[mito]

Hi guys,
I bought the new Pentax 18-250 lens for my K10D a couple of days ago. I am not sure it is working well, so I want to hear from some of you that have the same lens if yours is like mine.

Sometimes when I switch on the camera - let's say once every 30 - my K10D does not recognize the lens and asks me for the focal length.

When I look at RAW or JPEG metadata, both in Lightroom and with exiftool, the lens name is not shown: Lightroom just says "unknown lens", while exiftool reports

Code:

Lens Type                       : K,M Lens
Lens Codes                      : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

This happens for all the photos I take with this lens. If I use my Pentax 18-55 lens, exiftools reports

Code:

Lens Type                       : smc PENTAX-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL
Lens Codes                      : 28 d6 15 82 84 46 90 66 74 78 7b 38 01 3b 50 03

I use a K10D with firmware 1.3, Lightroom 1.3.1 and exiftool 7.13.

Do you think I have to send the lens back to Pentax?

Thank you for your help

[Fototim]

I have had the same lens for a couple of week, and have experiencd nothing like this.

If it is related to this lens only, then I would have checked the contacts. If that doesn't help, then send it back.

Tim

[Lowell Goudge]

if the camera is asking for focal length, to me it sounds like the contact feeding focal length, and focus distance data etc on the lens is not making contact.

At the same time does the camera also show "F--" to indicate no apature data?

if it is only the focal length that is not being read, check the 7th contact (i.e. the one furthest away from the lens locking pin on the lens mount and on the camera for damage or dirt.

[KFrog]

I just got my K10D last week and noticed that Pentax Photo Browser 3 does not recognize the lens. I need to update to version 3.12 of the software I guess. I may also have to update to version 1.30 of the firmware for the camera as well.

[mito]

I wrote to Pentax. Here is their answer:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Pentax.

The 18-250mm is a lens that is not actually made by Pentax. For this reason it will not show up in the metadata. The lens is not defective.

Sounds strange to me, anyway.

So, is there anyone with this lens who was able to produce images with the lens name in the metadata?

[mito]

if the camera is asking for focal length, to me it sounds like the contact feeding focal length, and focus distance data etc on the lens is not making contact.

At the same time does the camera also show "F--" to indicate no apature data?

if it is only the focal length that is not being read, check the 7th contact (i.e. the one furthest away from the lens locking pin on the lens mount and on the camera for damage or dirt.

I cleaned the contacts but it seems strange to me that it is the problem. The contacts were clean and none of the pictures I took reported the lens name correctly but all the other metadata were fine. I often change lens so if it is just a contact problem it should not show up every time. Moreover, if the camera does not recognise the lens, I just switch it off and on and it works. Not very bad, but being a new lens (10 days old) I expect it to work properly...

[Lowell Goudge]

I cleaned the contacts but it seems strange to me that it is the problem. The contacts were clean and none of the pictures I took reported the lens name correctly but all the other metadata were fine. I often change lens so if it is just a contact problem it should not show up every time. Moreover, if the camera does not recognise the lens, I just switch it off and on and it works. Not very bad, but being a new lens (10 days old) I expect it to work properly...

based on someone else haviong a functioning copy suggests that it might be the lens. What is interesting is you say the problem is not perminent, which is why I suspected the contacts.

It might be interesting to apply "LIGHT" pressure in both directions on the lens (i.e. twisting) to see if it is an allignment problem, BUT I would recommend sending it back or exchanging it vfor another copy

[BrianK]

I had the same problem with a Sigma 70-300 lens. Almost every 2nd time I put it on the camera it would fail to seat properly. I would have to release the lens and then put it back in place. After using it for a few weeks it stopped doing that so I suspect one of the contacts had some dirt under it in the mount and it worked its way out.

As for the lens not showing up in the metadata, I think it is too new for some programs to resolve. I have found that on my Mac only raw images consistantly show the lens info. I don't have a raw image with this lens to test but the jpgs show the lens as blank.

[wlachan]

Those contacts on the lens mount are spring loaded. It could be that some of the "inner" contacts gone bad for some reason. Have them cleaned professionally, or seek for an exchange if still possible.

[Fototim]

I am very sorry, but I just discovered that I have misinformed you.

My lens does not show up in Lightroom. I was tired when I wrote the post, and must have mixed it up with another lens (DA* 50-135) I purchased at the same time. I really hope that my did not follow my bad advice. Sorry again.

My hope is that this will be corrected with a new version ACR. There was a similar situation with the DA* when they where introduced.

Tim

[mito]

I am very sorry, but I just discovered that I have misinformed you.

My lens does not show up in Lightroom. I was tired when I wrote the post, and must have mixed it up with another lens (DA* 50-135) I purchased at the same time. I really hope that my did not follow my bad advice. Sorry again.

My hope is that this will be corrected with a new version ACR. There was a similar situation with the DA* when they where introduced.

Tim

Don't worry You've been so kind answering me so quickly
Anyway, I cleaned *VERY* well the contacts of both the lens and the camera and now it did not give me the "select focal length" problem and the lens name appears almost always in the exif metadata. I wrote "almost always" because it appears on something like 80% of the pictures, and I didn't change the lens taking all of them... weird...

[henzo]

Mito,

So were you finally able to get the EXIF data to correct display the lens with Lightroom? My brand new copy of the lens doesn't seem to save the EXIF data correctly either.

Applications tried:
Lightroom 1.3
Pentax Photo Browser 3.10

Cameras:
K10D V1.3 firmware
k100d Super v1.0 firmware

Does the exif data show up correctly for everyone else?

[dstar]

[QUOTE=KFrog;154896]I just got my K10D last week and noticed that Pentax Photo Browser 3 does not recognize the lens. I need to update to version 3.12 of the software I guess. I may also have to update to version 1.30 of the firmware for the camera as well.[/QU

I use my new Pentax 18-250 first time this Sunday and pentax software recognize this lens w/o any problem .I have 1.3 software and Browser 3.12..

[henzo]

Thanks! It shows up perfectly. Now I just need to figure out how to get lightroom to recognize it correctly.