Digital SLRs

[Mr Panda]

so - digi SLRs...........believe i can get a digital body and use my old Pentax K fitting lenses from the early 80s :roll: along with all my filters and associated gubbins

is this correct?
is it a good idea?
should i just ditch the 'orible heavy old lenses and go for modern lightweight instead?

 

[Augustus]

I believe you can.

Ask I Believe in Fixies for a proper answer based on sound knowledge.

The manufacturers will have you believe (and who know's, maybe rightly so) that you are better off buying lenses designed primarily for digital performance.

However, a friend took some pics of a bike in bluebells last week and I commented on how amazing the colours were and what a sort of 'depth' the images had. Thy looked above and beyond a boggo D70 image. And he said it was an older AI (not AIS i think) Nikkor MF 50mm lens on the front of his D70.

Try it. See what it's like. Mark my words, it's the first step away from all your pega mixels and hi dynamic range fluff. A good move.

 

[BerthaPog]

I think the Pentax DSLRs will take a Pentax-K but worth checking, however you'll need a much shorter focal length lens due to the smaller size on the digital sensor compared to full frame 35mm film.

This shouldn't be an issue as looking at Pentax K-7 prices, you're only paying an extra £30 for an 18-55 kit over the body only price.

An 18-55 will be roughly equivilent to 28-85 in old money.

 

[Kestonian]

I have a D70 and use my old lenses. Two things from my experience:

1. Modern lenses are a lot lighter and as mentioned above you need a wider angle 35mm lens to get the equivalent on the digital, so it's worth getting the kit lens anyway. I know I wish I had.

2. Time spent reading about how the lens & camera work, relationship between aperture, exposure and playing about with it etc. is worth a lot of money on lenses.

 

[hamster]

A lot of the reason that modern lenses are lighter is greater use of plastic in their construction. This may or may not be a good thing.

However, at the same time modern lenses have a lot more computer simulation in their design for stray internal reflections etc and ought to be superior.

 

[legrandefromage]

for Nikon D3000 DSLR:

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imagi ... bility.htm

I'm looking forward to getting some lenses.

and this may be of use to Pentax owners:

http://www.mosphotos.com/PentaxLensesExplained.html

http://www.mosphotos.com/PentaxLensCompatibility.html

http://www.mosphotos.com/PentaxLensesExplained.html

 

[MagD]

(Used to work in my local Jessops - when AF first came in and digital just started to make an appearance....seven years as part-time & full time in holidays etc thru' school and uni etc)

Nikon and Pentax stayed with their "physical" mounts when moving from MF to AF anf then to digital to film. (Olympus tried and then stopped when their initial AF offerings didn't really take off).

Canon, Minolta & others went to new mounts. (there were a couple of AF lenses for old Canon FD mounts but

Older lenses should therefore fit the bodies - Nikons certainly kept the same lens aperture mechanics etc to ensure pro compatibility etc.

Check the nikon mf lens type A or AI or AIS etc as this determined the ability to use the lens in programme mode rather than aperture priority etc.

Pentax used the same sort fo system but there may be a "aperture lock" on some lenses which switched aperture control to the camera rather than on the lens itself.

Lens focal length will be multiplied by roughly 1.35 - however - check the CCD sensor dimensions on the new D-slr - 35mm film SLRs have a 24x36mm frame size - the lens focal length will be the same BUT the image point of view will be multiplied by the ratio of the digital sensor to the 35mm frame size. So a smaller sensor will mean an effective equivilent focal length being longer.

Some of the Nikon, (& others), pro D-slrs to fit in enough pixels to go 10 to 12 ++ MPs are actually full 24x26mm image size and hence the same as 35mm.

On most d-slrs a 35mm standard lens of 50mm become the equivilent of about a 75mm lens in 35mm terms - ideal for portraiture or close low light sports as the 50mm is likely to be f1.8 or better for really good light gathering.

Long and short of it you should be able to use the retro lenses - build quality should be ok equivilent focal length will increase on most d-slrs but you may loose some programme modes.....

 

[Mr Panda]

Interesting - might give this a bash.

so my 24mm Pentax w/a lens would function more as a 32mm would if fitted to dslr? Pity that :cry: lerve that lens

 

[IDB1]

so - digi SLRs...........believe i can get a digital body and use my old Pentax K fitting lenses from the early 80s :roll: along with all my filters and associated gubbins

Neo-retro photography!!

 

[The Ken]

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=EOS+ ... m270.l1313

you get K adaptors for a few cameras, I'll be buying one for my EOS, if you can wait a few weeks I'll let you know how it goes, alternatively if you buy a Pentax DSLR they should fit right on.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxkx/