K-r Service Manual

Someone at the PF forum uploaded the manual in two parts and it is available for download here and here.

For your reference and use just in case. And, it can be appreciated that how sophisticated a DSLR could be, for all those adjustments that required or provided.

The LA-KE1 Monster Adapter is now Put On Sale

The Chinese Taobao website has already had the Chinese made LA-KE1 adapter put on sale (click here for one of the product links).

B&H also accepts pre-orders for this product and I think it will be available in the US very soon.

However, it can be seen in the comment section of the above Taobao product link from the users who have already purchased the adapter about the various issues such as its power hungriness and overheating, not supporting quite some Pentax AF lenses including the film FA50/1.4 and the digital DA17-70 and DA*200, as well as some noticeable delay in AF with the FA Limited lenses (and the AF is not quite smooth, too) and etc.

I hope this adapter will be improved later for better performance and compatibility, by means of firmware update and/or hardware revision. Not until that I shall consider to buy one for playing and use of my existing Pentax glass with my Sony FF mirrorless body.

The LA-KE1 is Delayed

See this previous announcement made by the manufacturer, the LA-KE1 is delayed:

https://m.weibo.cn/status/4587145295306882

(in Simplified Chinese)

The reason of the delay is about the shortage of chipset used in the adapter. It was promised that the first batch of the adapters should be shipped by 1 Feb.

Let's wait and see how it works and performs.

Confirmed SAFOX 13 Layout (in K-3 III)

13 x 9 AF point matrix with 16 points omitted near centre, 41 selectable points

Source: Chinese Pentax Quick News

(with also some dissection photos of the new body in article)

Monster Adaptor (Pentax K to Sony E) Pre-production Reviews

 1. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4ekKr7wJePbjEOcf01lWaA

(in Simplified Chinese, Google English translated page here - but there will be no picture nor video as the Weixin server has disabled hot-linking from other websites)

The video clips for the AF tests with the FA31 are dead links anyway.

2. The below YouTube video tested the Monster Adaptor with the DFA*85/1.4 lens, it seems that the new SDM motor as well as the KAF4 electromagnetic aperture are both well supported by this version of the adaptor:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz_5huMytRo)

The AF speed and response of the combo looks good.

Ultimate Savior for Pentaxians who Had been Hoping for a True K-mount Mirrorless (with Eye-AF etc.)

 A Chinese adaptor manufacturer has announced (Google translated English here) the world first full function K-mount to Sony E-mount adaptor, which will be made available by the end of this year 2020 (and is earlier than the launch date of the upcoming K-3 III)!

This adaptor will have screw-driving AF motor and aperture motor built-in and will support full auto functions of all K-mount lenses (possibly without any aperture block problem ;-P). The manufacturer states that the adaptor will first support A/F/FA/DA/DFA lenses which are screw-driven for the AF and will support SDM/DC/PLM AF function at a later stage via firmware upgrade.

They also mounted the three FA limited onto a Sony A7 III body via their adoptor, of which the combos look really tempting! :-D

And, their also shown a "video" to show the AF in action with the FA77 Limited, which the AF speed seems reasonably good enough, as long as the animated gif was not accelerated. ;-)

After all, I will almost certainly buy this adaptor (as I bought my A7 III two years ago) and still own more than three dozens of the Pentax or K-mount lenses (and most of them are AF ones). Possibly I shall skip and not buy the K-3 III as I found my KP is actually better for my use and shooting style. :-(

Related:  My Pentax Lenses are Given Completely New Lives!

Replacing the Defective Rechargeable Battery for Pentax DSLR's Date/Time/Settings Memory

The below captions are self-explanatory and can be followed step-by-step:

Credits: https://polonai.se/scrapbook/pentax-k-r-date-time-forget-fix/index.html

Via post in the Cinese Xitek Pentax forum, with additional illustrating photos.

Debug Mode Access Method for K-1 II

1. Create on SD card file "00078400.597" with "[OPEN_DEBUG_MENU]" and LF char.

2. Create on SD card file "DEVELOP.MOD" exact 10 bytes long with binary content:
For Development Menu 1-6: 07 01 2C 1F 10 03 1E 16 05 2D
For Development Menu 1-7: 07 1A 02 0A 19 18 1B 1C 05 11
Use hexeditor to enter these bytes.

3. Turn off camera, plugin this SD card. Leave card door open. Hold "menu" button and turn camera on.

Via bootcoder @ DPR Forum

The binary file by bootcoder is also made available by him here.

Debug Mode Access to All Pentax Bodies (including K-1)

http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1599238-1-1-1.html

In Simplified Chinese, clear instructions are given, debug mode files are available for download .

