Originally posted by rvannatta Yes, the TC's are an issue. they seem to baffle an SDM lens.
On the AF issue generally, I suspect that we may need to watch what we pray for.
What would we say if the price of ann intelligent, tracking does everything AF system which only worked with SDM lenses and broke the backwards compatibility model for all others???
Pentax is using a lens mount tht is now 33 years old with an ability to use lenses made even before that. Competitors have forced their users to throw all their lens collection down the back stairs from time to time. Providing a camera body that works reasonably well with a lifetime assortment of lenses presents some issues.
To be honest, the real issue is that the TC and its function was never thought through totally. While I agree the mount is over 30 years old, that does not mean it is useless. as I have said and others also commented, the real issue was a simple oversight. on boot up, just like the lens focal length when not sensed, there could be a TC ratio, 1, 1.4, 1.5, 1.7, 2.
no big deal.
for new bodies they can always add an 8th contact similar to the AE mode contact, and have it auto sense with the TC feeding back its ratio