[Relativity]

Hello Everyone,

Greetings from California!

Just recently ventured into shooting older manuals on K-50. I noticed that green button when programmed according to various guides (Ricoh website, and this guide) allows green button to meter light when shooting in M mode with screwmount lens. However on K50, this function only works in Live View; through the viewfinder, green button does not change shutter speed but instead leaves it at 100 or some number that corresponds to the ISO. Is anyone else experiencing this? I am using SMC Takumar 50mm and a genuine Pentax m42 adapter.

Another interesting phenomenon: depressing green button will meter sporadically or rather arbitrarily when in VF given if I rotate the lens back and forth on the adapter and I hear metering (click sound). For the most part, it does not meter through viewfinder. Several similar accounts on this forum mention the lack of conductive base of some screwmount lens as culprit. Has anyone been able to circumvent this and achieve accurate metering when depressing green button in viewfinder?

[Adam]

Have you set the diaphragm clutch on the lens to manual and the green button customization to tv shift?

Since you're using an m42 lens, the camera won't actually be stopping it down. You can even use av mode if you'd like.

[Relativity]

Yes I have it setup to satisfy both those conditions. Av mode tends to underexpose; the green button metering (works in LV) is much more accurate.

[Fluke]

It doesn't work.
Manual mode metering with M42 lenses does not work on the K50 and K30.
Pentax say it should work. It works fine on older Pentax DSLRs.
But it does not work on the K50 and K30.


There are already several reports on these forums of it not working, even after extensive testing and tweaking.
I am surprised that an Administrator and Site Webmaster is not aware of these.
I have been emailing Pentax customer support regularly since early December and they just keep pointing me to their guide and telling me to set Aperture Ring to Permitted and customise the Green Button in Manual mode to Tv Shift.
Now they have told me to send the camera in to their UK service centre for repair.


I don't understand why they are blind to the problem.


There is a fix.
You need to use some foil or wire or something conductive to short circuit one of the electrical contacts on the lens mount. The one that is closest to the 6 o'clock position. Then it works.

[Relativity]

It doesn't work.
Manual mode metering with M42 lenses does not work on the K50 and K30.
Pentax say it should work. It works fine on older Pentax DSLRs.
But it does not work on the K50 and K30.


There are already several reports on these forums of it not working, even after extensive testing and tweaking.
I am surprised that an Administrator and Site Webmaster is not aware of these.
I have been emailing Pentax customer support regularly since early December and they just keep pointing me to their guide and telling me to set Aperture Ring to Permitted and customise the Green Button in Manual mode to Tv Shift.
Now they have told me to send the camera in to their UK service centre for repair.


I don't understand why they are blind to the problem.


There is a fix.
You need to use some foil or wire or something conductive to short circuit one of the electrical contacts on the lens mount. The one that is closest to the 6 o'clock position. Then it works.

I see, is the foil placed between contact and lens when screwing lens onto camera?

[Fluke]

I see, is the foil placed between contact and lens when screwing lens onto camera?

If the lens base covers the contact, then yes.
But I've got four old Takumar (Pentax) lenses that leave the contacts exposed, so they cannot trap the foil between lens and contacts. I need to find another way of holding the foil securely or shorting the contacts somehow. Looking into getting some adhesive backed copper tape. The stuff I use at work, the adhesive is conductive, but it's expensive.