Digital Camera for beginner Please Help !!!!!

[mickdoyle]

Hi , I was just wondering if anyone would know what digital camera would be good if you were a beginner.

I have used a Pantex manual camera before , still have actually but i have a lot of sigma lenses used by pantex

manual camera and want a digital camera that i could use the sigma lenses with , do sigma lenses work only with

pantex or are they generic, as in can be used with any make?

If you have any recommendations or advise please please please HELP ME!!!!

Yours Kindly

Michael Doyle.

[Manfred M]

If you have the Pentax K mount lenses, I believe any Pentax camera built since 1975 can use them. I believe that Pentax uses in body stabilization, so this is a good feature as well, whith your old lenses. Depending on the age of the lenses they might have autofocus capabilities too. The Sigmas with the K mount will only work on Pentax cameras. I believe Samsung also uses this mount, but am not 100% sure how compatible it is with older Pentax lenses.

[ajohnw]

There is a pentax forum on the web that google should find easily. There is all sorts of info kicking about on the site. I would look there to be sure or ask. My understanding is that Providing you buy a Pentax dslr you should be ok unless you have screw thread lenses.

This page probably gives accurate info. There are many Pentax pages on the wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentax_lenses

In my view using the older K mount lenses on the modern body may only have one problem. I understand but only from comments from others that the built in image stabilisation on the digital bodies only works when the shot is taken. It probably works during auto focus as well when modern lenses are on it. The lack of image stability can make manually focusing long lenses hand held difficult. The image stability will probably cope when the shot is taken but out of focus steady shots aren't much use. How long a lens depends on just how steady you are.

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[altopiet]

Any Pentax lenses that you've used on SLR film Pentax cameras in the past, will work on Pentax DSLR cameras. You might not have all the advantages of newer auto lenses, but if you are used to shooting with old manual lenses, it should not be a problem. http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/p...x-dslrs-f.html.
http://www.robertsdonovan.com/?p=1181:)

EDIT: Samples from various old lenses currently in use on Pentax DSLR cameras
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/l...tart-here.html

[Tringa]

Hello Michael,

I have a Pentax DSLR and a few old Pentax K mount lenses dating from the late 1970s/early 1980s.

As already mentioned all Pentax K mount lenses made from about 1975 onwards will fit all current Pentax DSLRs. There is some concern about Pentax K mount lenses made by Ricoh, have a look here -

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-99.html

but other than that I have not heard of any problems.

The degree of automation you will get when using an old lens on a Pentax DSLR varies. Autofocus is relatively new so most old lenses will be manual focus.

In some cases the loss of auto focus may be very important - eg birds in flight, but for other situations, such as landscape/architectural work, probably not.

Manually focussing via the viewfinder with many DSLRs is not as easy as it was many years ago when a split image screen was the norm, but it is by no means impossible and in some circumstances live view can be used.

If the old lens is an "A" lens, ie it has an "A" on the aperture ring after the highest f number then the aperture will be controlled by the camera and apart from focussing manually it will function just like a modern lens. If it is not an "A" lens then it will not stop down automatically and will operate at the widest aperture. This can make it interesting to get a shot but there are ways to get around it.

This link gives a good guide to using old lenses on Pentax DSLRs -

http://www.robertsdonovan.com/?p=1181


Using old lenses on modern DSLRs is always going to be more work than with modern lenses but the difficulties are not insurmountable.

There are some good lenses out there and often they are cheap.

Pentax DSLRs do have the image stabilisation in the camera body so any lens used, no matter how old, becomes an image stabilised lens.

The lens I use most after my kit lens is a 70-210mm Sigma zoom that I bought in about 1980. Its an A lens so all I need to do is focus it manually. The third photo in this link is an example of a shot taken with it.

Shetland

Hope this has helped a bit.

Dave

[ajohnw]

Hello Dave. Perhaps you can settle something for me. Does the in body image stabilisation work during manual focusing on any of their cameras? I had heard that it didn't.

