Why you shouldn't adapt vintage lenses to a 14 years old dslr

I bought an old Pentax dslr to use my vintage M series lenses natively and in this video we're checking the result and discussing why it's not a good idea.
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[@bonghungk7544]

I have absolutely no problems using old Pentax dslr -K10D, KX, K50 on manual focus Pentax lenses. Sure I’ll get the odd miss focus with them but for the most part I nail the shot the bokeh is nice too if I shoot wide open. I don’t even bother using the dot guide I just focus with my eyes 👀 until I see it sharp and then click I mail the shot.

[@MarcoAries]

Good for you!

[@bonghungk7544]

@@MarcoAries I never realized there is a problem until this video.

[@MarcoAries]

I envy your sharp eyesight! 😅 I wear glasses and even with them on I struggle to see if I'm focusing correctly at apertures wider than f3.5, but it might be the viewfinder of the Kr that is just not that sharp. It's easier for me with film cameras.

[@bonghungk7544]

@ hmmm I use the KX it should be exactly the same type of screen as the KR and the K10 D is an older model. I use all sorts of lenses and slow lenses too. Like I said I get miss focus the odd time but most are keepers. Perhaps if you focus close up stuff try swaying your body back and forth a little until you see it sharp and then click my friend. Maybe this might help you for some shooting situations.

[@MarcoAries]

@bonghungk7544 I do that a lot, actually! At the end of the day it's a matter of practice and getting used to it (and good eyes! 😁)

[@campbells0ups]

the main issue i have with adapting vintage lenses to a vintage dSLR is the low contrast scenes. sometimes there is barely any contrast at all

[@MarcoAries]

Indeed!

[@adventureswithpaulandsally5516]

That's odd. I bought my 12 megapixel K-x brand new over a decade ago specifically to shoot with my collection of vintage Pentax prime lenses (a 28mm, 50mm, 40mm pancake, 17mm fisheye, 120mm), and always got fantastic results.

[@MarcoAries]

How's the 17mm? Maybe the Kx had a better sensor?

[@adventureswithpaulandsally5516]

@MarcoAries loved it, but it cropped down to 25.5mm equivalent field of view on my K-x, so it couldn't capture a full rainbow like it did on my film camera.

[@luzr6613]

Hi to you... i'm going to say that you're pretty much 'right' and that i'm happy to not care and carry on. Let me explain. I shoot some vintage something every morning and i shoot it on DSLRs that are (and here's the worst bit!) 4/3 format - my E-1 dating from 2004 and my E-300 which i bought in 2006, so 5MP or 8MP Kodak CCDs. I do this for 2 1/2 reasons. The half is that the E-1 is my all-time favourite digital to shoot with... the two other reasons are that it gives me pleasure in the slow process and i love the shutter sounds, and they make for perfectly good notebook cameras. I nail focus on most of my shots, love the way they render, and i'm happy to just have fun. So that's a nice half hour in the morning tooling around in our large garden and a bit of rainforest. What i don't make the mistake of doing is trying to get consistent high-quality images in a variety of situations and conditions out of the rigs - which is what i'm aiming for in the other 95% of my photography. So i'm never disappointed because it's my time with no expectations. I do shoot my manual glass sometimes on my clever cameras, when the situation merits it. Manual glass i have is mainly good Takumar primes and the better Tamron SP Adaptall-2 lenses, plus a few freaks. Hope that all sounds reasonable! Good video - enjoyed. Time to have a go with the E-1 and... get this! - it was going to be the Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135mm f/2.5, but i held it up to my screen and there's a little spider inside it! How does that happen??? There's no food in there!!! Far out... gotta go - gotta pull this lens apart. Thanks and take care - best from New Zealand.

[@MarcoAries]

Those sound like perfectly good reasons! Now, a spider inside of a lens is odd indeed, but given the amount of spiders that live in my house and yard I guess I'll keep an eye out for that 😅

[@Nedski42YT]

Marco, have you tried any other Pentax DSLR's such as the K-5? The K-5 was released about the same time as the K-R but it has a pentaPRISM rather than a pentaMIRROR. Pentaprisms transmit more light through them. The K-5 also has focus peaking and has interchangeable focusing screens. These three K-5 features might make using vintage Pentax lenses more useful. A used K-5 goes for around $200-$300 on eBay. A K-5 from Kamerastore goes for around 200-300 Euros. Thanks.

[@MarcoAries]

Focus peaking alone would make a world of difference. Eventually I'd like to get a more modern Pentax body...

