[ChristianRock]

Is there no split focusing screen available for the K1? I'm surprised.

[aslyfox]

my answer to the question is

why not

some of the legacy glass can be quite good

and often is much less expensive although new in box might be hard to find

so such lenses can be very helpful to folks

[lakeshore]

Mattt: your memory is better than mine.I forgot that I had posted essentially the same question in 09-15-16, my apologies.

At that time I received a lot of thoughtful and informative replies.

Stevebrot said that green button metering with M series lenses can be erratic to some degree. This is good to know and validates my experience.

Another poster said that he slightly underexposes his shots to improve the colour.

A number of replies urged the use of lens hoods to protect against flare.

ChistianRock asked what lenses I own:

I have a number of M lenses from my film days - 50/f1.7,20/f4, 28/f2.8, 35/f2.0, 100/f2.8, 40-80 zoom f2.8 – 4 and 80-200 zoom f4.5.
I performed aperture “snap” test on all my M lenses and they are all working well except for the 35/f2.0 and the 20/f4. The aperture doesn't stop down with a "snap." I may attempt to clean the apertures mechanisms in those two lenses myself when I work up the nerve.

I also have a DA 35 f2.4, DA50 f1.8, DAL 18 – 55 AL WRf3.5 – 5.6, and DA 55 – 300 ED WR f4.0 * 5.8.

In the 1970’s and 80’s, I shot hundreds of photos, mostly slides of family and travel, with my Pentax SP500 and later my Pentax ME. That was when I acquired my M series lenses. In bought a K-50 (aperture block failure - repaired) and MX-1 in 2014 and returned to Pentax photography.

I am a “casual” photographer, unlike a lot of posters on this forum who are very knowledgeable and experienced. I shoot only JPEGS, as I have not developed a taste for post-processing. Basically I like to shoot much like I did in my film days: set the camera, compose the picture and shoot the final product.

I have no intention of selling my old lenses and will continue to experiment with them.

Thanks again for the thoughtful replies.

[pschlute]

Is there no split focusing screen available for the K1? I'm surprised.

K1 is not designed to have a user replaceable screen. Screens these days have more functionality like AF point indication; ruleof thirds or other such deliniation; and on the K1 crop image markers when in crop or square mode. You will lose all that with a split prism screen.

My experience with the K1 is manual focus is a lot easier than previous aps-c models because the viewfinder is so big.

[ChristianRock]

K1 is not designed to have a user replaceable screen. Screens these days have more functionality like AF point indication; ruleof thirds or other such deliniation; and on the K1 crop image markers when in crop or square mode. You will lose all that with a split prism screen.

My experience with the K1 is manual focus is a lot easier than previous aps-c models because the viewfinder is so big.

Yeah that's a rhetorical question I asked, I guess. I have no issues focusing manual lenses even with my K-S1, so the K-1's larger viewfinder would probably be bliss for me... one day.

[ChristianRock]

I have a number of M lenses from my film days - 50/f1.7,20/f4, 28/f2.8, 35/f2.0, 100/f2.8, 40-80 zoom f2.8 – 4 and 80-200 zoom f4.5.
I performed aperture “snap” test on all my M lenses and they are all working well except for the 35/f2.0 and the 20/f4. The aperture doesn't stop down with a "snap." I may attempt to clean the apertures mechanisms in those two lenses myself when I work up the nerve.

I also have a DA 35 f2.4, DA50 f1.8, DAL 18 – 55 AL WRf3.5 – 5.6, and DA 55 – 300 ED WR f4.0 * 5.8.

In the 1970’s and 80’s, I shot hundreds of photos, mostly slides of family and travel, with my Pentax SP500 and later my Pentax ME. That was when I acquired my M series lenses. In bought a K-50 (aperture block failure - repaired) and MX-1 in 2014 and returned to Pentax photography.

I am a “casual” photographer, unlike a lot of posters on this forum who are very knowledgeable and experienced. I shoot only JPEGS, as I have not developed a taste for post-processing. Basically I like to shoot much like I did in my film days: set the camera, compose the picture and shoot the final product..

There's some fine lenses in there that should give you good results, but M lenses in general do give you what I call a more "natural" look as opposed to the saturated and more contrasty look of the DA lenses. And if you're used to slide film, you're used to seeing more contrast and color than the lenses offer by themselves, courtesy of the film's chemicals and how they capture the light.

Nothing wrong with shooting JPEG in my opinion I do quite a bit of that, especially when I'm out with the family.

I find that newer cameras do have a better JPEG engine. My K-S1's JPEG files are quite a lot better than my K-50 files. From what I have seen, the K-70 and KP have improved even further (just to talk about the APS-C models).