Mod a DA*60-250 into a FF Lens! :-o

http://info.xitek.com/product/201604/20-197099.html

In Chinese, Google translate yourself if interested. And, do anything at your own risk!!

Disassembling a FA 28-70 Lens

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1686062

A Good K-s2 Quick Overview

http://history.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/02/17/231127
(in Japanese)

Different non-standard colour schemes are shown. New features and functions are briefed.

K-3 Debug Mode and Menu

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/273233-pentax-k-3-debug-menu-fyi.html

The K-3 Debug Mode

This is how you enter:

Create 2 files in the root of SD card (Make sure your computer shows the file endings, i.e .txt, .PEF, . JPG etc)

00077760.502
DEVELOP.MOD

Open and add the text [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] to the first file.

Insert the SD card in slot 1 and turn on the camera without closing the card door.

Enable Debug Mode and press OK. You can now remove the files.

In the Menus, before the C1-menu, you now will find a hidden menu.

Someone entered the Debug Mode has found the way to change the language of the camera menu which was originally locked, here. That must be great! :-D




Update: A more detailed step-by-step instruction with screen captures can be found here (originally in Traditional Chinese, Google Translated to English).

This is What the Limited Lenses Should be Put Onto 2!

http://forum.xitek.com/thread-1275234-2-1-1.html
(in Simplified Chinese)


Last Related:

This is What the Limited Lenses Should be Put Onto!

Adapt "All" Lenses onto a Pentax K-mount DSLR

http://www.pentaxforums.com/news/pentax-k-multi-mount-pkmm-giveaway.html

I think this camera hack is wonderful if it really works! :-o However, the most unfortunate thing is that there is no Full Frame body of any in K-mount, implying all adapted lenses will be cropped, defeating all their original designed purposes.

The Pentax L43 Special (L39-mount) Put onto the A7

Via: http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/the-rumor-counterattack-from-fuji-full-frame-x200-coming-in-2014/

Wow!


Related: 

This is What the Limited Lenses Should be Put Onto!

AF Fine Adjustment: "Apply All" and "Apply One" Fully Explained

Quite some time ago, I explained how to focus adjust a K-5 camera using Live View. However, there are some confusions amongst Pentax users over time for the meanings and effects of the "Apply All" and "Apply One" settings. So, I opt to explain more this time. Well, the user manual tells nothing useful about these once again, just see page 126 of the K-5 user manual! >:-(

For a camera like the K-5 and K-30/50/500 which lacks a f/2.8 sensors, this "AF Fine Adjustment" is crucial so as to compensate the spherical aberration that exists on all lenses when stopped down against wide opened, which causes the camera to mis-focus depending on the amount of differences. It is because the AF system actually measures the more central part of the lenses optically for those f/5.6 AF sensors.

So, here we go, we have four scenarios:

1. Nothing is Set:



This is essentially the same as to set in the Custom Function that the "AF Fine Adjustment" is Turned Off / Disabled.

2. "Apply All" is Set but "Apply One" Not:



So, All lenses will use the "+5" setting as shown in the above example which is obvious. Do note that a +ve setting is meant to instruct the camera to focus fronter (to compensate back focusing) and vice versa for a "-ve" value to instruct the camera to focus backwards (to compensate front focusing).

3."Apply All" is Not Set and "Apply One" is Set (for Individual Lenses):



This is also obvious, the "Apply One" setting will take effect when individual lens is mounted of which the lens identity number is detected (for a Pentax F AF lens or later). So, I now know why the official user manual just tells you "Apply All" means apply all, "Apply One" means apply one or something like that but no more! ;-p

Choose this only if your camera does not contain any AF error primitively by itself, like my own K-5 unit which is a perfect copy already! :-D

4. Both "Apply All" and "Apply One" are Set:



Well, what does it mean under this case? Is it actually +2, +5 or +7?? What do you think? :-o For what I checked, it is actually +2, that means that the "Apply One" setting overrides the "Apply All". Whilst this does make sense somehow but however, the "Apply One" is not applied on top of the "Apply All" as many Pentax users wished!

Btw, if you have a copy of your Pentax camera which needs some slight adjustment by itself for *all* lenses, i.e. sample variations with some system errors, set both and remember to individually calibrate all your lenses unless the "Apply All" already works for all your lenses, i.e. scenario #2! Frankly, if you have more prime lenses like me, calibrating each lens is inevitably unavoidable!

