Hell just froze over...

[limr]

I bought a DSLR.

 

[KC1]

A great test cam to set up your 'real' shots?

 

[oldhippy]

Story, we want the story.

 

[limr]

A great test cam to set up your 'real' shots?

Pretty much, yeah.

Story, we want the story.

Well, I'd been thinking of getting a digital camera more "serious" than my little Canon point-and-shoot (which, btw, I haven't used in probably a year) that I might use for taking pictures at the campus events I'm now involved in planning. I also thought it would come in handy if I wanted to do my own tests for film scanning (flatbed vs dslr tests.) And the body was only $160 at KEH.com, in Ex+ condition. The K-r gets excellent reviews as a nothing-fancy-but-solid-on-the-basics kind of a camera, which I figured might be a good fit for me. Put all together, it seemed like it was the right time, price and camera, at least for now.

I've also got a TON of Pentax legacy lenses, such as the Takumar you see in the picture above.

I gotta say, though, it's been a bit of a PITA so far to figure out how to use these legacy lenses. The Takumar is the only one that has an A mode, so I figured out how that one can work on Auto, but for some reason, it kind of freaked out when I tried putting on other lenses. Mirror just kept flipping up, but no pictures were being taken. And with the Takumar, I can take pictures in Auto but so far, I haven't figured out how to get it to work in Manual mode. Grrrrr

And really, the idea of a camera that doesn't work without batteries is reeeeeeaaaaaallllly weird for me.

Meh - I can always sell it

Here are two test shots when I finally figured out how to get some images. I was testing low light capability with Zelda. It goes up to 12,800 ISO but is pretty noisy up there:



And I think I managed to get the DOF on this not because I had any control over the aperture but because the lens has a macro setting that I was testing.

 

[limr]

And yes, I do plan on RTFM. It is downloaded and ready to be studied! I'm already bookmarking different sites that talk about how to use legacy lenses with the K-r. It's just going to have to wait until next week since I'm leaving town on Friday for a family weekend and plan on bringing only real cameras with me

 

[KC1]

Noise is just modern film grain.

 

[limr]

Noise is just modern film grain.

I don't buy that for a second.

 

[limr]

Y'all, this camera is already annoying me. I don't know if I'm screwing something up because I don't know how to handle the legacy lenses yet, or if there's a problem with compatibility, or if the camera itself is not actually in Ex+ condition. All I know is that I just turned it on to try something I read in a different forum, and the camera started going nuts again, just like it did with the Manual lenses. Mirror would slap whenever I hit any button, and when I hit the shutter, it would slap continuously for about 2 seconds. And suddenly, it's very dark looking through the viewfinder - dark as if I were using a dof preview function on the lens (which is doesn't have.) And the focus ring isn't working.

My K1000 NEVER treated me so poorly!!

Okay, okay....breathing now...can't obsess about this now...have to go to bed...

 

[tirediron]

That doesn't sound good at all. I don't speak a lick of Pentax, so I can't help you but hopefully someone can give you some insight.

 

[limr]

I seem to have figured it out for the moment at least. I took out the battery and put it back in, took the lens off, and then turned the camera on before putting the lens back on, making sure the aperture was set on A. Seems to work perfectly on Manual mode now. I also changed some settings that I think stopped the camera from trying to auto focus when pressing the shutter half way. That might have been freaking the camera out - trying to autofocus with a manual focus lens. I'll test it further tomorrow with other lenses.

In the meantime, now I really do need to stop obsessing so I can get some sleep!

 

[Gary A.]

Good Luck. Some cameras have a setting for shooting manual-only/legacy glass ... "Shoot Without Lens". At least the price seems right.

 

[Dave442]

For copying your real pictures with that DSLR be sure to make use of the ease of the multi-image stitching with digital. Reverse mount one of those old Pentax lenses and give it a try, I find it easier than scanning.

 

[limr]

Been doing some research and discovered that "mirror flop" is a fairly common issue. Hopefully it's common enough that someone has come up with a reliable hack for it. If not, it just might be that the camera goes back. I was messing with the camera a little bit this morning and the biggest issue is that it's not consistent. A few frames are fine, and then it starts the mirror flop.

 

[astroNikon]

I was totally lost when I got my D7000 a few years ago.
Before that was a D70 which I never had in Manual, and before that a film N80 and Canon AE-1.

But, this answers why a cold front is moving through the area.

 

[mmaria]

It won't let me upload some funny stuff I found with cats and congrats!

So just imagine I sent something funny and nice to you