DSLR · From 1975

Pentax K mount cameras

Pentax introduced the K mount in 1975, a three-tab bayonet first drawn up by Zeiss for a joint system that never happened. Pentax kept it, and later versions added electrical contacts, autofocus couplings and lens power while keeping the same bayonet. Every Pentax film and digital SLR since uses it, so a lens from the 1970s still mounts on a K-1 or K-3 Mark III and gets in-body stabilization.

Original K and M lenses without an A setting work only in stopped-down mode on digital bodies, and APS-C DA lenses put the K-1 into a cropped mode.

3 cameras we cover.