Boris, Sorry to dissapoint, but this lens lacks an "A" position. The logic in its omission is that the soft effect changes with aperture so Pentax thought it undesirable to use program or Tv mode. The lens's contemporary camera bodies could do Av or metered manual without the "A" setting, and body control of aperture was at the time unforeseen.
Sometime soon I really must get down to a store with my own F85 Soft and see how an *ist regards it, because even though it lacks an "A" button on the aperture ring it has "A" contacts on its mount. Because of its vintage its aperture actuating lever should have true linear proportionality (which does not exist on pre-A series lenses). IMO Pentax should retrofit these lenses with an "A" type aperture ring at a nominal cost, because they were so recently made. In fact the FA version was only dropped from the current lens list immediately before the *ist became available, and was outwardly identical except for the colour of the finish (black vs slate grey), was optically identical, and AFAIK only differed in having an MTF chip fitted. regards, Anthony Farr ----- Original Message ----- From: "Boris Liberman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Hi! > > On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:24:25 -0600 > "William Robb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Any post M series lens has the A position. This includes A series, F > >series and FA series lenses. > > > >William Robb > > I see. Well, I did not know that. But then I suppose it means that my > soon to arrive F 85/2.8 soft would have A position too. That's way > cool. > > Still, I am curious - what is the difference then between F and FA > lenses? Something to do with the way FA lenses "talk" to the camera > body? > > I am sorry I am taking this subject off-track, but I hope noone is > offended. > > Thanks. > > Boris >
