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Hi All
I'm looking into getting a manual SLR with mirror lock up. I've looked on eBAY and seen a few Pentax's that are quite cheap - but i don't know which ones Pentax ever made with mirror lock up. Idealy i'm looking for a manual camera, with metering, mirror-lock up and a bayonet mount. and preferably one whose batteries can still be found and bought!! I've heard the Pentax KX had mirror up - was this ever any good?
Can anyone help me Please!!! I'm not looking to spend too much. Basically, i need a camera to use for macro photography. I've been reversing a 50mm lens onto a telephoto but my camera suffers the shakes - although only noticeable when doing these high magnification shots - hence me wanting mirror lock-up but i'm not paying for an F5!!! a manual camera would suit me fine as i will only be using it for this purpose.
Thanks in advance.
Michael.
Nikon FE has a mirror lock up function when the timer is used.
Depending on what kind of macro you are doing an alternative technique is to use a locking cable release with a lens cap removed and replaced for the exposure.
Remembering to move the lenscap a little way in front of the lens while the camera settles down before making the exposure.
By lenscap I'm thinking of a piece of black card rather bigger than the lens diam. held against camera lens while you open shutter with cable release.
You should be able to get 1/2 second and longer exposures this way. Else use flash to get short exposures without any worry about mirror shake.
Never had a camera with mirror lock and wonder how you focus and frame a shot with the mirror locked up if subject is moving or hand holding camera ..particularly if using a reversed lens up front 
well, you set the shutter speed, aperture and focus first, then lock the mirror up, then click the shutter 
problem with the lenscap idea is that to use long exosures i'd need a small aperture, however this can cause a lot of vignetting when using a reversed lens in front of another lens.
but thanks for the reply, and idea to keep in mind certainly!!
Vignetting comes from the extra lens not being able to cover the full angle of the prime lens. [As also happens when you stack filters on front of a standard or WA lens]
When I use a 50mm in front of my P&S digital with simply a 76mm equivalent tele I have massive vignette. But same lens on 5700 at full zoom there is no vignetting.
The supplimentary lens is used wide open and the aperture is set in the prime lens.
For smaller than f/16 or f/22 you could make Waterhouse Stops which are simply a disc of metal with a suitably small hole drilled in them. Else punch a nail into the centre of the disc and sand off the top of the pimple until you achieve the right sized hole. First step to a pin-hole camera that!!!
I frankly cannot seem much point to a mirror lock so I wouldn't let the lack stand in the way of picking up a nice cheap Pentax.
The thing about using a reversed lens is that you need not be hindered by fixing it to the front of a prime lens.
If you can imaging the magnification to copy the centre out of 16mm frame of film?
I do have two sets of extension tubes and organised one on the camera and the other of the lens. Held them more or less in line with a length of plastic drainpipe and the wonderful, old, but TTL metering and viewing Pentax got the shot for me. I was working in a dark basement so there was very little ambient light. From memory I also hand held Though probably was resting on something.
In that tale from long ago I simply used my 50mm Takumar but today with a bellows for the Pentax I reversed a 25mm movie camera lens held in a cardboard mount across the front of the bellows to get a x9 magnification seeTHIS if you are interested
My current Pentax is a bayonet mount, even though it is probably twenty years old at least, and the first thing I bought for it, after getting it from the pawnbroker, was the adaptor plate so that I could use my even older screw mount lens in it.
Well obviously you are stopping down with the wrong diaphragm. You stop down with the zoom lens not the 50mm.
That 50mm is simply a glorified CU lens ..a nice 20 dioptre one for all of that comment.
Another angle is to organise extension tubes for the zoom with the proviso that focusing is funny with a zoom on the end of extension tubes ... zooms don't like being placed away from the 'correct' distance from the filmplane.
If you zoomed back with the 300mm you would probably get vignetting even with the 50mm wide-open
YES the bellows is the way to go and opens up huge possibilities .... but the bellows is simply a mechanical means, and a pair of plastic tubes [drainpipes] sliding inside each other to hold camera on one and the reversed lens on the other is yet another idea if you cannot find a bellows at the right price. To complete the set-up you get a third and larger short length of pipe to mount on your tripod and you have what every Macro worker wants ....effectively a rack mounting to move the whole caboodle in and out to focus. All depends on how practical you are .... no good for the chequebook photograher.
no, i'm stopping down the zoom lens. hell, i'm not that stupid, come-on, give me a break
i think perhaps the reason you didn't get vignetting is because your lens on your p+s is small enough to avoid it when stopped down. my zoom has a 62mm filter thread, the 50mm has 52mm thread so the zoom is considerably larger than the prime, but in your case i think the prime is the larger of the two.
well, i took the plunge. won an auction on ebay for an OM-1 (not n version) with standard lens, 2 w/a lenses and a zoom (the last 3 are 3rd party lenses) with light meter and flash. 87.55. it looks to be in good nick, if it is when i go pick it up i will be happy. if not, he wont be happy cos' i wont pay him!!!
i looked at the pentax kx, but there was ONLY one on ebay which didn't give me much choice, plus this one ended sooner and i didn't want to pass it up. i suppose fewer kx's were around since the mx came out soon afterwards, but it didn't have the mirror up. and the lx was out of my price range.
i have a question about the om-1. ceri hopefully you can help me if you read this. the batteries for the om-1 aren't made anymore. is there anything similar that fits, or some form of adapter?
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