On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 02:08:40PM -0700, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > Yes, it certainly is another thing, John. > > I knew the DS could be used in full manual mode, but I did not know that it > could be done with an auto focus lens. And I'm not sure that feature was > available with firmware versions earlier than 2.0
Oh, indeed it was - with the original firmware, on the first DS shipped. Just as it was on the *ist-D, right from the first day. Those cameras were designed to work with AF lenses, but they've always offered a full manual mode (together with Av, Tv & full Program modes). It's described in the manual on page 138-139. And, more to the point, there's an "M" marking on the Mode dial on top of your camera - that didn't get there as part of a firmware upgrade, and it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that the mode, and the marking, are only for backwards compatibility with old lenses. In addition, as has been mentioned here, many times, any lens off the "A" position behaves just about the same as a pre-"A" lens, and will function in the Hyper-Manual mode (using the AE-L/Green Button triggered metering). That, too, was available on the DS right from the initial release, and is also described in the *ist-DS manual. (The first *ist-D firmware didn't implement the "green button" stop-down metering for the pre-"A" lenses, but that was well before the DS arrived).
