Digital Cameras and Old Screw Mount Lenses

[admin]

Jeff, I have an old Pentax SP 1000 with Slr and telephoto lenses that are screw mount. Is there any way to use these lenses on a new digital camera base or am I whistling Dixie?

[cjj]

The Pentax SP1000 had a M42x1 thread mount. There are adapters made which can adapt this to other brands such as Canon and Nikon, but automatic controls (such as auto aperture) may not work. Also, due to differences in lens placement after the adapter is installed, full focus range may not be possible.

Here's some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M42_lens_mount

[admin]

Thanks CJ, it looks as if it may be the end of the road for this idea.

[cjj]

In reality, there aren't a lot of reasons to try to reuse old lenses with new digital SLRs. I say that after just buying a new Nikon digital SLR specifically so I can reuse some of my old lenses. Of course, I've got several thousand dollars worth of pro level lenses, so being able to use those did end up being worthwhile (I think). In any case, it would have cost me a lot to get similar quality replacements.

One of the big changes, even going with the same brand is that the image sensor sizes are often not the same as a 35mm frame. There are cameras with full sized sensors, but they tend to cost a LOT more than the smaller size and the only real advantage, as far as I can tell, is that you can use 35mm lenses and get the same field of view as before. For instance, the camera I have has a smaller sensor. It ends up having a 1.5x "crop factor", so a 50mm lens, because of the smaller area looks like it is really a 76mm since it is "zoomed in" on a smaller part of the lens image. Here's some info on that:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/crop-factor.htm

Now, there are lenses made specifically for these cameras with the smaller sensors, which eliminate the crop factor and everything just works like you would expect. So, unless you have a huge investment in top quality lenses, you're probably better off just buying a complete setup that's all made to work together.

The site I mentioned above has a lot of good info/reviews on different cameras, etc. I have no affiliation, I just found it very useful in figuring out what I wanted and whether things would be compatible...
http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm

[jps]

What my surrogate, CJ, said! I would keep the Pentax SP 1000 for when you want to shoot b&w film , and go full bore with a modern digital system with it's own lenses, partly due to the way the light is refracted from the rear of the lens towards the film/sensor. Flare and edge/corner sharpness can be adversely affected by the old lenses on these digital sensors. Shari still uses her father's Pentax SP with a range of lenses to good effect.

[jingle_jangle]

Could I have that in English, pleez?

[jps]

Sounds like SPAM, huh?

[winston]

Obviously Snarky is not his real name and so he has gone away and so has his post.