Which Pentax digital bodies will the lenses from my ME super fit? Would like to upgrade to digital photography.

[rbefly]

Hello Pharmer, welcome to the Forum!
Pretty much every lens made in K-mount will work without an adapter on all Pentax DSLRs, new or old.. M42 will work with an adapter.
This includes all original Pentax (brand) lenses, 3rd party P, P-K or K mount and many obsolete lenses made for K-mount.
It's called Legacy.
Ron

[makok]

Any of the K series SLR bodies will accept the ME Super lenses. Kx, Kr, K7, K5, K3 and others. Lenses will only manual focus as that is what they were in the day.

[Caver]

All K-mount Digital Pentax bodies will fit the lenses from ME Super which is using Pentax M and K series of lenses (full manual lenses).
Here you can see a table with Pentax lens compatibility with different bodies:

The Pentax Camera Lens Compatibility Chart

[stevebrot]

To join the chorus, any K-mount lens that will work on a ME Super body will also work with a modern Pentax dSLR, with one big exception and a few notes. First the exception:

There is a variant of the K-mount (Ricoh P mount) that was originally developed for use on Ricoh program auto-exposure film SLRs. These feature a small pin or spring-loaded metal ball on the mount that was used by the metering system of certain Ricoh cameras. At the time when these lenses were made they were happily cross-compatible with Pentax bodies. Unfortunately when Pentax designed the mount for auto-focus cameras, they put the well for the AF screw drive in a position where the "Ricoh pin" could jam into the well. Once that happens, the lens is VERY difficult to remove from the camera. There are numerous articles on this site and on the Web regarding the Ricoh pin and how to recognize and deal with it.

Now for the notes:

• Manual focus lenses require that you use manual focus (duh) and manual focus is not as easy on current cameras as with the ME Super. You do have focus confirm through the AF system as well as Catch-in-Focus (CiF, aka focus trapping). Better than either of those is focus peaking using live mode and/or an aftermarket focus screen having split-image focus aid.
• Lenses without electrical contacts on the mount (both K-mount and adapted M42 screw mount) are not fully supported for most modes on current Pentax dSLR cameras.

Enjoy!


Steve

[AquaDome]

There are a few non-Pentax branded K-mount manual-focus lenses out there that won't fit the new digital bodies. They have a metal flange that sticks out, seemingly protecting the aperture control arm. This ridge will not get passed the bottom ledge of the mirror box on DSLRs. Some folks have filed or otherwise machined away this extra flange to make them work. I happen to have three such lenses sitting on my desk at this moment. One is a Vivitar 28-105 macro-focusing zoom, one is an Albinar-ADG 80-200 macro/zoom, and the third is a lovely CPC 70-162 f3.5 zoom. It too has a macro setting. These are all A-class lenses, meaning the camera will control their aperture if the lens is set in A mode. Maybe this ridge is part of Ricoh compatibility from that time?

Anyway, they all fit the ME Super and other K-mount film bodies and work just fine.

[jogiba]

Which Pentax digital bodies will the lenses from my ME super fit? Would like to upgrade to digital photography.

Just remember APS-C sensor size cameras have a 1.5x crop unless it's a Canon that has a 1.6x crop so your 35mm wide angle from your ME Super 35mm SLR will have a FOV like a 52.5mm standard lens or 56mm with a Canon APS-C sensor.

[boriscleto]

There are a few non-Pentax branded K-mount manual-focus lenses out there that won't fit the new digital bodies. They have a metal flange that sticks out, seemingly protecting the aperture control arm. This ridge will not get passed the bottom ledge of the mirror box on DSLRs. Some folks have filed or otherwise machined away this extra flange to make them work. I happen to have three such lenses sitting on my desk at this moment. One is a Vivitar 28-105 macro-focusing zoom, one is an Albinar-ADG 80-200 macro/zoom, and the third is a lovely CPC 70-162 f3.5 zoom. It too has a macro setting. These are all A-class lenses, meaning the camera will control their aperture if the lens is set in A mode. Maybe this ridge is part of Ricoh compatibility from that time?

Anyway, they all fit the ME Super and other K-mount film bodies and work just fine.

It's not the mirror box that interferes, it is the Power Zoom / SDM power contacts on the KAF2 mount. The flange, usually referred to as the 'Vivitar' shield, it's just something third party manufacturers did at the time. It has no function and in most cases can be removed. There are usually 3 or 4 JIS cross type screws. You can then use a Dremel to cut it down, or just leave it off.

One other lens that can be a problem is the Sigma Mini-wide II. Some, but not all, versions of this lens have an aperture shield that seems misplaced. There are several thread about it here on the forums.

[Adam]

Which Pentax digital bodies will the lenses from my ME super fit? Would like to upgrade to digital photography.

All of them, if they're genuine Pentax

Check out all the legacy lens reviews here:
Pentax Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

[Sliver-Surfer]

Which Pentax digital bodies will the lenses from my ME super fit? Would like to upgrade to digital photography.

They won't fit the pentax Q series or the 645D

[sterretje]

Basically as Adam states. And assuming you're talking dSLR (as indicated by Sliver-Surfer )

If they are genuine Pentax, you should be OK. There are a few buts for 3rd party lenses:
Some 3rd party K-mount lenses have the infamous Ricoh pin; some of them can get stuck in the camera's screw drive. Do your research.
Some 3rd party K-mount lenses have a flange that protects the aperture lever; this flange can be too big.

In both cases, a little surgery will solve the issue.