Originally posted by haycyn One more quick question, the lenses that the ZX-5 use, can they be used ton the K1000 or the ME models?
Pentax is great in that any lens for any Pentax 35mm SLR from ~1975 until the present will physically mount on any other such camera. (Go
here for the full story of the K mount.) So you can use a manual focus K or M lens from the 1970s on a 2012 DSLR. Or you can
mount a modern autofocus lens on a K1000. The trouble comes after that. It will mount, but of course you have to manually focus the lens on the K1000, and most autofocus lenses have very short, badly damped focus throws when in MF mode, making that a bit inconvenient. What's worse is if the modern AF lens has no aperture ring because it expects the camera to control aperture electronically. The K1000 can't send that signal, so the lens will be stuck at wide-open (lowest-f/numbered) aperture. Some will say "this is great, I always shoot wide-open anyway"
but you shouldn't. My Tammy 28-200 zoom from 1997 has an aperture ring, so it would work fine, although honestly I don't think I've ever tried it on my ME Super SE. It mostly stays in the cupboard now; too many primes, too little time, to muck about with a plastic AF zoom!
As for the K1000, I'll leave it to others to make the case for alternatives as is always done whenever anyone mentions that model.
--Dave