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12-21-2016, 03:03 PM   #1
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New K1 - Need Help Saving AF Fine Adjust Settings

I finally got my K1 about a week ago, and am still in the process of making sure everything works and getting it set up. To get stated with I purchased a few older manual focus lenses (some from this forum) so I could experiment and determine what I really need before investing in more expensive lenses. This is my first DSLR, although I still have an Olympus OM-2 that I bought in 1978, and used until a few years ago when film became hard to get. This is my first Pentax gear ever - so its been a bit of a learning curve.


I also have some OM-2 lenses including a Vivitar Series 1 90MM F2.5 Macro also purchased new in 1978 (for $65 I think - lens prices have sure gone up). To my surprise I found on this forum that an adapter from Fotodiox was available to adapt Om to K mount. I did not expect much from this since it has an internal correction element - but to my surprise the results have been great. It is somewhat satisfying to be able to continue to use an old friend. One thing I miss from the OM-2 is the split prism viewfinder. I can not focus accurately with the viewfinder alone in the K1. But the PDAF assist works great. The problem is that it needs adjustment for the series 1 Macro and for my Pentax A400 F5.6. The other lenses I have seem good without adjustment, including other OM lenses in the adapter. I read the article on lens correction in this forum, made my own target, and came up with the adjustment needed for the Series 1. It wound up being +2, which doesn't sound like much - but makes the difference between a great picture and a blurry mess (at least in close focus situations). For some reason the camera won't allow me to save this setting with the focal length input which would seem to be enough to identify the lens and the best way of doing this. As a fallback the manual says that the user settings save all data in the C1-C4 menu, and the global adjustment setting is in the C4 menu. This does not work for me, the camera does not save the global focus adjustment setting in a user setting. This will be a big problem if I have to go all the way to the C4 menu to change the setting every time I change lenses. I am sure to forget and screw it up, aside from the bother of going through all the menus to get to C4. Of course I can use the lens in liveview with focus peaking, and that works fine for me on a tripod. But I expect to use this lens and the 400 F5.6 (for which I haven't yet figured the adjustment factor) mostly hand held, and would much prefer the viewfinder for hand held. Hopefully I have missed some fine print in the manual - can anybody help?


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12-21-2016, 03:36 PM   #2
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AF adjustments are really only meant for AF lenses. While they can also help alleviate premature focus confirmation, the focus confirmation feature itself has a pretty big tolerance, and thus can't be relied on 100% with lenses that have a shallow DoF. As a result I don't believe there's any way to store multiple global adjustments, unfortunately, nor is the camera set up to be able to recognize different manual focus lenses.

Live view magnification is the best tool for when you need the focus to be spot-on. For hand-holding, focus peaking alone may do the trick, though it could still prove challenging with long lenses like the 400mm Ultimately a lot of patience, practice, and experimentation will be needed.

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12-21-2016, 03:45 PM   #3
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The fine adjust settings are remembered for up to twenty lenses that have a chip on them the camera can identify them by when you put them on.

But the old lenses you're talking about don't have a chip.

Last edited by clackers; 12-21-2016 at 03:53 PM.
12-21-2016, 09:26 PM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by clackers Quote
The fine adjust settings are remembered for up to twenty lenses that have a chip on them the camera can identify them by when you put them on.

But the old lenses you're talking about don't have a chip.
I have two manual focus lenses on my K-1 as well as two AF lenses. Fortunately, the two Manual lenses (Samyang 24mm 1.4 & Rokinon 135mm 2.0) require the same AF fine adjustment. For both AF and manual focus lenses, I use spot focus, phase detect with chirp to confirm focus. I alway put the lens at infinity and then focus manually or with auto if AF lens. This gives me accurate, repeatable results. The camera is on a tripod and the focus target is also elevated and square with the camera lens. I use a cable release to take the picture and review the resulting photo after. The focus target distance is set so the focus square just fits the center focus target square on the target.
Af Fine focus adjustment is useful for manual focus lenses too if you use the built in focus confirmation method as above.

12-22-2016, 03:09 PM - 1 Like   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by Adam Quote
AF adjustments are really only meant for AF lenses. While they can also help alleviate premature focus confirmation, the focus confirmation feature itself has a pretty big tolerance, and thus can't be relied on 100% with lenses that have a shallow DoF. As a result I don't believe there's any way to store multiple global adjustments, unfortunately, nor is the camera set up to be able to recognize different manual focus lenses.

Live view magnification is the best tool for when you need the focus to be spot-on. For hand-holding, focus peaking alone may do the trick, though it could still prove challenging with long lenses like the 400mm Ultimately a lot of patience, practice, and experimentation will be needed.


Of course I have only had the camera a few days - and am sure I could improve with practice, but my experience to date is that my success is much greater with the focus confirmation than trying to focus with the screen alone. (Actually I think this is a great feature of the camera. I use catch in focus on moving subjects, works great usually. All I have to do is change the switch on the front of the camera to AF to use catch in focus). Focus peaking is probably the best, and I intend to use it when tripod mounted - but I had no success hand held. For one thing I really need reading glasses for fine detail on the LCD and hate to carry them around, but even more so these two lenses that need adjustment are both heavy and much easier to hold steady when using the viewfinder. I understand the camera has no way to identify a MF lens, but seems like they could have let you associate an adjustment setting with a focal length, which you have to input in any case. Anyway it seems I may luck out. I think you are right that it is the lenses with shallow DOF where this is critical. For whatever reason it is very critical with the Macro lens. Today I tested the 400mm lens (my jury rigged set-up is similar to that suggested by dfp771, and seems to work well). It is less sensitive than the Macro, but also seems best at +2 setting. So its possible I needed a global adjustment. I haven't tested every lens yet, but the others I tested seemed to bee much less sensitive, and I couldn't really tell the difference between 0 and +2. So for now I am going to just leave it set on +2. I have just purchased an AF lens from a member off this site - so when it comes I will have something else to play with. Really enjoying the camera so far and glad I finally got it.
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