A murder is on, you lovers of Agatha Christy, Sherlock Holmes and quality optics. But this time, murderer does not hide. On the contrary – he is bragging about its deed!
And it’s a Chinese Monster, of course. The Monster arrived on October 28th, 2020, and Pentax Rumors published a panic announcement on its arrival.
It even has a monstrous name. It is called MonsterAdapter K Mount Adapter E, LA-KE1:
But why did it attack Pentax? A brand with the great history and some beautiful lenses which are still keeping quite a number of fine optics cult fans. A brand now owned by Ricoh, who has painstakingly prepared for years to announce another obsolete model with a laggy AF. They are still contemplating the name. It seems we are closest to the name of Pentax K-3 Mark III, but wait just a few more years (they are working as fast as they can), and you will know it for sure.
Having that in mind, probable cause of the Monster attack was because it could gobble a bunch of Pentax fans by simply offering them a contemporary full frame and APS-C alternative with a top-notch AF. What are the main features of this Monster, released from the Magic Circle in Mó huán factory (which actuallay means ‘Magic Circle’ in English)? Here they are:
The world’s first K-mount autofocus adapter ring. Let K-mount lenses realize auto focus and automatic exposure control on E-mount mirrorless cameras; (And even silver lenses will fit to it!)
The full-frame design brings more than 10 modern full-frame digital bodies to the K-mount AF lens; (So, now Ricoh can take all the time of the World to develop a new Pentax body… which they will probably do. I mean, take their time.)
Unleash the true potential of the lens. Through the powerful focusing ability and focusing accuracy of the mirrorless camera, the true sharpness of the lens can be displayed. You will be amazed by the stunning performance of the lens in your hand; (Well, of course the true sharpness of the lens can be seen now! You will finally see the pics properly focused!)
The powerful continuous focus function, through AI recognition, allows the K lens to continuously track the target.
Close to full-screen focus point coverage.
Human eye focus/pet focus. (And you thought it was impossible with Pentax optics?)
High-speed continuous shooting and focusing. From K-1’s 4.4 frames per second to at least 10 frames per second, you won’t miss the wonderful moments.
The adapter is compatible with KAF, KAF2, KAF3, KAF4 type lenses*1;
It can identify the lens model and transmit EXIF information to the body;
The adapter has a built-in aperture motor, which can support exposure aperture control*2;
The adapter has a built-in focus motor, which can support the auto focus of the body-driven lens;
After the transfer, the lens can achieve hundreds of focus points and eye tracking focus on the Sony body that are not available or limited on K-mount cameras*3
Due to the noise and power consumption of the old lens, this adapter is specially designed for photography and photography and is not optimized for video recording.
*1: In the early days of the market, the adapter will mainly support early body-driven autofocus and traditional lever aperture lenses (F, FA, DA, DFA series). In the future, support for lenses with built-in motors (SDM, DC) and electromagnetic iris lenses will be gradually added through the adapter firmware update. The specific support time will be notified separately; A and M series lenses before KAF are not supported by this adapter;
*2: If the lens has an aperture ring, the aperture ring needs to be placed in the A position when using it. Otherwise the adapter will enter the MF mode and cannot auto focus;
*3: Depends on the body performance, please refer to the camera manual for details.
Who in a sane mind, would still wait for Ricoh’s Pentax DSLR body? What can prevent you to charge at the shop and buy a dozen of those? Unfortunately, if you want to know the price and get on the buyer’s list, you have to join MonsterAdapter Facebook page or learn Chinese and pay attention to the follow-up update of Mohuan’s official Weibo website for information on lens support, updates and price.
But wait again! Does it have any faults?
Virtually no. Except for video. If you were to ecstatic too read carefully all the points of the ‘more main features’, and if you have missed an article at dPreview.com then you have to go back to the point No. 6:
Due to the noise and power consumption of the old lens, this adapter is specially designed for photography and photography and is not optimized for video recording.
Oh, come on! Who cares? The Real Men, true, hard core filmmakers, are doing their focusing manually anyway. They would rather die of shame then let a camera do autofocus on them! They wouldn’t recognize Dual Pixel if it would poke them in the eye! So, it’s not a big deal.
