have a shoot I really want to be quiet focusing)

Obviously the screw drive is louder but can you provide an idea of speed and accuracy difference? I think I have read that in K3 the screw drive might be faster?

Thanks
So I did it!!
Converted my DA* 16-50 and my DA* 50-135 to screw drive

I used my K-5 ii s Firmware 1.07
DID NOT use PK_Tether

EMPTY / BLANK file in root of SD Card named DEVELOP.MOD
the 00077681.541 file with the [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] command in the first and only line
turn on camera WITH memory card door open (tried it several ways and this was only way that worked)

followed the instructions as seen in other posts regarding transferring the LENSEEP.LNS file to the card, backing it up, editing it on my computer, and then re-loading it onto the lens via the camera

A FEW NOTES / TAKE AWAYS for me:
I use a Mac and TextEdit -- you have to set a preference for it to save the files as ASCII text format instead of RTF -- the RTF versions DID NOT work. The RTF files were much larger (up to 300 KB) -- in ASCII the file sizes are Zero for DEVELOP.MOD and 17 bytes for 00077681.541 (the LENSEEP.LNS file is 14 KB)
When uploading the new lens file from the SD card thru the camera the camera makes a BACKUP.LNS file and places it on the SD card
the upload takes about a count of 5-10

in the end this was really easy

---------- Post added 06-01-16 at 09:26 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by DavidDwight Quote
So I did it!!
Converted my DA* 16-50 and my DA* 50-135 to screw drive

I used my K-5 ii s Firmware 1.07
DID NOT use PK_Tether

EMPTY / BLANK file in root of SD Card named DEVELOP.MOD
the 00077681.541 file with the [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] command in the first and only line
turn on camera WITH memory card door open (tried it several ways and this was only way that worked)

followed the instructions as seen in other posts regarding transferring the LENSEEP.LNS file to the card, backing it up, editing it on my computer, and then re-loading it onto the lens via the camera

A FEW NOTES / TAKE AWAYS for me:
I use a Mac and TextEdit -- you have to set a preference for it to save the files as ASCII text format instead of RTF -- the RTF versions DID NOT work. The RTF files were much larger (up to 300 KB) -- in ASCII the file sizes are Zero for DEVELOP.MOD and 17 bytes for 00077681.541 (the LENSEEP.LNS file is 14 KB)
When uploading the new lens file from the SD card thru the camera the camera makes a BACKUP.LNS file and places it on the SD card
the upload takes about a count of 5-10

in the end this was really easy
oh and they do seem to work faster on my K-3 II -- the noise is not really that bad -- at first I thought the conversion might not have worked
10-23-2016, 12:19 PM - 5 Likes   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by DavidDwight Quote
So I did it!!
Converted my DA* 16-50 and my DA* 50-135 to screw drive

I used my K-5 ii s Firmware 1.07
DID NOT use PK_Tether

EMPTY / BLANK file in root of SD Card named DEVELOP.MOD
the 00077681.541 file with the [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] command in the first and only line
turn on camera WITH memory card door open (tried it several ways and this was only way that worked)

followed the instructions as seen in other posts regarding transferring the LENSEEP.LNS file to the card, backing it up, editing it on my computer, and then re-loading it onto the lens via the camera

A FEW NOTES / TAKE AWAYS for me:
I use a Mac and TextEdit -- you have to set a preference for it to save the files as ASCII text format instead of RTF -- the RTF versions DID NOT work. The RTF files were much larger (up to 300 KB) -- in ASCII the file sizes are Zero for DEVELOP.MOD and 17 bytes for 00077681.541 (the LENSEEP.LNS file is 14 KB)
When uploading the new lens file from the SD card thru the camera the camera makes a BACKUP.LNS file and places it on the SD card
the upload takes about a count of 5-10

in the end this was really easy

---------- Post added 06-01-16 at 09:26 PM ----------


oh and they do seem to work faster on my K-3 II -- the noise is not really that bad -- at first I thought the conversion might not have worked
With much appreciation to the OP (Blacknight659), DavidDwight for the PK Tether workaround, and also posts on the other forum, I have been able to successfully complete the SDM to screw drive conversion without using PK Tether. This is great for Mac users like me (PK Tether is not available for Mac), but it should also work for PC users. I have just used this process to convert my DA* 16-50, using a K5IIs, firmware 1.07. I don't know if it will work with other camera models. For others who may like to try this, I have laid out the process I followed below. This is basically a combination of the processes described in this thread by the OP, David immediately above, and Ron (Brandrx) in the other forum, but I thought it may be useful to lay it out in one place, with some additional notes from my experience:

