Can I use Pentax K lenses on a modern Nikon body?

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A work colleague has an old Pentax ME Super camera and he wants to use the lenses from this on his modern Nikon DSLR (he's not sure of the model but it's just a modern prosumer one). He's asked me to get him an adaptor to enable this, so I need a Pentax K mount adaptor. However, is it that simple? Do modern Nikons use the Nikon F mount? Is there anything I should beware of? Thanks!
 
The problem with using old lenses on Nikon is that, due to the distance between mount and sensor, any mounted lens will not focus to infinity. So the only adapters available are those with corrective elements, which reduce the quality and have a slight telephoto effect. Additionally, it's not a particularly popular combination (Pentax K lens on Nikon F body) - other combinations, especially on Canon EOS bodies, tend to be far more popular.

It's something of interest to me because I have a fair amount of Pentax K-mount glass and my Nikon DSLR, but there is very little solid reviews on any adapters.
 
freecom2 said:
The problem with using old lenses on Nikon is that, due to the distance between mount and sensor, any mounted lens will not focus to infinity. So the only adapters available are those with corrective elements, which reduce the quality and have a slight telephoto effect.
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Spot on. The key dimension is called the lens registration distance, and it's the distance between the front of the mount and the sensor/film plane. One useful way of looking at this is that it's the distance behind the lens where the image is brought into focus. So a lens designed for a large registration distance can be fitted onto a camera designed for a small registration distance by using an appropriate spacer/adapter, but not the other way round.

There's a very long list of registration distances here: [click]. Some common ones:
  • 42mm = Canon FD
  • 43.7mm = Minolta MD
  • 44mm = Canon EOS
  • 44.6mm = Minolta AF / Sony Alpha
  • 45.46mm = Pentax K
  • 45.46mm = M42 screw
  • 46mm = Olympus OM
  • 46.5mm = Nikon F

This shows that you can adapt a Nikon lens to fit on virtually any SLR camera, but you can't put any other SLR lens on a Nikon camera without the problems mentioned earlier.
 
Thanks chaps. I'll be going for one of these on Ebay. Do you know if the adaptors allow autofocus like the "chipped" ones for Canon? They all seem to be manual focus.
 
Any ME Super lenses are manual focus anyway, so it doesn't matter. They should focus confirm on the body regardless of adapter - but I'm not 100%.
 
Rooster said:
Thanks chaps. I'll be going for one of these on Ebay. Do you know if the adaptors allow autofocus like the "chipped" ones for Canon? They all seem to be manual focus.
Click to expand...

They are manual focus, but the 'in focus' dot will appear accurately usually.

The canon chipped adapters don't enable AF either, they just allow the equivalent of the 'in focus dot' to appear on canons. After all, no amount of chip in the adapter is going to put a AF motor in the lens.
 
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