Last but not least, some people would be puzzled for what to do with a cheap DAL or even "DA" lenses which does not have a focusing mark (namely, the DA35/2.4, DA50/1.8 and the DA40/2.8XS lens). Well, what you need to do is to put on a sticker and make the mark yourself before doing any further calibration! See the following example. :-)



Besides, some people would still wonder, do the K-5II/s need such "AF Fine Adjustment"? My answer is Yes, if you are using really Fast Prime like the DA*55/1.4 or just an old FA50/1.4 and etc., of which spherical aberration still occurs in between the widest aperture of f/1.4 down right to the f/2.8 aperture where the AF is detected and measured. So, the above techniques do still always apply! And also don't forget that not every copy of the K-5II/s is perfectly quality controlled when it was produced from the Pentax' (and now Ricoh's) factory.

Metz 58AF-1 Hotshoe Upgrade (Old to New Version, from Plastic to Metal, plus New PCB)

Read this:-

http://www.pentaxfans.net/thread-138657-1-1.html
(in Traditional Chinese, but posted pictures are self-explanatory.)



So, the hotshoe base material has been changed, from plastic to metal. The PCB inside/underneath has been updated too. It can be seen that the whole circuit board design has completely been revamped.

Speaking of those Metz flashguns for Pentax, last time they released an update of the firmwares for their newer models that enabled the HSS on the newer Pentax bodies but there existed a major bug that caused the A and M modes disabled. They soon released an updated version of 4.1 which contained the bug fix very shortly. For instance, the following link is the firmware download page for the 58 AF-2 flash:

http://www.metz.de/en/flash-units/firmware-download-flash-units/mecablitz-58-af-2-digital/pentax.html

After the above was released, I have checked on the web for the feedbacks from some Pentax users that the firmware update does work for them and there is no other major bug and issue found and reported so far.

Copy 120 Films Using an ILDC/DSLR with a Macro Lens

First inspired by Petapixel, this is what I have tried and done myself:-

1. These are the tools that I've used: A white fluorescent desklamp at 6000K, two 77mm UV multi-coated filters, a lens hood with outer diameter in 77mm, some "white" milky transparent paper:-



2. Turn on the lamp, mine is a Panasonic with invertor circuitry which enables the lamp operated at a high frequency:-



3. Put on the "diffuser", I have made three folds of the same plastic sheet:-



* Do the custom white balance at this point with your camera. Mine was measured to be at 4600K exactly, after adding the diffuser, which is yet somehow yellowish.

4. The 120 film is then put inside the two filters, which are in the same size of 77mm. The film fits just well with that filter size. The two filters are screwed tight and the film is sandwished inside (although it is not completely flat, though, but the final DoF should be enough to cover this unevenness):-





5. Align at the position and then put on the lens hood with proper length, so as to match the magnification of the whole film frame to fit in the digital image frame and size of the camera:-





6. Find a wide angle macro lens. I am using the Sony E30/3.5 Macro on a NEX. Experiment with the subject to camera distance. I found and added another lens hood so as to make it just right for the image magnification:-



7. Take the photo with steady hands. It is preferable that everything can be screwed together although my above setup doesn't. Adhesive tape may help but I did the following unfixed. Here is the raw result:-


(Above: Pentax 645N with FA645 45mm/2.8, Fuji Provia 100F. For original picture with full EXIF, click and download here. Warning: Large File!)

8. Crop the photo and here is a clean and "complete" scan of the film:-


(For original picture with full EXIF, click and download here. Warning: Large File!)

9. If you want to compare the result for a scan from a lab machine, here is what I got from the lab which scanned my film after the film development:-


(For original photo with full EXIF, click and download here. Warning: Very Large File!)

10. The above lab scan is in 17MPs originally and mine is less than 14MPs for what my NEX could deliver (as after cropping it is less). You may note some vignetting is introduced in my "scan" as my NEX is an old model which could not correct lens vignetting in-camera. But the advantage of scanning the film by oneself is that more things can be adjusted/controlled including the White Balance, Contrast and Colour Profile and etc., which is important IMO. Also, to get the best results, a higher pixel count camera with better image quality should be used and do shoot in RAW mode, which will give you the flexibility of further post-processing for higher image quality and better results.

Modding a K Body into a R Mount One

Watch this Video for how to do it:-

http://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/102350636-2028510075.html

Via: Sina Weibo (all in Chinese, aka "micro blog").

Wow, what a workmanship! :-o  Now, all the Leica lenses of that user can be mounted directly without any adaptor needed.
 
Nonetheless, I think the use of a Leica-R to Pentax-K adaptor (widely available) is still preferable, which is simple, not destructive and most importantly, K-mount lenses can still be mounted and used, unless that user decided not to use any K-mount lenses on his Pentax DSLR anymore! :-(