Older Pentax lenses

[foiler]

I have an old Pentax H model I bought in Japan in 1962. Works great still today. Have never had a single bit of problem with it. With the camera body I bought 3 lenses. A 50mm, 135mm and 250mm. The 50 and 135 are auto/manuel. My question is, can these lenses be used on todays digital SLR type cameras? The are the old screw mount lenses. My wife wants a digital camera since we have a computer, grown children with digital camers and grandkids all using the internet and emailing pictures so easily from their cameras. I guess I have to step into the 21st century. I'm afraid if I go digital my old H model will collect dust. So I'm hoping I can salvage the lenses, maybe sell the camera body and leather camera bag that goes with it. This is probably a simply question for the experts in here. Thank you in advance.

[ken1953]

Hi foiler. Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid your question is above me, but I don't think screw mounts will fit without some sort of adapter, but like I said, I'm not all that knowledgeable on the older models. Hopefully someone can let you know for sure, but, film is still very popular and you could still make good use of your H model. Please keep us up to date on your future upgrade to digital. Pentax is really giving the other major manufacturers a run for their money. I'm an avid Pentaxian owning both film digital Pentax's. I never really learned to use my film Pentax because I couldn't afford the film and processing fees, but I loved the shots I did get with my older cameras.
I now own the *ist DL and I try to use my older lenses occasionally as they offer opportunities my digital lenses don't.
Good luck and I look forward to hearing more from you and your wife.

[danic]

Hey foiler,

You can pick up an adapter from ebay, pretty cheap. You will loose all metering, if your lenses had it to begin with. But in a nut shell, they will work

[foiler]

Thank you for your replys. I will look into the adapter thing. I do know these lens are quite expensive to replace. My Pentax is an Ashai 'H' model. The where in direct competition with Nikon in those days. Ken, if I wanted to put a photo up on this board how do I do that? I'm not very good with this computer stuff. I understand the email attaching business. There's a icon to do it, but I dont see that here.

[jgredline]

Foiler, Welcome to the forum!!!
Danic is correct, so I will not add to that. What I do want to do is add a little bit more to Kens post...Film indeed does seem to be making a comeback and more in the Pentax world in part because allot of it has to do with the great old lenses and great film scanners and great software...In particular black and white....Simply look around the forum...Don't shelf the film camera...

[jgredline]

I should also add that I have been using my K1OOO more than my digital of late...I love it!

[ken1953]

Hi Foiler...there are a couple of ways of doing it. 1. You can link to a picture either from your user gallery here on PR or from another server. If you use another server, you will want to make sure that it is online fulltime. If you look above the area where you are typing in your comments, you will see an icon that looks like a blue world w/ a chain link in front of it. Just paste the link in the area provided. 2. You can just put a pic in with the icon that looks like mountains w/ the sun (or to me like a letter w/ a stamp). With this method, you are limited to size and number of photos. The size is 640x640, I think. It might be 600x600...but, it won't let you upload the wrong size, so it may be trial and error.
FYI...your PR gallery doesn't limit your size, but you want to be careful as even here on PR, people have been known to steal photos. So try to use lower quality settings for your posted pics so people cannot use them without some degradation.
This does not happen often and we all have our differing opinions of people stealing our photos. So, just understand, it's a great way to display your photos, but there could be issues if you post your shots at highest quality.
Hope this helps.

[foiler]

Thanks Ken. I've never been able to figure out that 'url' stuff. All my photos are scanned into my computer files. I really dont know how that relates to a 'url' link. So, I'll probably not post photo's here. I'm a mechanical type person so this computer stuff isnt very 'intuitive' to me.
.

[foiler]

I think I just screwed up. I thought the 'gallery' was a file folder I could up load photo's to that I could use as attachements to these posts. Instead they got put up on a public gallery which I dont want. How do I take them down.

[ken1953]

Foiler,
Don't know what you did, but I kind of screwed up my directions...To post directly from your hard drive, you must "Go Advanced". Just click on the link and it will take you to the advanced screen. Then scroll down to UPLOAD PHOTOS. Here you can browse to the picture on your computer. Make sure you have preshrunk them to 640x640 or less as it will not allow you to upload larger pics.
The links in the "Quick Reply" utilize URL links. The "add link" will insert a link to the picture or site. The "add picture" will actually place the pic in your post.
As for URL links...I personally just go to the actual picture or site, already posted on the web or your gallery, I then copy the URL in the address box, and go back to my post and click on one of the "add ?" icons and paste my link. Or you can actually type it...but I find it easier to copy and paste.
Try these...it's easier than you think...and once you do it...you'll never think it's hard again.
Good luck...PM me if you still have probs. Just click on my "User Profile" link or picture and it will take you to my profile page. Use the email function and not the PM function as my pm box is pretty full.