Originally posted by edgedemon for me, it is hard to get an understanding of the manual process?
One of the attractions of Pentax is the old quirky glass, but the price difference between M and A lenses is quite a jump.
I have a K30 coming in a week, Im upgrading from a K20D as I find manual focus on the K20D hard to get nailed, so focus peaking sounds like a godsend to me.
My only experience of manual is my macro lens, which I have a keeper rate of maybe 1% on - don't laugh, that is 0.9% better than a few months ago!
My understanding of the difference between A and M is that you don't have to set the aperture for A lenses, but why the jump in price just to save having to turn a ring to a value you want, or is there more?
The A position also allows multi-segment metering and P-TTL flash. With a manual aperture lens, the metering quietly switches to center-weighted by itself, and the flash fires at full power.
I had some trouble mixing types of lenses at first. These lenses need a different mindset because of the added metering steps, technical limitations, manual focusing, different controls. So if you switch from a modern lens, you have to switch your thinking too. On a single-dial camera, there's also the e-dial switch. On a two dial camera, I can set it so the shutter speed is always adjusted on the front of the camera, whether in Av mode or M. On a single dial camera, the dial is always doing something different.
Quote: Im guessing Im asking as Im so so tempted to pull the trigger on a cosina or ricoh 55m F 1.2, but im worrying about the whole M bit and wondering whether to get a 50mm A 1.2 instead as that should give me similar bokeh.
I have also seen in the thread for the cosina a post where someone removed the aperture lever on the lens?!? I don't understand what advantage that would give, or why it needed to be done?
The Cosina should have a lot more coma. Mine has a lot, and I don't see that from the K or A 50/1.2. Two reasons to remove the aperture lever: using the lens on a Canon FF, the lever sometimes makes contact with the mirror, bad news. On a Pentax, the aperture ring can directly shift the aperture blades, so you can stop down in any camera mode. This is a third way to use the lens. The downside is tthe reason lenses don't work like that any more - focus works better wide open. When the lens is stopped down, the viewfinder gets darker, and depth of field increases. It's harder to see the point of focus.