Pentax DS

BTW, something else I often find useful is to leave the camera in Av mode
and not do anything at else differently than you would with a fully
automatic lens. This will set shutter speed as it normally would when you
press the shutter half way, based on the current aperture the lens is
physically opened to, which is always wide open regardless of the setting on
the lens. The result is that all your shots come out at maximum aperture
but perfectly exposed, without having to mess with the AE-L button or the
DOF preview. It turns your camera into a fixed-aperature point & shoot.
Sure, you don't always want maximum aperture. But for me - and I imagine
many others - one of the most common reasons I ever put a manual lens on the
camera is to get a wider aperture than the ordinary zoom lenses give me (eg,
for shooting in low light). In such situations, I generally *want* it to go
as wide as it can. If I need to stop down, I can always switch to M mode
and do the whole DOF preview / AE-L thing.

---------------
Marc Sabatella


The Outside Shore
Music, art, & educational materials:
http://www.outsideshore.com/

"Marc Sabatella" wrote in message
...
BTW, something else I often find useful is to leave the camera in Av mode
and not do anything at else differently than you would with a fully
automatic lens. This will set shutter speed as it normally would when you
press the shutter half way, based on the current aperture the lens is
physically opened to, which is always wide open regardless of the setting
on
the lens. The result is that all your shots come out at maximum aperture
but perfectly exposed, without having to mess with the AE-L button or the
DOF preview. It turns your camera into a fixed-aperature point & shoot.
Sure, you don't always want maximum aperture. But for me - and I imagine
many others - one of the most common reasons I ever put a manual lens on
the
camera is to get a wider aperture than the ordinary zoom lenses give me
(eg,
for shooting in low light).

While that may be true for some, many use them because they like the
sharpness of these prime lenses.


In such situations, I generally *want* it to go
as wide as it can. If I need to stop down, I can always switch to M mode
and do the whole DOF preview / AE-L thing.

---------------
Marc Sabatella


The Outside Shore
Music, art, & educational materials:
http://www.outsideshore.com/

"Marc Sabatella" wrote:

BTW, something else I often find useful is to leave the camera in Av
mode
The result is that all your shots come out at
maximum aperture but perfectly exposed

Some semantic confusion here deserving clarification: At the moment of
metering and exposure in Av mode, the lens DOES stop down to whatever
aperture you set, after letting you focus wide open. Your shots are NOT
"coming out at maximum aperture" if you had previously set a smaller
aperture.

--
Anti-Spam address: my last name at his dot com
Charles Gillen -- Reston, Virginia, USA

On 1 Aug 2005 18:15:13 -0400, Charles Gillen
wrote:

BTW, something else I often find useful is to leave the camera in Av
mode
The result is that all your shots come out at
maximum aperture but perfectly exposed

Some semantic confusion here deserving clarification: At the moment of
metering and exposure in Av mode, the lens DOES stop down to whatever
aperture you set, after letting you focus wide open. Your shots are NOT
"coming out at maximum aperture" if you had previously set a smaller
aperture.

Not so. Only lenses with an "A" position - and set to "A" -
will be stopped down to the aperture set on the camera body.
If any lens ("A" or not) is set to any aperture on the
aperture ring it will *not* be stopped down in any mode
other than "M". In particular in Av mode it will always be
used wide-open.

--
Regards

John Bean

In article ,
Charles Gillen wrote:
"Marc Sabatella" wrote:

BTW, something else I often find useful is to leave the camera in Av
mode
The result is that all your shots come out at
maximum aperture but perfectly exposed

Some semantic confusion here deserving clarification: At the moment of
metering and exposure in Av mode, the lens DOES stop down to whatever
aperture you set, after letting you focus wide open. Your shots are NOT
"coming out at maximum aperture" if you had previously set a smaller
aperture.

Not so - you're adding to the confusion, not providing clarification.

While lenses set to the "A" position do behave as you have described,
this is not true for the older lenses under discussion, which have no
"A" position on the aperture ring. These will meter (and expose) at
full aperture when used on a *ist-D/DS set to the Av mode, no matter
what aperture is selected on the aperture ring on the lens.

Some semantic confusion here deserving clarification: At the moment of
metering and exposure in Av mode, the lens DOES stop down to whatever
aperture you set, after letting you focus wide open. Your shots are NOT
"coming out at maximum aperture" if you had previously set a smaller
aperture.

As others have observed, this isn't true of fully manual lenses with the
camera in Av mode. Still, the thought of that possibility makes me nervous
enough that I do generally try to make sure the aperture ring on the lens to
the maximum position, just in case...

---------------
Marc Sabatella


The Outside Shore
Music, art, & educational materials:
http://www.outsideshore.com/