[@Nedski42YT]

@@MarcoAries CORRECTION! Pentax K-5 does NOT have focus peaking! My apologies. I misread some online web sites. It does have a "focus confirmation" LED indicator in the optical viewfinder and a beep sound. The Live View has no extra manual focusing indicators. I just checked this with my Pentax K-5 (mark 1) and a Pentax-A 24mm f2.8 lens. A thousand pardons!

[@MarcoAries]

@Nedski42YT No worries! 👍🏻

[@davidmill7289]

Thanks Marco I’ll stick to mirrorless with my vintage lenses.

[@MarcoAries]

Me too! 😁

[@lightbit553]

I'm using vintage lenses on Pentax K-m. I can confirm focusing is sometimes hard. Indicator is imprecise and actually autofocus is also not very precise. It is very analog like expirience. However, I don't know why higher dynamic range would be needed for vintage lenses.

[@MarcoAries]

The autofocus in the Kr is fast and precise, but I'm sure it varies a lot on other models. Dynamic range is very important with any lens, you can see in the samples of this video how the sky was often blown out and the shadows were just black. I want to see the most possible detail and all the character of the lenses I'm using.

[@lightbit553]

Did you edit those pictures? I'm usually able to get shadows brighter. I'm sure better dynamic range would allow more with less noise, but it already can look flat.

[@MarcoAries]

The pictures in this video are straight out of camera

[@aryansanders8567]

Hi Marco, always nice to see your videos love your appreciation and music background, the samples are beautiful in lenses and pictures for me one good reason to go with vintage cameras is the CCD sensor as it produces something different to any modern cameras is except maybe Hasselblad, I had the same issue as you with focus and my answer was to put a micro prism screen in them I use Nikon D200 and they are so cheap in my country that makes an interesting option and of if I go to a hazardous neighborhood I don’t feel so nervous if my equipment suffer from one accident or from the thieves, the only real downside is the resolution but in Lightroom I can export in any resolution I like so any Picc I take can end in a 24 mp file

[@MarcoAries]

Thank you! Split prisms work like a charm! I understand why companies decided to remove them from bodies with autofocus, especially entry level bodies, but it does limit the usability of those cameras. I know what you mean about bringing gear in "less safe" areas, I've had to hide my camera in the coat a few times 😅

[@marcelocampoamor4761]

I have used most of the Minolta lenses from 1985 with my 2008 Sony A-700 without any problems, the same with the A-900 and even with the Minolta 7D with a CCD sensor and only 6 Mp, what I do notice is that the contrast has to be lowered a bit so that the shadows don't lose their details (only with Jpg). Maybe it's a problem with that particular Pentax. I have a Sony A-6000 that has no problems with any vintage lens.

[@MarcoAries]

Oh the a6000 is more than fine, I still have my a5100 and it works great with vintage lenses!

[@tonykeltsflorida]

My Canon M6 mark II handles manual focus really well. I have a couple Canon FD lenses with adapters.

[@MarcoAries]

Good to know!

[@classic.cameras]

Had this very problem of focus with an old Nikon with Nikkor lenses. A little dot that thinks it knows what its doing. But it misses the focus a lot. I got used to it but my goal of upgrading to a newer Nikon DSLR as this focus method was not fun.

[@MarcoAries]

Good thing technologies improve fast and we have access to cameras that don't hold us back!

[@classic.cameras]

@@MarcoAries I love focus peaking and being able to dedicate a button on my A7IV for magnification.

[@MarcoAries]

@@classic.cameras Same!

[@PentaxBlogger]

I own Kr and Pentax-M lenses. Have no problem focusing, but camera refuse to operate with them, often produce weird double-shutter action and overexposed images every time a lens does not "suits" camera. It does with some modern AF lens as well. No such problems with K5ii or K3ii. Both have improved AF too. Kr is reasonably good in natural light, but Kr has SAFOX VIII which is very bad under artificial light. AF does not work properly ... K5ii is genious with M lenses using Catch-in-Focus technique or manually.

[@MarcoAries]

Interesting, I haven't had incompatibility issues with my M lenses or the F 70-200

[@KosmatiBohem]

@@MarcoAries Maybe my Kr has problems since early years. I bought new Kr and I remember buying Pentax-M few years later. DA18-55, DA50-200 and DA35 never had problems and they still operate well. Than I bought many new lenses and they started to play sporadically, but mostly new lenses that have to rely on internal motor. Screw Drive lenses pose less problems. Problems are various: when I press shutter instead of focusing rear LCD goes black and nothing happens. Another problem is that shutter does not finish operation and stay partially open. Or it sounds like double shutter action like in live view makes "double sound". After that next images are completelly unfocuded and overexposed. I need to pull out battery and that I hear sound like when live view is turned off when mirror slaps back down. And after that camera operates again. But since AF/MF button died recently and battery is started to fail, I do not care. That "mirror flap" problem and not working with M lenses came from earyl years of camera. Otehr described lenses might be due to bad battery or old camera. Internal battery already died few years ago and I replaced it myself. I have better cameras, like K5ii which is completelly another level.

