On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 01:13:10PM -0500, Bruce Walker wrote: # Larry Colen wrote: # >Howdy folks, # # Howdy, Larry! :-) # # # >My latest gear acquisition is a katzeye focusing screen # >which to someone who grew up with manual focus, is like growning an # >arm back. # # That's particularly interesting to me because I too have a K100D Super,
Wow! Actual photography related discussion! # I do a bunch of low-light shooting at f2.8 where manual focusing is a # must, but is hard to do and *really* unreliable--I end up with lots of # soft shots. (I'm hoping the AF situation is a little better with the # K20D, but I'm also not holding my breath on that.) My technique has been to use autofocus to prefocus on my target, then use the "OK" button to lock the focus in until I need to refocus or shoot. # # But I thought that I was going to have to wait until I got a K20D (or # K10D) to use any focusing screen like the Katzeye because I was under # the impression that among a few other shortcomings, the K100D and Super # were not supported for replaceable focusing screens. There's "supported" and there's replacable. # # Was it involved or tricky to open up the viewfinder to install the Katzeye? Now that I've done it a couple of times, it's easy and only takes about 5 minutes. You can download the instructions from the katzeye site: http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/install6.pdf I didn't have poweder free gloves (thought I did) so I went to do it just with the tweezers provided. It worked like a champ until I was trying to position the new screen and knocked the shim out. Long story short, in trying to do it without touching the screen, I dropped the screen on the table and got dust on it. Lessons learned: Get the powder free gloves ahead of time, in case you need/want to pick the scree up with your hands. Do a better job than I did of cleaning the work area. Get regular tweezers or the like handy in case the shim falls out. Get optibright coating. Since I'm planning on upgrading when the K30 comes out, I decided to save the $40 and not get the optibright. I figured I'd try i tout on this camera, and decide what I want to spend money on when I upgrade. When I put my bigma on, the center is noticably darker. It takes practice to get used to manually focusing again. I did some informal tests and it looks like focus is spot on with it: http://flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157612815878972/ # # Thanks! # # -bmw # # -- # PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List # [email protected] # http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net # to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and # follow the directions. -- It's not the steps in the dance, it's the dance in the steps. Larry Colen [email protected] http://www.red4est.com/lrc -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
