Flash Gun for Pentax K10D required

Hi All

I need a flash gun for the Pentax K10d. I dont want to pay for a pentax one as they are several hundred pounds. I know jessops have one for around £100 but i need one with a reflector or one of those white plastic defusers you put over the flash to soften the light.

Can anybody suggest one at a reasonable price

Thanks Guys

On the K10D ONLY the pentax AF-360FGZ and AF-540FGZ guns will give you full capabilities, IRC any other pentax or pentax dedicated flash you only get M or A/M modes. The AF-360FGZ can be had for £149 from Park Cameras, , £50 extra well spent in my opinion.

EDIT

and with the new firmware you will have wireless P-TTL from controlled from the popup flash.

Pete,
Really, honestly - save up the extra and get the Pentax AF360.
Park Cameras have it for £150

If you go and get a "compatible" and you really start using it then you'll kick yourself later for not getting the AF360. Especially as the K10D will do wireless flash to the popup with the upcoming v1.1 firmware

For diffusing you have several options:
* Bounce the AF360
* The AF360 has a built in catch light panel which is superb for portraits
* Use the AF360 remotely - I use mine through a cheap brolley. Beautiful results. If you can't afford the brolley, hang a white sheet between the flash and subject.

If you only want to do studio type controlled shots, then go for something really, really cheap and buy a hotshoe-to-PC connector adapter, a long PC-cord, and mount the flash on a tripod with brolley/diffuser. Use the flash and camera in fully Manual mode. Probably about £50 worth if you shop around.

EDIT: crossed in the ether

Matt

There is one on e-bay at the moment for about $219.95 = about £111.56
Brand new from USA
Link is
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pentax-AF-360FGZ-Flash-for-K100D-K110D-K10D-ist-DL-DS_W0QQ...

I've been looking at flashes recently, like you I started off thinking "I don't want to spend that sort of money on a flash" but it turns out that

A) the 360 is cheaper than I thought (see above)

and

B) the only non-Pentax flash with full (claimed) support for the PTTL only bodys (*istDL and K10/100/110) is the Sigma 500 which is just as pricey as the Pentax 360.

thanks guys ill save my pennies as i ve just brought the K10D £699

We have just ordered a Pentax AF360FGZ. £150 is about right for the price.

I'm not really a great lover of flash, apart from using studio flash for portraiture, but we've found that we do need a gun for some fill-in so this is the one that looks likely to fit the bill.

The Sigma does do one thing that the Pentax doesn't, it will till turn as well as tilt. So if use take a picture in portrait orientation you can still bounce light off the ceiling. Otherwise it does pretty much the same. For the above reason though I got the sigma.

It's reported that the Sigma does not do P-TTL with the K10D, IIRC they also had to back to Sigma for reprograming to get them to work with the K100D.

Can you confirm P-TTL with the K10D?

typical Sigma, if it werent for these compatibility problems I'd probably get the Sigma instead of the Pentax for the swivel. As it is, well the K10D with a decent lens is hardly short of pixels, I'll take the shot landscape and crop!

My older AF500 has the swivel function - I know we've been talking about the AF360 but does anyone know if the newer AF540 has a swivel head?

Yes it does.

Bu**er - another thing to add to the shopping list!

It's just occured to me, but how difficult would it have been to stick another hotshoe on the (left hand) side of the body of any Pentax camera, so that you could just mount the gun on it for portrait? I would guess that flash is used at least as much in portrait as landscape..

Oh well, just a thought.

Cheers

Liam

Indeed, I would go so far as to say that if I could choose bounce or swivel but not both, I'd go for swivel every time.

I feel it ought to be possible to rig something up using mechano, a flash extension cable and a tripod screw.