Procedure 1: To take a shot, first depress and lock the adapter cable release. No shutter or mirror lock action will occur at this time. WARNING: Do not apply too much pressure here. Doing so may jam the shutter action, wasting the next film frame. When the normal shutter button is depressed, both the shutter and mirror lockup will occur and the exposure will start. To end the exposure, unlock the adapter cable release. The shutter will then close and the mirror will return to its normal position for viewing. Note that to begin the exposure, only a momentary press of the shutter button is necessary, so a non-locking cable release can be used (or none at all). In order to avoid ruining the exposure because of vibration from the Pentax shutter/mirror mechanism, it is advisable to use the "hat-trick" method to actually begin and end the exposure.

Procedure 2: To take a shot, first depress and lock the adapter cable release. No shutter or mirror lock action will occur at this time. WARNING: Do not apply too much pressure here. Doing so may jam the shutter action, wasting the next film frame. Depress the mirror lock up button. The viewing mirror will swing up and out of the way of the film at this point. Press the normal shutter button to start the exposure. To end the exposure, unlock the adapter cable release. The shutter will then close and the mirror will return to its normal position for viewing. Note that to begin the exposure, only a momentary press of the shutter button is necessary, so a non-locking cable release can be used (or none at all). By using the mirror lockup button in this procedure, the camera vibration due to the mirror movement can be eliminated. However, especially for long focal length instruments, you may still wish to use the "hat-trick" method to actually begin and end the exposure to make certain that the shutter action does not vibrate your scope setup.

No matter which procedure you elect to use, we suggest you try the procedure without film in the camera and watch the mechanism action (remove the camera lens).

To get the camera to cock the shutter without having to load film in the camera, open the camera back and turn the small center hub (indicated by the yellow arrow in the photo at right) on the film advance lever counterclockwise until the frame number indicated is past "0". Hold this position while the camera back is closed. The frame number should remain where you set it and the shutter can now be cocked using the film advance lever.