When I use my M42-lenses that does not short circuit the contacts on the camera the camera hangs when pushing the Green Button to stop down meter. This happens when I am in Live View but not when I am using the viewfinder.

I then have to turn off the camera, turn it on again, stop down meter and then start Live View.

Using manual lenses that short out the contacts there is not a problem and if I take some aluminium foil to short the contacts the problem does not occur but I find this a little bit tedious.

Anyone else with this problem?

[Kozlok]

I think their engineers have forgotten about M42. The K-30 doesn't work right with M42 lenses either.

Send an e-mail to Pentax service about it, they responded to mine about the K-30, but of course they told me they have no specific plans to fix the problem, but at least they can be made aware that their user base still fools around with M42 lenses.

I think their engineers have forgotten about M42. The K-30 doesn't work right with M42 lenses either.

Send an e-mail to Pentax service about it, they responded to mine about the K-30, but of course they told me they have no specific plans to fix the problem, but at least they can be made aware that their user base still fools around with M42 lenses.

Thanks! I have sent them an e-mail.

[monochrome]

M42's don't work well with the K-01 either (in many respects a K-30 is a K-01 with a mirror in a traditional body).

After firmware 1.01 it does not hang anymore, it just don´t measure.

[Painter]

It doesn't meter or it doesn't change when you press the green button?

As there is no way to stop down a m42 lens with anything that has been built in the last 40 years it seems like it is performing correctly after the firmware update. You have to set the lens to manual anyway to get it to stop down.

When I press the Green button it does not adjust the shutter speed to the current light. When not in LV it adjusts. Before 1.01 it hung the camera while in LV and pressing Green button

[monochrome]

This (no Green Button metering in LiveView for Takumar lenses) is a well-documented condition, begining with the K-01. It has to do with the paint on the Takumar lens mount failing to short the contacts on the camera. There are kludge work arounds such as using bits of foil stick to the lens - apparently Pentax is in no hurry to correct this in a FW update.

Bayonet mount lenses do not exhibit this behavior, presumably because the mounts are not painted.

[Namajam]

This is certainly disappointing! I have some grand old M42 lenses that I was looking forward to using. They all worked great with my K5.

This is certainly disappointing! I have some grand old M42 lenses that I was looking forward to using. They all worked great with my K5.

It works when not in LV so it is not all bad.

[Namajam]

It works when not in LV so it is not all bad.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Namajam]

Here's a test of a M42 lens with the green button stop down. Not the fanciest image but I wanted to show with minimal post production that it metered really nice. I did enter a standard prime lens correction in LR 5.3. The lens was a TAK 200/3.5 @ 5.6ish, shot in RAW (DNG), 1/13, ISO 400.

Looks like I made the image a little big for this page...ooops.

[grahame]

using M42 on pentax lens does not need pushing green button in M setting. When you turn the aperture ring, you have stopped down the lens already. M42 lens can work under A setting and camera can find shutter speed for you.
No pentax DSLR can stop down an M42 lens. If the lens is an "Auto" lens without M/A switch, you can modify the lens by fixing the pin to make it a stop-down lens.

[grahame]

Here's a test of a M42 lens with the green button stop down.

Tak 300/3.5 is a preset lens. There is nothing on the read end controls aperture. The 2nd ring on the front does that. Pushing green button won't do anything to the exposure metering or aperture stop down. Camera meters before you press the shutter button.

using M42 on pentax lens does not need pushing green button in M setting. When you turn the aperture ring, you have stopped down the lens already. M42 lens can work under A setting and camera can find shutter speed for you.
No pentax DSLR can stop down an M42 lens. If the lens is an "Auto" lens without M/A switch, you can modify the lens by fixing the pin to make it a stop-down lens.

You use the Green button to either stop down and METER or, as with M42 lenses and K-mount lenses without an aperture ring with auto setting, just to METER after YOU have done the stopping down. More modern old lenses have an auto setting on the aperture ring that pushes a pin in the mount and tells the camera that it is has auto aperture. This makes the lens work as any new lens and you select aperture and shutter speed on your dials. The only thing that is different is that you lack the auto focus.


EDIT: When in M-mode this is true, you need the green button but if you put the camera in Av-mode it does the job for you. I did not understand your reply at first.

EDIT2: I have now played with all my older lenses and can conclude that all of them works differently when in Live View and also different from time to time which is a little anoying. All due to how the contacts are shorted I guess.