Flash Gun info please

I have an istDL which I have been thrilled with. This has been my first forray into DSLR territory after many happy years with Pentax 35mm equipment.

I am only an entusiastic amateur and do not overly exert my creativity but do enjoy my photography.

I do little flash photography but having just had our first child I'd like to buy a flash gun to avoid using the built in one too close to her eyes. Can anyone recommend a decent one for this sort of limited use please. I would prefer to only spend around 80 pounds as it really won't be used a great deal.

As an aside could anyone also explain perhaps why my camera persistently pops its in built flash up in conditions that are far from dark. I am forever retracting it and obviously this drains the batteries excessively. It's my only gripe with a fine camera.

Many thanks in advance.

James

Hi James, and welcome to the forum.. also congrats on your daughter..

I can answer the second part of your post.. press the FN button, and then the down arrow on the dial above it. The two flash settings, AUTO and A, (positions 1 and 3) will pop the flash up automatically. Choose positions 2 or 4 (4 is red eye reduction mode) and that will sort it out for you.

Re which flash.. any Pentax branded flash will be fine, although you'll have to set some of them (the smaller ones such as the AF 200 for instance, which goes for just over a tenner on ebay) manually.. If you can afford to save a little while longer, then for around £150-160 (depending where you buy) the AF360FGZ is the one you want. Fully automatic, and can be used off camera wirelessly, controlled by the popup flash. It also helps autofocus in low light, by shining a red contrast beam.. You can get full AF in total darkness.

Hope that helps,

Cheers

Liam

Hallo James, welcome to the forum! Please forgive hijacking your topic, which Liam has answered admirably btw...

Liam how do you do that? Wireless flash with the 360FGZ on anything other than a D or K10? I have a Ds and a 360FGZ and it doesn't work wirelessly ofr me. Nor should it according to the manuals.....

Hi Gwyn,

It uses the A/M settings only (IIRC, I'll check later), the flash set to S1 (again IIRC), and use the pop up flash to set it off. As I say, I'll check that set up later.. but it definitely does work.. just with limited function.

Cheers

Liam

Many thanks Liam

Really helpful, the flash discharge mode has been changed!

I'll have a look at the more expensive one, don't mind spending the money if it's worth it. I work as an airline pilot and I'm off to Hong Kong on Saturday so I'll hare a look over there and see if I can find a bargain.

At least I know what I'm looking for now....

Thanks again

James

Off to Hong Kong! Can we give you a shopping list?

Gwyn,

You need to re-read your manual. The af360FGZ certainly does work wirelessly with the DS in full P-TTL mode, but you need two of them. Read Page 153 of the manual, bottom row of the table. The read Page 155 - "Using in wireless Mode".

If you were to use an older TTL gun mounted on camera, you could set the AF360FGZ to slave2 mode and it will become a normal slave flash.

These functions are not available using the builtin flash.

You're welcome..

Re the AF360FGZ, as you were working to a budget, rather than not being able to afford it perse, then there's absolutely no doubt that this is the one to go for.

Great lighting first time, every time. As it's got the bounce head, then you just point it at the ceiling, extend the catchlight panel (a peice of shiny white plastic, that gives you great catchlights in the eye) and press the shutter. The camera and flash have a chat and sort everything out for you.. great for quick candids when you don't want to miss the shot.

The AF540FGZ is another option, but more expensive again at around £250 ish. which is more powerful, and has the option of swivel as well as bounce.

Cheers

Liam

Gwyn

the 360 can be fired by ANY camera with a pop up flash or even ANY other flashgun

Turn the flash on (wireless setting), press and hold the light button till the display changes, in the top right corner you will see "slave" and the number 1 underneath, press the "S" button once, this will change the "slave" number to 2, press the light button again. its that simple.

If you are going to use a slave flash and money is tight, you don't need an (expensive) Pentax one - I have an ancient Chinon flash (p190C I think) that fires off my K100D's popup and seems to give reliable exposure set on auto at distances that are too much for the popup alone. This is presumably because exposure is still measured by the P-TTL process with the popup in use?

I assume any other flash that has a slave setting would work the same way. It's not on the hot shoe, so voltages don't matter.

But you'd still have the popup shining in the kid's eyes, albeit from further away.

And yes, I would like to replace the Chinon with a nice new Pentax AF360 thingy, particularly for the AF stuff - my wife gets really annoyed by the popup's strobing as it tries to autofocus - but that will have to wait until enough pennies are saved.

Regards

Pete

Do I need an off camera adapter for this? Because it doesn't work for me. And off shoe adapters (and hot shoe adapters) are rarer than hens teeth here in Holland and nearly as expensive.

No, you don't need any adapter. The fuller explanation is this:

1. Follow the instructions to put the AF360 into "dumb" slave mode (holding down the Light button etc)
2. Put the switch to Wireless Slave on the flash
3. You will only have the "M" and "A" modes available on the flash
4. Use the popup flash on the camera

Further notes include:
* You can use flash compensation on the pop-up to minimise the impact of the camera's flash
* I'd suggest you use "M" on the camera, and "M" on the flash if you're doing portrait studio style work. (There's a thread on here somewhere...). You can only put the flash to around 1/2 or 1/4 maximum (because it discharges for both the precharge and main flash). If the flash discharges completely you'll have an underexposed shot.
* You can even use a Canon 20D with this setup! (I showed this to a friend and he was blown away by how easy it was!)

* Get a cheap brolley (Hama do one with a hotshoe built in for about £30). Mounted on a tripod, and with a reflector or two you've got yourself a nice little portable studio

HTH!
Matt

Pete,

It's possible that your Chinon flash may not be contributing at all to the flash exposure. The P-TTL action of the pop-up flash means it will fire one or more pre-flashes in order to work out correct flash exposure, then it'll fire the flash for the actual exposure. If your Chinon is set as a slave and it responds to the preflash but doesn't recharge in time for the flash that actually makes the exposure, it'll not produce any output.

That said, if you have manual control of your Chinon flash and you are using less than full output, it might have enough charge to work most of the time, but try it on full power.

Ok. I didn't know that was how the P-TTL worked. I hadn't noticed the pre flash, so it could be the case.

On the other hand, the Chinon normally will fire off three or four times when fully charged before it runs out of energy, I've used it in the past with the power winder on my MEF. I've been trying out all my old stuff with the K100D 'cos I don't have to pay for film

I'll do some tests when it gets dark with a tripod etc and use the timer to fire it off while I'm in front watching. I assume the flashes are far enough apart that I'd be able to see them? I'll report back anyway, I'd hate to mislead anyone.

Regards

Pete

Pete,
"P-TTL" stands for Preflash-Through-The-Lens. The preflash and main flash are only tens of milliseconds apart. It's very tricky to tell, but you can just see it.

The K10D gap is much smaller than the *ist-D series AFAIK.

Incidentally, if you put the pop-up flash in "Red Eye Reduction" mode, there is about 1 second between preflash and main flash

Matt