Experimenting with the manual settings

I only switched over to a digital SLR relatively recently, and haven't really learned how to use all the features that are on the camera. When I made the switch, I made sure to buy a Pentax, as my old film cameras were Pentax cameras, and I had a few lenses I didn't want to have to re-buy.

Every one told me not to do that, that I would really be able to use my old lenses, but the Pentax information indicated the contrary. And Pentax is correct.

It's taken me a long time to figure out how to do it, but you can indeed use the old, fully manual, lenses. Some would regard it as a bit of a chore, but in actuality, it's very similar to the method I first learned when I first started shooting 35 mm film, except the settings are entered through the electronic camera's settings. You set the speed electronically, and then the F Stop manually.

I hadn't operated a camera in this fashion for years and years. Both of my old 35 mm Pentax cameras were semi automatic, in that I did not have to previously set the Aperture speed, although I had learned to that with other cameras. And I found myself consulting, for the first time in over 30 years, a light meter, although a light meter that was downloaded as an Application for my Ipod. In this fashion, I can now use my old big Vivitar telephoto lens.

The zoom lens that came with my last Pentax 35 mm camera (which my wife bought me after I badly damaged the aforementioned camera) has an Automatic setting and it requires much less effort. You just affix the lens and camera is ready to go, but you have to manually focus it.

Anyhow, this has been a neat experience. I really love the new digital Pentax, but I have a lot to learn to use it. And I still feel that the first of the two 35mm Pentax cameras I had took the best pictures of the three, but it's very nice not to have to be aware of how close to 25 photographs I am at any one time, and frankly it's cheaper not to have to develop all that film. Chances are, once I get fully rolling on it, the new digital camera will prove as good of camera as the first 35 mm did, and I'm sure taking a lot of photographs with it, as this blog generally shows (although there's a few 35mm shots on here, to be sure).

Anyhow, this is just a shot of a corner of the backyard, the first successful shot with my old Vivitar telephoto lens.