Is the camera shop having me on?

Went into a camera shop today and asked about a flash for my K20d. He mentioned they had pentax, sigma and sunpac in Pentax fit (do sunpac do pentax fit) and he pulled out a pentax flash, the one without a swivel head and said it was £180 and if I bought it with a TTL flash cable (£50) and a bracket he would do it for the bargin of £199. Is this a good deal? The only non-swivel head pentax flash I can find is the Pentax AF-200FG Flash whcih is £79 on SRS!

I enquired about the Metz36 flash and he said it was 'cheap' as in crap,a nsd didnt support full TTL on Pentax and the Pentax flash was the cheapest one that did. Is this correct?

When I asked about other options he said only the other Pentax flashes and gave me the look of death when I dared to say they were expensive.
Throughout all of this it felt a bit like a high pressure sale and when I said would be returning next week he said he had however many left and when there gone the deal goes with it before walking off and turning his back on me as I tried to thank him, so Im not inclined to go back there...

The only current swivel head flash gun from Pentax is the AF540-FGZ.
The AF360-FGZ has tilt, but no swivel.
The AF200-FG is fixed.

But, as you say, if they give you a "take it now or never" approach... well, that's usually a good sign to steer clear
Matt

I think I read somwhere that Sunpac make all of Pentax's flashguns : or was I just dreaming that.

Why would you need a TTL flash cable when your camera doesn't support TTL? Sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about.

BTW:

TTL = available on film, and the first two dSLRs (*ist-D & *ist-Ds)
P-TTL = Pentax's Pre-flash TTL metering used by all current dSLRs.

Matt

Even though the D and Ds have TTL, it is very unreliable (i.e. unusable! ) at over ISO 400. I found that using the smart auto (A) setting on my Metz 54 MZ-3 much more accurate.

I think he meant the TTL doesn't work properl;y/fully on the metz when used on a Pentax

Sorry, I was referring to "a pentax flash, the one without a swivel head and said it was £180 and if I bought it with a TTL flash cable (£50) and a bracket he would do it for the bargin of £199." my point is that the K20d would not work with such a set-up since it doesn't have TTL.

Richard, I've never had any problems whatsoever using the following Pentax flashes on the DS: AF400t, AF280t, AF400FTZ and AF240ft. Its annoying not being able to use the latter two on the K20.

Not having a P-TTL flash gun, let alone a lead to connect it with, aren't the connections on the flashes, whether TTL or P-TTL the same? So wouldn't a 'TTL' lead work with a P-TTL flashgun, allowing P-TTL metering?

Neil, if it was the AF360, it's actually a good price these days. Also, lots of people here seem to think the Metz guns are excellent.

Unfortunately, the problem with Pentax being harder to find in shops, is that some dealers don't know as much about them when they do stock them. A trip to Watford would probably be ideal - it's only an hour away. Dare I ask where this camera shop was?

Dan

Dan,

Not necessarily. Some TTL leads are 4P for TTL capable cameras, but ones using a digital interface for autofocus cameras (film or digital) are 5P cables. They are not compatible with each other.


Pentax made 4P (TTL) cables which connected to the camera via the hotshoe. You cannot connect a 5P cable to a k20d directly, you need an adapter costing another forty-odd pounds. Hence my thinking that the OP had been offered a 4P TTL cable.

I must say I have used Metz in the past and thought them to be excellent.

Ah, of course, 4P and 5P cables. Should really get my head round all that at some point.

Dan

It is even more accurate then P-TTL in most cases.
I use P-TTL when doing high speed sync and for some lighting when doing portraits. For the rest my Metz 58 is in 'A' mode.

I still wonder why a cheap light sensor in the flash is doing a better job then the metering system of my K20D...

Golfdiesel, which mode gave the most constance results?

Dont think it was. Whne I said 'non'swivel' I meant fixed head