Originally posted by PeterChris I'm new to the forum, thinking of getting a used Pentax camera body to work with my old Pentax lenses, and I've read this posting and the article by Robert Donovan. My one remaining question: Every time you turn the camera off and on again, it seems that you have to let the camera know the focal length. I think this is only for the shake reduction to work, so if this gets tedious, can you just turn off the shake reduction feature? Or is setting the focal length so quick that it becomes second nature to set it every time you turn the camera on? (I think I might get tired of this.) My cheap Nikon Coolpix turns itself off automatically after a number of seconds to save the battery. This happens a lot because I am sometimes slow to take a picture. If this happens with the Pentax I think it would be annoying to have to set the focal length each time. (Quite often I'm ready to take a picture with the Nikon, and it turns itself off.)
The focal length setting will stay on whatever it was last set to, so if you have the same lens mounted and turn the camera off and on as you go about using it, it will be ready with the correct number when you turn it on and you just press ok. Even if you aren't paying attention and press the shutter or some other button, it will still silently select that number. So as long as you don't hit left/right to change it when you turn in on, it will be correct. Now, when you put a different (manual) lens on, you have to pay attention to make sure you set that one correctly, but really it is no big deal. The only time it is annoying is if you mount a lens, but then don't turn the camera on right away and then later you want to get a quick shot and the screen comes up with the wrong number and you lose those precious seconds. So set it when you mount it, even if you are just packing your bag.
Also, if you have SR turned OFF, it won't ask you but it will still put whatever number it last had in the EXIF data. So with manual lenses, I always turn SR on first and put in the focal length even if I want to have SR off for whatever reason. (There is a separate menu item to set the focal length somewhere, but that's a pain to get to so I just turn SR on and power cycle the camera if I need to input it and it hasn't asked me, and then turn SR off again.)