> Hi, set the LX to 1/2000`s when putting in film. VERY IMPORTANT: > remember to set it back to what you want after you`re done.
I would add just a little suggestion of my own to your suggestion, Steve: I tend to keep my LX's in the Auto shutter dial position (for aperture-preferred autoexposure mode) for most (probably 90%) of my shooting, and only switch to manual as a deliberate action for a particular shooting situation. One disadvantage of the Auto position is that one can't load film with the shutter dial set to Auto, since (if light is being blocked from entering the body) the LX will just hold the shutter open indefinitely (or so it would seem). Now, for me, the problem is that, if I use 1/2000 for loading film, I potentially can (easily) forget to put the shutter dial back on Auto (and indeed, in a few "senior moments", I have literally done just that, ruining some exposures for a few frames until I noticed my blatant stupidity). Your "VERY IMPORTANT" warning, Steve is very a good one to make. I now (and it's even become automatic with me, having done this for a while) set the shutter speed to 1/60, 1/30, or 1/15 (not critical) for loading film. The advantage of this is that the shutter sound at slower speeds is distinctive, and, if I forget to put the shutter dial back on Auto, my error of omission is audibly obvious with my very first mistaken exposure. (The disadvantage of doing this is that it is a little more of a nuisance to rotate the shutter dial all the way to some slow speed and back, compared to using 1/2000, which is only "one click away" from Auto.) By the way, the necessity of not leaving the shutter dial at 1/2000 (instead of resetting to Auto) is evident whether one is using flash or not. For natural light, 1/2000 is usually not going to be a suitable speed just "by luck", although this depends on the film speed, aperture, and lighting, of course. Then, the problem with using flash at 1/2000 is that (unlike when properly set to Auto or X) there is no flash sync set, so one doesn't even have a prayer of getting a "lucky" exposure. (And, unfortunately, I can speak from experience on both of these situations - <g>.) The Super Program and Super A, with their automatic loading speed of 1/1000, are more "idiot-proof" for nincompoops like me - <g>. Fred - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
