Early adopter Shanny SN600FGZ

Keen to know if the Shanny will communicate with the K-1. I have two af50-p Cactus flashes that are now slow synching, manual only devices.

It's to be expected that it will .... It is a Pentax 'dedicated system flash' , so is compatible with all Pentax DSLRs. If it is not then that would be some sort of fault, which would be expected to be rectified.

On-camera it is a very full-featured unit. The key limitation to bear in mind is the lack of Pentax system Wireless functions, so as an off-camera flash it functions as a manual-mode optical slave ....however, unusually, it offers HSS with manual power control when off camera.

So K1 users will not be able to use the Shanny as a 'wireless master/control' flash in conjunction with other P-TTL slaves.

Apologies for the silly Q's; does this mean that this flash cannot be trigerred remotely via the pop-up flash?

If not then this could be accomplished via a cheap trigger?

Off topic perhaps, can the Metz 44 af2 be trigerred via the pop-up flash?

Thanks
Adrian

Not silly at all ! Good questions really ....

The Shanny lacks the 'Pentax Wireless system' functions. So no off-camera P-TTL and related modes. When off-camera it works as a 'dumb optical slave' ...ie it triggers optically from any strong enough light source that it can detect.

This could be the built-in flash, but it needs to be able to ignore the pre-flashes in order to fire in sync with the actual exposure. There is sometimes a special 'SL2' mode on flashes like this in order to achieve this. The forum members Stub and Richandfleur have the Shanny and will be able to confirm that this works ok.

Manual radio triggers should work ok.

The original 44 Af-1 only had wireless slave capability, and does not act as a 'master/controller' from the camera. If there is an updated model then the instructions should be on the Metz website ... Hopefully they will give full details.

Regarding the Metz 44 af2, the only manual I can find online is in German.

This is an extract from it, Google translated

"The flash unit supports the wireless Pentax-P-TTL remote system in the Slave flash operation.
One or more slave devices can be used
From a master Controller flash on the camera
(E.g., mecablitz 64AF-1P digital) or From the camera master's wireless Remote control.
For the slave flash unit 44AF-2
Always use all remote channels 1, 2, 3 and 4".

Expanding on silly Q's then, the pop-up flash could be used as the controller to trigger this remotely in p-ttl mode?

Thanks
Adrian

I'll have a play with off camera optical triggering, but have never really liked this concept, given very often the on camera flash has to contribute to the shot lighting. That concept works in some cases but not all.

Can't see that the preflash can give any additional info to the off camera flash, other than go now! Can't see that it can give varying info around how strong to flash etc

Also add to this Pentax mucking with the flash capabilities of its cameras now. I'll have to check that they K-30 and K-S1 can both do this pre flash command mode.

Personally just waiting for an affordable off camera HSS trigger option to compliment they SHANNY.

On both my cameras, inserting the SHANNY brings up the red GPS symbol. That's of more concern to me right now?! Weird.

Flash wise though, you do get genuine HSS supporting PTTL flash for not much money. That in itself is pretty awesome.

bychan, I interpret that extract to mean that the flash has the same wireless abilities as the 44 AF1 ....wireless slave mode only, and so yes, it will respond to wireless P-TTL signals from the camera built-in flash (those that do have 'master/control' capability.

This distinquishes it from the Shamny, which does not have Pentax Wireless system functions.

Richard, i'm glad you heard the siren call!

You're not needed to check if the camera flashes do the 'control' triggering.... What needs to be established is whether the Shanny's slave modes have an option that ignores the pre-flashes and therefore syncs the flash with the exposure.

These slave modes are commonly labelled SL1 and SL2, or S1 and S2 ..... The 2nd one is the one that usually ignores pre-flashes.

Any mention here?

Point to what you want to test and how to confirm it, and I'm sure someone will help

Yes, that shows the slave S1/S2 modes ... The S2 mode is normally the one that ignores pre-flashes, so hopefully it will allow correct syncing from our built-in camera flashes, which should prove to be a very useful feature for new owners, at least until the much hoped for trigger units are released to go with the flash.