Originally posted by DogLover It's already been shown that only lenses that are about f/4 or slower are really being affected, and to many of us they are not affected (sic) enough to be a deal breaker.
"Many of us" is not necessarily the bulk of the users who might be interested in purchasing this screen. F/4 is within the aperture range of almost all the variable aperture zooms available in K-mount and certainly within the workflow range for anyone using stop-down metered lenses, even those with fast maximum apertures. All but two of my lenses fall into one of those two categories. For me, only being able to have consistent metering with two of my lenses is a distinct deal breaker. I would suspect the same for similar enthusiasts who dabble in vintage glass or those who depend on their camera for use with long lenses, most of which are f/3.5 and slower.
For sure there are workarounds such as chimp/redo for every shot or shooting in M-mode (measure using an external meter and shoot until light or subject change), but that is silly. I can get that experience and level of functionality with my meterless vintage cameras and without the weight and bulk of the K-3 or K-5.
As for my previous comment regarding unfixable underexposed shots. My comment was based on my experience the night before trying to salvage what should have been a striking landscape that was robbed of dynamic range due to 2+ stops underexposure (right toe of histogram was at midpoint). Perhaps I am just picky or should be more anal about histogram evaluation for every shot in the field.
Yes, the ease of focus is definitely there, but the tradeoff is unacceptable in my opinion. As for my next step, I would normally simply buy a KatzEye. They have proven compatibility, effective focus aides, and known characteristics for all Pentax models through the K-5 series. They also have excellent customer service. I have not moved that direction due to correspondence with Rachel Katz were she indicated that the they had not evaluated meter performance of their screen with the new metering system on the K-3. No since getting burned twice. Since that conversation, KatzEye has revised their product description to include language indicating that the user should be aware of potential metering issues. That is fair and appropriate. I wish focusingscreen.com would include similar cautions on their Web site.
Since I have no desire to be the guinea pig twice, I will wait to read other users experience with the K-3/KatzEye combination before moving that direction. In the mean time, the manual focus characteristics of the current stock screen are adequate...for now.
Steve