As noted by the original posters, continue at your own risk - I am not responsible for any damage that may occur to your equipment.

1. Download the two required files from Dropbox, depending on the camera you are using: Dropbox - enable Debug Menu

Note: When I did this on my Mac, for some reason the extension .txt was added to the file names during the download process. You need to remove this added extension, so the file names appear as 00077681.541 and DEVELOP.MOD. This is for the K5IIs - for other models, the numbers in the first file name will be different. The content of the first file is a single line: [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU]. The second file is empty.

2. Copy these two files to the root directory of your SD card. I did this using a card reader - you can also do it with the SD card in the camera, using a USB cord between camera and computer.

3. Put the SD card in your camera, and power on while leaving the memory card door open. The Development Menu will immediately appear. This is the step that gets you into the Development Menu without using PK Tether.

4. Scroll down to Development Menu 4, and select line "LENS ROM DAT CAMERA=>SD", press OK. This copies the LENSEEP.LNS file to your SD card.

5. If you are using a card reader, power off, remove SD card and place in card reader. This is how I did it, but you could also continue working with these files connecting to the SD card in your camera with a USB cord. Make a backup of the LENSEEP.LNS file, and save it to your computer for possible future use.

6. Open the original LENSEEP.LNS file on the SD card using the Textedit app (this is for Mac users, PC users would use Notepad or another text editor). Use the edit, find menu to highlight all occurrences of "C0". These were in the first column on the left, and in the column headed "03". Ignore the first column leaving it as it is, and change all of the "C0" occurrences in column 03 to "80" (in my case there were 16 of them in column 03 needing changing). Save the file changes, making sure that the only copy of the LENSEEP.LNS file left on the SD card is the modified file (the first two files from Steps 1 and 2 should still be there). Using the Textedit app on my mac, I did not have any issues with having to change RTF/ASCII save settings as reported by DavidDwight - I just used the standard file, save, and it worked fine.

7. Return the SD card to the camera, and power on, again leaving the memory card door open so the Development menu appears.

8. Scroll down to Development Menu 4, and select line "LENS ROM DAT SD=>CAMERA", press OK. This copies the edited file back to the lens. You will see "wait..." on the screen, and then some lines of text flashing past for a few seconds. This completes the process. Power off, and power on again normally with the memory card door closed - the lens should now be in screw drive mode. As reported by others, you may need to repeat this step. In my case it did not work the first time, but did after the second.

You will now find a backup file on your SD card created by your camera, called BACKUP.LNS. This seems to be the same as the backup of LENSEEP.LNS created in step 5. I have kept both of these on my computer in case of future need. As you don't need the files on your SD card any more, you can delete them, or preferably reformat the card.

The key to this method which does not use PK Tether is getting in to the Development Menu by having the two necessary files from step 1 in the root directory of your SD card, and powering the camera on with the card door open. I learned this from DavidDwight's post above - it works with both my K5IIs, and my K3. I don't know if it works with other Pentax models. I completed the lens conversion process with my K5IIs. Although I have seen that I can get in to the Development Menu the same way on my K3, I don't know if the whole lens conversion process would work the same as it did with the K5IIs.

I now have a fully functional DA* 16-50 again. As expected the screw drive focus is a bit noisier than the SDM was, but that is a small price to pay for having a working lens, and the confidence that it is not going to fail on me as it has three times previously.

Many thanks also to posters on the other forum for sharing their solutions (especially Ron - BrandrX, RIP).
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