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04-22-2010, 09:46 AM - 1 Like   #1
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How to calibrate a lens if not on K-7 or K20D?

You have a Pentax camera and your pictures are out of focus!
And the camera is not a K20D or a K-7....
Or the K20D / K-7 calibration menu cannot be tuned far enough.
What do you do? You enter the debug mode!

I've seen a lot of people discussing this topic and decided to make it more transparant.
All this information is allready available and a lot was "copy - pasted" into this post.

I've used my K10D as an example.

How to proceed?
First create a text file with Notepad, depending upon your camera and firmware revision:
The name of the file needs to be:

K10D with firmware v1.10: MODSET.421
K10D with firmware v1.20 -v1.30: MODSET.TXT
GX10 with firmware v1.10: MODSET.429
GX10 with firmware v1.20-v1.30: MODSET.TXT
GX20 v1.01, v1.03: MODSET.454
K20D v1.03: MODSET.442
K200D v1.00.00.03: MODSET.445
K7 v1.01: MODSET.474
Km v1.10: MODSET.464 press "Delete" during turn-on
K2000 v1.10: MODSET.482 press "Delete" during turn-on

If your computer is hiding file extensions, make sure to change your explorer settings to show file extensions.
Otherwise all Notepad files created will be called XXXX.txt.
So when you save a file called MODSET.445 in Notepad it will by default be called MODSET.445.txt.
However you will not see the ".txt" extension on the end.

In this example my K10D is running firmware release 1.3
(MODSET.TXT is the name the file needs to be, so I can just save it as "MODSET", since Windows will add the .TXT for me):
Type the following text in the file:



Make sure the hit ENTER on your keyboard at the end of the line

Save the file on a SD card. It does not need to be empty.

Turn the camera off.

Put the card in your camera
Turn camera on with MENU button pressed (or same with DELETE button).



If in original it does not work leave the SD card door open when turning camera on.
You should see 2 different screens, the first displaying actual firmware version will disappear.



Then the Debug menu appears:



When in the debug menu:

1. Press [right key]
Make DEBUG MODE [DIS] to DEBUG MODE [EN].
then press [OK].
Now the debug line should be displayed as in the picture above.

2. Press [MENU] and go to SETUP tab.



then, Press [Up key], you can see TEST MODE.



3. Select AF TEST menu. now you have AF correction menu.





If you have Front-focusing, reduce the value.
If you have back-focusing, increase the value.
after adjust some value, press [OK] and quit out of setup menu.

4. TEST for focus, find out that focus is correct.
(repeat this from 2 for correct focus.)
If you need support on how to calibrate a lens, check out this document: http://www.focustestchart.com/focus21.pdf

5. Go to service menu (switch off and on again).
Change DEBUG MODE [EN] to DEBUG MODE [DIS] again.
Then press [OK].

If you want to leave your camera with debug mode enabled, don't forget to switch it off, your batteries will get drained because the camera doesn't enter powersave mode.
You don't need to keep that scriptfile on the SD-card all the time, only when you want to enter the debug menu after it is enabled.

Success, Bert


Last edited by bymy141; 04-23-2010 at 04:59 AM.
04-22-2010, 10:34 AM   #2
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Thanks for the tip Bert.

One thing I never understood: the K10D, for instance, only takes global AF adjustments, correct?

so lets say you adjust the AF for one bad lens, will that screw up adjustments for the rest of the lenses you own?

Or if it the AF is off, it means it is off for every lens?

I was never sure how this worked...
04-22-2010, 11:00 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by BBear Quote
Thanks for the tip Bert.

One thing I never understood: the K10D, for instance, only takes global AF adjustments, correct?

so lets say you adjust the AF for one bad lens, will that screw up adjustments for the rest of the lenses you own?

Or if it the AF is off, it means it is off for every lens?

I was never sure how this worked...

Thanks Bert, I have the same questions as BBear has. Does anybody know more details?
04-22-2010, 11:12 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by jjdgti Quote
Thanks Bert, I have the same questions as BBear has. Does anybody know more details?
There are 2 options:

AF Aera Test: can be set to 0-3.
Some people on the Internet claim that is specifies with element (horizontal / vertical) of the sensor chip are used by the focus system.
I'd leave it on 0.

The other is a slider that, as far as I can find out, works for all lenses.

- Bert

04-23-2010, 03:42 AM   #5
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+20um AF adjust on K200D and everything is now spot on. Tried it with all my lenses, great.
04-24-2010, 02:20 PM   #6
Guy
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Thanks for taking the time to explain this, Bert; very useful indeed. The layout was particularly helpful and it works well with the new Firmware Version 1.31.

Cheers,

Guy
05-09-2010, 08:31 PM   #7
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awesome! thanks

05-24-2010, 02:28 PM   #8
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Is the OP missing some image files? I find it hard to believe I should paste spaces into the text file?
05-24-2010, 04:22 PM   #9
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Thanks for posting that - useful info in one place! I've book marked it.

But a question to those in the know - does the AF adjustment apply to all lenses equally, or is it like the K20/K7 and applies to the lens thats mounted on the camera?

BTW - a few pictures of the screens might clarify things more and then put this in the tutorial section!

Cheers
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