[OFB Cafe] Photographers?

[dep]

said Donald R Spoon:
| Back in the mid 1970s I collected some lenses for my Pentax 35mm SLR
| camera.  I have a big zoom (out to 210mm IIRC) and another smaller one
| that does macro stuff, I think.  I know for sure they were screw mount
| for the Pentax camera body.
|
| Anyway, can anybody tell me if they would work on any modern Digital
| cameras?  If not, is there any market for any of that old 35 mm SLR
| stuff?  I know I am not giving very specific info, but I would have to
| dig through a couple of moves worth of boxes to find them...

i'd just about bet that the ?-210 was the 70-210 vivitar, a very popular 
and surprisingly good lens.

i don't think there are any screw-mount digital cameras. reason is, it 
would be very difficult to get all the contacts to line up correctly for 
the many things the lens is expected to do in an automated camera. you'll 
note that the automatic diaphragm in pentax screw-mount lenses is actuated 
by a pin sticking out of the camera back. and the lever that actuates it 
in the camera is very big and wide, so there's a lot of slack in where the 
pin ends up when you screw it in. that's a decent design for a wholly 
mechanical camera but awful for an electronic one. which in turn is why 
pentax in the mid-1970s switched to the "k" bayonet mount and away from 
the pentax (actually, originally practica) screw mount.

sadly, there is little market for such stuff right now. perhaps oneday 
there will be a collectors market (as there is for leicas, minoxes, and 
the like even now). but today you can go out and buy a hasselblad with an 
80mm lens, finder, and back for $250, which gives you a sense how far good 
film photography hardware has fallen in price.

-- 
dep

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