Good solid, simple to use, budget flash

Been having a quick look onm SRS and there are a few flashes for under the ton made by Metz. I only want an extra bit of help for the K5 for indoor baby shooting as I am very much an available light kind of guy and still have enough to learn without doing flash yet. Have film era flashes but nothing that wouldn't cook a DSLR!

To my shame they would be mainly used with everything auto for quick and dirty snapshots so would I be allright with these budget ones maybe gpoing to the Metz Mecablitz 36 as it has a swivel head so eventually could look at some more advanced stuff?

I have two flashes, both of which I'd recommend. If you want auto, the Metz 44 is well built, works as expected and can be used in manual mode on various power settings if required. It lacks a bit of power but for normal bounce flash in a home with normal-height ceilings it's fine. On a K5 it will be better than on my K200D because you'll be able to boost the ISO without degrading the IQ much, having said that, when I use a bounced flash at home I almost always have ISO 100 set.

If you're prepared to go manual, which is in fact very easy with bounce flash, then you can save a lot of money by buying a Yongnuo flash. Mine is a basic model (YN 560) but extremely well built (better than the Metz) and also more powerful. You can buy them for around 50 quid I think, on Amazon. It doesn't seem to like lithium AAs though, which is odd.

I would echo Jonathan's advice about bounce flash being easy. You could actually get away with an old Pentax flash from the film era; set it on max power and simply adjust your ISO/aperture to produce the correct exposure (ISO 100/f5.6 would probably be in the right ball park, depending on the flash rating/ceiling height). Bounce flash creates a room filling light which is quite forgiving about distance from camera to subject.

I have a AF 400 ftz which is probably good but I'm loathe to use it with the DSLR as I remember reading that the voltages are too high? I always assumed that they wouldn't work on the newer bodies as the interface was different?

I would presume Pentaxophile that the shutter speed there would be the reciprocal of the ISO ie 100? I'll have a think over it, doesn't have to be new could be 2nd hand!

(I have a boycott of Amazon in place as they are gradually putting my friends small village bookshop out of business)

[quote:3496ace15f="Jetsam1"]I have a AF 400 ftz which is probably good but I'm loathe to use it with the DSLR as I remember reading that the voltages are too high? I always assumed that they wouldn't work on the newer bodies as the interface was different?

The older Pentax flashes are safe to use on digital bodies. They will work in manual or automatic, but obviously not P-TTL, which was only introduced on the digital bodies. TTL flashes will work in that mode on the istD and istDS only.

The shutter speed can be anything below 1/180 (the max sync speed) depending on whether you want the ambient light to show up in the shot. (The slower the shutter speed, the more impact light from windows and light fittings will have). In a room lit by a bit of window light it's quite nice to balance the flash and window light for a more natural effect.

The AF400FTZ is absolutely fine to use on a DSLR, don't worry! It's a good flash.

Thanks very much everyone! This forum is excellent for good advice. I'll try out the AF 400 and see what happens. I think I need to google P-TTL etc....

That's it just have a play. Flash is so much easier on digital, cos you can practice and waste shots at your leisure.

Works quite nicely. Just need to learn the differences between the settings....... Much better bounced off the ceiling or wall...

Cheers.

Old Pentax flashes will work in manual mode (I have a couple of AF200Ts) but won't work in any auto mode except on the oldest DSLRs. They tend to be less powerful than newer models and most of them don't tilt or swivel. They're the cheapest option but to be honest I'd only use them off camera with radio triggers.

I wouldn't use flash enough to justify any more than this I think. I have the AF400FTZ set on auto on the back of the flash and am bouncing off the ceiling with either f8 or f5.6 with a shutter speed of 180.

Seems to be producing natural colours and seems to be giving enough that I wanted which is just some extra light in the house. I'll consider one of the suggested options though if I feel I want to go more automated.

The AF400FTZ is not a PTTL flash, so if your getting decent results on AUTO then there's more than a little bit of luck involved.

Unfortunately it only has 2 selectable manual settings, but these are what you need to be trying out

Just playing with it this evening! Never done flash before so need to see whether I'd use it enough to justify any investment. It's huge though, looks silly on my Super A as well as the K5!

Can't edit posts anymore?

Works perfectly on my Super A if I fancy using film!

As a word of caution several Pentax flashguns have similar designations. For example AF400FTZ and AF400T can easily be confused, but their functionality is quite different. Also it pays to have a clear understanding of what is meant by PTTL Auto , TTL Auto and plain old fashioned Auto.

See Boz for a pretty comprehensive explanation link

As a recommendation I would look no further than the AF200T/AF280T. These guns were introduced with the 'Super A' as TTL flashguns, but being Pentax they wanted to ensure backward compatibility and so included automatic sensors on the flashguns. This feature was lost on the later AF400FTZ and AF330FTZ, something that I find severely limits their functionality on current Pentax DSLR's

The AF200T/A280T will not do PTTL and TTL will not work on DSLRs from the K10D onwards, but nonetheless they are very useful reliable units.

They incorporate their own automatic sensors and they both have two automatic settings. Set a K5 to 'P' mode, chose one of the auto settings on the flash and the appropriate aperture is set on the camera.

Both offer manual control, the AF200T has settings for Full/1/2,1/4,1/8 power.

The AF280T has the advantage of more power and a full tilt and swivel head, so that would be my choice. They do come up quite regular on eBay at a reasonable price.

There were three listed as part of a larger sale a couple of weeks ago.

link


Regards - Steve