Anyway, I brought up your use of slide film and the JPEG engine to give you a suggestion: whenever you are outdoors, or even indoors if the light is natural, change your setting to "Reversal Film". In fact, in my K-50 my U1 setting is already optimized for Reversal Film (in RAW+ of course, though I tend to keep a lot of the JPEGs). And the combination of the Reversal Film setting with a polarizer filter has brought me much, much pleasure recently I use this in my K-S1 as well, though I miss having User modes on that... Anyway, try it! I think you'll be pleased with the results, especially with the older glass. Just don't use it when there's artificial light, as the White Balance is fixed (just like when you're shooting real slide film ).

The simple answer is to broaden your palette of photographic tools. If you look at many television commercials you will see numerous uses of vintage glass to add atmosphere or give other artistic effects. The same holds true many period TV shows, especially crime dramas set in the forties and fifties. You can simulate many of these effects in PP but they usually aren't quite the same.


Shot with a 1940s folding camera lens on a K-01:

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Last edited by Unregistered User; 08-29-2019 at 10:48 AM. Reason: typo

[alamo5000]

Why persist in using legacy manual lenses?

I have a number of M series lenses and when I use them my shots lack consistency. The colours seem more faded etc.

Do I just need more experience in using these lenses? Are there some tricks to using them of which I am not aware?

My DA lenses seem to give me more consistent results, better colour saturation etc. They are also easier to use.

Thoughts?

It depends on what you are doing and what you want. If someone thinks that having a completely 'technically perfect' shot they will be looking for a long time and will always go down those technological rabbit holes chasing those things instead of focusing on what they should be doing. Others of us though want to look deeper at the content and context of the image itself. It basically depends on the criteria you apply to an image.


Think about it like this... you have a million bucks to spend on a house... do you A. go to an architect and build a custom house to your desires where ever you can find space; OR, B. do you find a cool historic home in a great location and fix it up despite some of it being 'old'?

Likewise with an older lens you might have to take a step back and examine what the whole thing is about vs examining the image at 400x zoom on your computer.


Aside from the merits of an image, the process to make that image is totally different. You can take 400 images on high speed or you can slow down and observe the world. I love using manual focus lenses for this reason alone.

[lakeshore]

When I use my M series lenses, I set the Mode Dial to M, ISO fixed at 100 or 200, and focus mode to AF.S. I focus using the viewfinder and confirmation signal. Exposure metering is centre weighted. Then I press the Green button to check for shutter speed etc. If all looks good I take the photo.

Am I missing something?

[universalfocus]

@lakeshore: I put the AF to M, still get the confirmation beep and feel safer regarding the in-camera af motor and choose the exposure metering according to subject.

On digital, I approach the optimal settings I want to have by taking a few test shots or use the internal metering. On film I use the internal or if thats´s not there an external light meter.


I got two manual lenses for my K-1: a 24mm Tokina F. 2.8 because a wide angle lens like this would be very costly if I´d buy a new model (300 Euro at least for a wider but also manual Samyang) and

a 200mm f4 Jupiter 21m, because I like to test lenses with a reputation to have character (and I needed a more interesting range for my M42 film camera).

I´m pleased with the results which can be seen here.

[Apet-Sure]

my SMC-M 50mm f1.7 produces gorgeous pictures

So does mine:
K10D with M50/f1.7 on short extension tube. This... - Apet-Sure's Album: Nature-K10D - PentaxForums.com
Film camera shutter release timer taken with SMC... - Apet-Sure's Album: Misc. Pics-K10D - PentaxForums.com
Glorious4 PF - Apet-Sure's Album: Nature-K5IIs - PentaxForums.com


Overall average user rating for this lens here on the forum is 9.35.

[SSGGeezer]

My experience with the K1 is manual focus is a lot easier than previous aps-c models because the viewfinder is so big.Peter

Very true in my case, even when using the O-ME magnifier on my KP and K-5IIs! I am working through all my FF capable lenses and need to hit my old Vivitar Series 1's and my M and A series lenses. The FA* lenses are very usable as manual focus lenses with the K-1.

Am I missing something?

What do your histograms look like? If you consistently have a big "bump" on the right you are over-exposing. ETTR is a leftover technique from the early days of digital.


Also: shine a flashlight through your lenses to see just how much crud is on the inner elements. A light haze that would not be otherwise noticed can wreak havoc on contrast.

[kypfer]

When I use my M series lenses, I set the Mode Dial to M, ISO fixed at 100 or 200, and focus mode to AF.S. I focus using the viewfinder and confirmation signal. Exposure metering is centre weighted. Then I press the Green button to check for shutter speed etc. If all looks good I take the photo.

Am I missing something?

No!


Enjoy

[stevebrot]

Do note that the Sony A7 series of cameras have a very thick filter stack and it does affect the quality on the edges even more.

Thanks for bringing this up. There are multiple lenses that have done poorly on the A7 series, particularly M-mount wide-angles that perform well on their native mount cameras. Whether that is still the case with recent models, I don't know.


Steve