I've done exactly what you are proposing to my -DS. The actual
swapping of screens is very easy... just a tiny little hinged frame around
the screen with a snap-type clip on the top. Open the door, remove old,
insert new, close door.
As far as cutting down a screen, it's rather tedious. I bought
one from a local camera repair shop for $5 out of an old Minolta. I
wanted a diagonal split-prism like my P30T had, but apparently almost
nobody ever used them. Seems like a no-brainer since both
vertical AND horizontal lines are useful then... but I digress...
Anyway, I used a calipers to measure the stock -DS screen's
dimensions and the sacrificial screen's. Split the two dimensions,
scratch a line onto the new one, and get to sanding/filing. I was very
careful to only ever hold the screen by the edge.
Caveats:
- Easy to file the screen slightly off-center. I did. Oops.
- Different focus screen may cause metering problems due to different
transmission, but largely irrelevant due to...
- Stop-down metering with pre-A lenses blacks out the center prism with
apertures smaller than f/5.6-f/8. That screws the spot metering
completely and messes the center-weighted appreciably. Only way I've
found with the older lenses is to use the stop-down metering hack, but
then double-check the histogram after the shot.
- Well-known blackout with sufficiently slow lenses.
Otherwise, it's great for lenses f/4 and faster... f/2.8 or faster
is REALLY nice.
-Cory
On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, J. C. O'Connell wrote:
> Cool! I wont wait for what's available, I will
> take it into my own hands and make what I want
> work now. Only caveat is metering might get a little
> out of whack for a new unknown screen, but
> then again, might not.
> jco
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
> Paul Stenquist
> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 11:04 PM
> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List
> Subject: Re: Another question about the istDS- changing screens?
>
>
> Yes, the screen can be replaced in much the same manner as that of
> the LX. I put a grid screen in my *IstD. Waiting to see what becomes
> available for the K10D.
> Paul
> On Jan 31, 2007, at 10:44 PM, J. C. O'Connell wrote:
>
>> I think I read its possible for user to change
>> screens on the istDS. Is this true?, is this difficult? Anybody done
>> this? Curious.... I have a bunch of parts bodies I can salvage a split
>> image screen from and modify ( cut ) to fit if I can install
>> it myself easy enough without having to disassemble the body.
>>
>>
>> jco
>>
>>
>> --
>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
>> PDML@pdml.net
>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
>
>
>
--
*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************
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