[@MarcoAries]

@KosmatiBohem Yeah, sounds like the body has some issues

[@MichaelRusso]

More modern Pentax bodies should work with little issue. You can use a canon EOS body with M42 lenses (with a adapter), the focus conformation is good. Obviously a mirror-less camera with focus peaking is a charm.

[@MarcoAries]

Magnification and peaking are lifesavers! Eventually I'd like to get a modern Pentax body.

[@mike_lambert]

I came to digital from Pentax film DSLR's. I had the EI-2000, the IST* DS, K10D and K7. I loved them all and each one was unsurprisingly better than the last. So I had plenty of Pentax vintage glass and APS digital glass. But Pentax were annoying for 2 reasons 1. No full frame sensor 2. The weight/bulk of the bodies, which also seemed to get bigger and heavier with each new generation. I made the decision to move to Fuji after buying the X10, and have been with Fuji ever since, using Fuji glass and vintage Pentax glass. I also re-bought the IST*ds for dirt cheap recently out of nostalgia. It was wasn't that bad, and I'm going to take it out again! Anyway, what I'm trying to say is Pentax glass with Fuji or Sony mirrorless is a great combination. IMHO all the magic is in the glass and not in the sensors.

[@MarcoAries]

Fuji and Sony do indeed work really well with vintage lenses! I, too, don't like bulky bodies. The sensor, to me, is only a factor when it limits what I can do, like the limited dynamic range of the Kr

[@tomhills1690]

I bought a k-x following the same thought, and encountered the same problem from the focusing. Pentax really didn't do a good job. On the other hand, my Nikon D300 does focusing very well on old Nikon AI manual focus lenses. I guess it would be better to use a SONY mirrorless via an adapter.

[@MarcoAries]

Oh yes, adapting to Sony or Fuji mirrorless cameras is, in my opinion, the best way to use and enjoy vintage lenses on digital! I had a Nikon N70 (analog) and autofocus worked really well, but the lack of a split image made it very hard to focus manual lenses. Although, now that I think about it, it was still a little bit easier than the Kr...

[@albertjimenez7896]

I mainly adapt medium format lenses to earlier DSLRs since they are substantially simpler to focus than 35mm lenses, which are more difficult. It's understandable that Marco struggled to focus the older 35mm lenses. In conclusion, adapting medium format lenses to Nikon DSLRs is the most easy technique to acquire perfect focus with vintage lenses; nevertheless, it must be medium format optics.

[@MarcoAries]

I'll have to try, if I can get my hands on medium format lenses!

[@albertjimenez7896]

@@MarcoAries If you can buy a Nikon D700, I assure you'll get better contrast and color since it uses a Panasonic sensor, which is renowned to give amazing 3D pop. In addition, Nikon DSLRs provide outstanding focus confirmation, and almost all medium format lenses can be adapted to the Nikon F mount.

[@MarcoAries]

@albertjimenez7896 I'll keep that in mind 👍🏻

[@albertjimenez7896]

@@MarcoAries Mamiya 645 and Pentax 67 are very affordable with easy-to-find adapters.

[@MarcoAries]

I used to own a CZJ Biometar 80mm, it was a nice lens

[@philmtx3fr]

Hum strange… I don t really understand your issue. I used to mount my old Nikon AI lenses on my old dslr (nikon d100, d200 ) with no issue… the only potential problem is that with apsc old sensors you only use the center on the lens and if the lens was not so good (as designed for films and not high definition sensors) it can be a little weak and so contrast is affected. But if you use prime lenses no real issue.

[@MarcoAries]

The lenses are great, I use them often and the contrast is good. In the previous video I posted about this camera I used its kit lens and an F series 70-200 made for film cameras with autofocus and while af itself is very good I had the same issues focusing manually.

[@XXX-vy6xv]

I get much better results on my Pentax K3 or KP than on my older K30. Although it does depend on the purpose. Using them for landscape with liveview gets you excellent results. For casusl shooting though I do prefer using them on my Fuji where I get to have evf magnification. Really wonder though how they perform on a FF body since that's what they were designed for!

[@MarcoAries]

On full frame or film corner softness and vignetting at wider apertures tend to be more noticeable, but from f5.6 onwards you can't see much of a difference between FF and crop sensor

[@XXX-vy6xv]

@MarcoAries you're definitely getting the "better" part of a FF lens when used on apsc. But you miss out on bokeh and some of it's character (yes, even a small vignette could be described as part of the lens' character).