Hi folks, can I control the aperture on a modern pentax 55-300?

I'm debating whether to keep my pentax da-l 55-300 and use it on my µ43 gear as a long manual option after I sell the K-x. Manual focus would be fine, but how do you control aperture? I'm assuming electronic's out, is there a pentax adapter that has its own aperture blades?

My Pentax DA lenses are from 2007 and all use levers to control the aperture ring. LOL, they need the focus motor in the body too. Do new DA lenses use aperture motors now?

For older lenses like mine, there are adapters with arms that control the aperture lever. You might have to guess on the in-between positions. I have not used them, but there are inexpensive models on ebay.

There just aren't any controls on it at all apart from the focus ring - it's from a 2010 K-x twin lens kit. The lens is great which is why I'm contemplating keeping it for my e-pl3, but I starting to think it might be better turned into something else using magic folding beer tokens!

This adapter will mechanically control the aperture on your 55-300mm:

K to micro 4/3 adapter - ebay

As HarryS indicated, it is a variable control, so the aperture is only approximated. I have found that the ring does have mild stop points that appear to approximate full aperture stops. Without an adapter such as the one above, a DA lens would be fully closed, so even if you just want to use it wide open (since the 55-300mm is pretty good at open apertures) you'd still need this kind of adapter that has the mechanical aperture control.

Alternatively if you no longer have a Pentax DSLR you may want to replace the 55-300mm with the panasonic 45-200mm; the focal range (assuming crop factors) is relatively similar to what the 55-300mm is on aps-c. You'd then get AF and built in OIS, and if you buy used it and sell the 55-300mm the cost should be close to a wash.

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Thanks for the link Paul - I'd assumed it'd be fully open rather than fully closed, guess I don't look inside it very often! This looks like a nice cheap interim solution.

I've got the oly 14-150 (and an e-pl3), but found it wasn't long enough for some of my shots at the olympics. This'll to be a pretty rare scenario so I'm looking to make the most of what I have.

I may crack and buy the panny 100-300 at some point as I do head to motorsport events a couple of times a year. The 14-150 wasn't too bad at Le Mans so I may start looking down the legacy route. I'm leaning towards smaller OM primes at the moment until the mythical native fast tele appears.