flash for Pentax ds primary for weddings

Hi Looking for some recomedation for a good flash fo some wedding work i have been oofered Im not chargeing a lot and for friends they know ive just started back with photgraphy I used to do it years ago with a film camara I have a budget of 100 pounds at the moment i dont want the phot to bright put i do have photo shop there is so much to read aboput flash oh and not useing flash with a hiher asa rating put the camera shake low shoot spped and all that plus what setting indoors for the ds do i have it on auto or what is there a set suuterspeed to sink witht e flash I now iv mention a lot but here is so much Iv notice when iv taken shots there not much deplth of feild jsut millimeters but Im dixleic and some times i need to read things a vew times to truley understand Pheww thanks for all your help but defo need to get a fash and sart useing it before the end of the month thanks george

Phew! What an incredibly long sentence - I'm gasping for breath just from reading it

It's going to be tough to do it under £100, but you might look around for a Samsung SEF36 they sometimes pop up used for £80-100. The Samsung is a rebadged but identical version of the Pentax AF360 (which is usually almost double the price). The only problem with these two flashes is that they tilt but don't swivel, so you cannot bounce off the ceiling if you're holding the camera in portait orientation. I get around that by shooting portraits in landscape and cropping off the sides

George, would you next time please check your comment on spelling mistakes and use some points and paragraphs to make it easier to read.
I know it's just a forum but we are all here quite strict when it comes to that, you're still allowed to make mistakes but it must be easy to read and not have one big sentence what you've now.
English for me is a second language and I'm classed with heavy dyslexia so it takes a lot off effort for me. I still make a lot of mistakes and we sometimes all have a laugh about the stupid ones but at least with the points and paragraphs it's still readable for everyone I hope.

For a flash I think you should spend a bit more and get a Metz 48, with that flash you can do everything you want and can do with your new DSLR. if you don't want to spend that much you can look for second hand or buy a fully manual flash but that's up to you to decide.
Here is a very good guide with all the current Pentax flashes http://knol.google.com/k/pentax-p-ttl-hot-shoe-flash-comparison

For using the flash you will see there are many ways to do that, even outdoors you can use the flash as fill light for example.

1/180 is the fastest shutterspeed your camera can go to sync with the flash however today there is HSS (High speed sync) flash feature that can make you use the flash up to 1/4000 if you want to. Only the newer flashes support that though.
For the rest shutter has little to do with the flash, flash only takes 1/1.000.000 of a second so faster then any shutterspeed. The thing you control with the shutterspeed is how much ambient light will fall on your sensor.
At 1/180 your back ground will be darker then when you use 1/60 for example.

The depth of field is connected with your aperture, the larger the aperture the shallower the depth of field would be.
How wide the aperture is, is displayed as the F-number on you camera.
f/2.8 give you a large aperture, shallow depth of field
f/11 is a small aperture, wide depth of field

OY -- Stefan - hang on there

We rarely comment about your dyslexia [ just when an error makes us laugh ] - now look again

Now go back and slowly read it please and remember this is one of his first posts and it probably took a lot of courage to make it and admit to his problems .

And yes - I have made this public deliberately - as your post in response is probably too long for him .

With apologies to our new member George

Techno, I've read that and that's why I comment about my dyslexia.
Like I said the spellings mistakes is something we can all live with and certainly if you've dyslexia but it's a weak excuse for writing an one sentence comment.

Also many off the spelling mistakes doesn't seem to be caused by dyslexia but by typing too fast.
oofered, aboput, jsut, spped, suuterspeed aren't the typical dyslexia mistakes for example. I also make those mistakes because I type too fast but rereading the comment is enough to pick them out and when you've dyslexia you just know you've to reread everything you write.

The Pentax AF500FTZ works well on the DS model.

Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten that the *istDS is compatible with the older TTL flashes, so you actually have a huge choice George.

Any of the TTL Pentax flashes will work with it, and cost well under your budget.

I had also forgotten that your camera will handle older TTL flashes. Ignore my advice, get a cheaper older flash

I think it will be tough to get a newer P-TTL one for less than £100?

That's indeed true

I have a DS and can confirm that it will work perfectly with every flash Pentax have ever made. There are loads out there on eBay and particularly good ones are AF400t, AF280t, AF400ftz and as mentioned above the Samsung SEF36. I picked up a brand new Samsung on eBay a couple of weeks ago for £60.

You'll find that all of the above units will automatically set your DS to the correct shutter speed.