Leverage
Today, I was going to try combining a 2x teleconverter, an extension ring and a prime lens to make a 100mm 2.8 macro lens.
First, I put the TC closest to the camera, then the extension ring (20 mm Kenko) and on top the FA 50 1.4. Worked fine, but I didn't get close enough so I figured I'd swap the TC and the ring, so I did. Except when doing so, I managed to dislodge the little spring that actuates the aperture lever on my $1000 K10D camera.
Oops.
First I sorta panicked and started unscrewing the K-mount ring. After a little while, when I noticed that I had actually NOT dropped any screws into the mirror box, I started thinking that maybe this wasn't the way to go. I remembered a few people on the DPReview forum having had the same issue and though I was fairly certain both had wound up sending their cameras in for repairs, there might be something there. And there was. I'll just quote that message here, for posterity:
There is a little spring that hooks over one end (the lower end or the end closest to the bottom of the camera) of the actuator part that slides up and down. The spring keeps the actuator held down until the gear moves the whole assembly up. The spring came unhooked from the stop down actuator.
You can probably see just the end of the spring (it is actually just the straight part, hard to explain) if you look closely next to the actuator near the bottom.
Move the actuator up manually and then using a fine tweezer or maybe the end of a paper clip or something similar, push the spring end up and towards the center of the mount or away from the silver K mount ring, pushing it up around a little protrusion on the bottom of the actuator. It will snap to the left (looking into the camera) around the little protrusion that sticks out on the actuator and then it will hold the actuator down as it should.
- Ray Pulley
I used the sharp end of a safety needle, but any small sharp object should work. The images are a bit blurred, both because my hands were a little shaky and because I didn't think to get my flash.