On focusing screens the most useful one was a fine matt on the bulk of the screen and some arrangement of micro prism and a another matt. Both of these in a circle. I did have one with a range finder screen too. From memory and not entirely clearly those go jet black at some light level so weren't all that popular. Micro prisms stop working at some point too but remain clear. The idea of the 2 matt surfaces was to always have something that would work. The micro prism might not work in what I would call living room light. Fairly sure about the range finder split screen types as I recently found I had an old film screw thread yashica complete with an interesting lens.

Taking Canon screens now I can blur backgrounds slightly with some certainty but I feel they suffer due to being moulded in plastic and I don't see why they can't add 2 matts and a micro prism area to them while still retaining AF.

With focusing on birds in flight manually get ahead slightly and follow when they catch up or take the shot. Not too difficult with practice.

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[Manfred M]

Hello Dave. Perhaps you can settle something for me. Does the in body image stabilisation work during manual focusing on any of their cameras? I had heard that it didn't.

I've read that they do work as Pentax (like Sony and Olympus) have gone for in-body stabilization, so it will work on any lens.

I feel they suffer due to being moulded in plastic and I don't see why they can't add 2 matts and a micro prism area to them while still retaining AF.

My understanding is that they have always been plastic; moulding the sharp fresnel lens and other prismatic patterns in glass used in the manual focusing could not be done from a technical standpoint because of flow and strength issues with glass.

That being said, I agree that even with high end DSLRs the new focusing screens are not great for manual work. I pretty well always use the screen and magnify the view to help me with the focus. What surprises me a bit is that they have not included a peaking function like in higher end video recorders to help with this. With the push for video capabilites, one would have thought this is one of those "bells an whistles" that would have made sense.

[ajohnw]

On the in body stabilisation Manfred the Pens most certainly only have it when the camera is actually taking a shot and for an extremely short period when it AF's. I'd say 1 sec max. I'm told it's the same on a Pentax but wanted to check. It only really matters on mirror less cameras like the Pen's as there is some hope of focusing with a mirror and a focusing screen. Not so mirror less as the resolution is dramatically reduced by the electronic view. To get round that the view needs to be magnified. 7x is a useful one on a 12mp Pen so even a 50mm lens behaves in the hand like a 350mm. Try a 100 to 200 zoom and it becomes a 700 to 1400mm as far as the view is concerned. It's even difficult to be sure that the subject is still framed. and that is for the 1.4mp view finder. The 640kp camera screen is even worse. It doesn't matter of course because the AF always gets it right. Must be kidding. It might.

Sony use in lens stabilisation as far as I'm aware.

My impression was from looking at and touching screens that they were glass but maybe they are some hard form of plastic. The one in the yashica I mentioned feels like glass. There is a company that modifies screens for use on other cameras. They show the effects. If the link doesn't go straight there look for screen comparisons under canon 5d. The photo's of the view are at the bottom of that page.

http://www.focusingscreen.com/privacy.php

I did have a split image slr at one stage. Shutter in lens to so flash sync at all speeds. Very impressed with it's ability to focus very precisely but did find out why most use micro prism eventually. Micro prism stops twinkling under low light as well but the problems aren't so bad.

just can't imagine how people got on with manual focus cameras and low iso film. Full apperture metering helped a lot.

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[Tringa]

Yes, the image stabilisation in Pentax DSLRs does work with manual lenses. It (and I suppose all image stabilisation systems) is based on the focal length of the lens. This information is obtained automatically via the lens/camera electrical contacts.

For older lenses, without electrical contacts, the focal length is input by the menu system on the camera.

Dave

[ajohnw]

Hello Dave. The Pens are the same. A menu entry for focal length but no IS when manually focusing even with an AF lens on. It only functions during the actual shot and for a very brief period before. People use Panasonic lenses for longer focal lengths on them to get round this. It seems that the latest still to be released Pen will recognise that a Panasonic lens is on and switch the in body one off. It has to be done via the menu on the existing ones.

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[Tringa]

I think I misunderstood part of this thread earlier. I reckon the IS in Pentax DSLRs works in the same way, ie as the shutter is pressed. You cannot see the effect of the IS in the viewfinder, which is initially a little disconcerting, but it does work.

Dave