If your camera has backfocusing or frontfocusing problems and have no warranty, you might want to try this one. I haven't tried it but reports say some features present are AF calibration, Viewfinder AF Point calibration, EEPROM(Firmware) backup to memory card, etc.

WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! MAY VOID WARRANTY!

For the DL, DS, DS2, K100D

1. Power OFF
While pressing [AE-L]+[INFO], turn the camera on.
Firmware is desplayed on LCD.
Press [MENU]->[MENU]->[INFO] within 5 seconds.
You can see DEBUG mode screen.
By pressing [Right key],Make [DEBUG MODE DIS] to [DEBUG MODE EN].
Then, Press [OK].

2. Press [MENU], you can see setup menu.
By pressing [Up key], select AF TEST.
By pressing [Right key], go into AF TEST menu.
By pressing [Down key], select FOCUS CORR.
now you can adjust shift amount by pressing [right key] or [left key].
(*Don't touch AF Area Test.)
after changing the value, Press [OK] to save.

3. Test your camera that Focus is corrected.
(repeat step 2. till you satisfy the result.)

4. Power OFF
While pressing [AE-L]+[INFO], turn the camera on.
Firmware is desplayed on LCD.
Press [MENU]->[MENU]->[INFO] within 5 seconds.
You can see DEBUG mode screen.
By pressing [Right key],Make [DEBUG MODE EN] to [DEBUG MODE DIS].
Then, Press [OK].

For the K10D

1. Your K10D' firmware version must be 1.10.

2. Test shot for focus trouble.

3. Turn the camera OFF.
While pressing [PLAY]+[OK], Turn the camera ON.
You can see firmware version on LCD screen.

4. Firmware version is appeared,
then press [Fn]->[Fn]->[INFO]->[MENU] within 5 seconds.
You get service menu!!!

5. by pressing [right key]
,Make DEBUG MODE to DEBUG MODE .
then press [OK].
(save and LCD will be black out)

6. Press [MENU] and go to SETUP tab.
then, Press [Up key], you can see TEST MODE.

7. Select AF TEST menu. now you have AF correction menu.
If you have Front-focusing, reduce the value.
If you have back-focusing, increase the value.
after adjust some value, press [OK] and quit out of setup menu.

8. TEST for focus, find out that focus is correct.
(repeat this from 6 for correct focus.)

9. Go to service menu(step 3,4).
Make [DEBUG MODE EN] to [DEBUG MODE DIS].
then press [OK].(save and LCD black out)

I copied this from DPReview forums so I don't guarantee any of it will work. :Grin:

nyahahahaha nalala ko yung left-left-a-up-down-b-right-b nung unang family com :D, anyways I wonder what would happen if the batts run out while doing this

BTW Ran do you know if i can load the K10D FW in the K100D? these hacks are becoming more & more common nowadays :)

I don' think you can load the K10D firmware to the K100D since there are alot functionality differences from both. K10D has SSM codes and different button layouts which would be hard to adapt for the K100D.

Maybe a gearhead from DPR can give it a stab?

K.Takeshita posted this in the Pentax Discuss Mailing List (PDML):

----------------

Hi all,

While ago, somebody referred to a post in DPreview wherein the subject
method was explained. I believe the link is this;

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=22013971

(This Korean guy, unless he is somehow tied to Samsung, must be an expert
hacker. There are so many game hackers in Korea).
This became a hot subject in Japan too and many experimented. I just
checked mine and the default appears to be fine but I will explore further
when I have time.

Most of people mn Japan found a clear focus at around +40 micrometre (K10D)
and all of them are delighted to learn that their focusing is now so much
better and easier.

One guy (a well known Pentax aficionado) made a first timid adjustment (1
step, +10 microm) but thought he could go several steps further which he
did. In his case, the final settlement is as follows (he said he would
experiment further).

K100D before adjustment：+40microm　after：+90microm

*istDS before：+0microm　after：+30microm

This guy found that there was a minute difference between cvhasing the focus
from tele end and wide end, so he took a median.
Now he said his complaint on focus was completely gone. He purchased 3 DA
Limiteds, but despite of their prices, he thought AF was erratic and focus
was rather soft, and he was just going to sell them off. Now he decided to
keep all of them. For this guy, which is usually critical, to say this, the
method must have worked really well for him.

Other people want this sort of user adjustment a standard feature in future
model, which I do not believe pentax would do for warranty reasons :-).

As I posted earlier, there has been quite a bit of complains on soft focus,
particularly between FA and DA lenses etc (FAs on DSLR tend to show rear
focusing point etc), which might be solved by this.
But as usual, this has to be done at your own risk. In any case, it might
be beneficial to check the accurate focus which could be easily adjusted
either by Service centre or yourself.

Ken



もうちょっと設定の追い込みは必要だろうと感じていますが、
今までAFに関しては不満タラタラだったのがうそのように快適
なカメラに変わっています。
調整前は高い割にAFが不安定で描写が甘いと感じていたDAリミ
レンズが、AFでビシッとピントが出るようになりました。
DAリミレンズ（３本）は売り払う予定でしたが、やめます。

If you want to know, I haven't gotten around to tweaking my *istDS. But then that's because most of my good lenses are manual focus...

thanks for this post, I'll try to this weekend!

Okay, keep us chickens posted :Grin:

How do you know if your cam has FF or BF problems?

If all your images are never sharp and always soft with AF even at f8 and smaller on a tripod. Focus charts are available but I think real world shots are better.

I'm seeing 4mm front focusing on my 18-55 with focus charts but real world shots AF and MF produces accurate focusing.

I think it's usually the lenses' fault for FF and BF rather than the body's.

by the way, before you do the above focus calibration, try the things outlined here first to find out if you camera/lens is at fault. make sure you test with different lenses before adjusting the AF system of the body!

http://focustestchart.com/focus21.pdf

I agree with Randall, sometimes the lens is at fault. but most of the focus problems on lenses will probably and most likely appear with large aperture lenses (f2.8 to f1.2) due to a very shallow DOF.

To compute the DOF for a particular lens you can find it here.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

so finally, after doing those first - there's no problem with the body - it was the lens. now have to find out how to re-collimate this f1.2 lens...