K-5, my first experience

Hi all,
Last night I took the opportunity of having a good band in my local RBL Club to test my new K-5 with both lenses (the 18-55mm WR & 50-200mm WR) together with the Pentax AF 360FGZ.
The first thing I noticed is that the Battery Chamber Cover is very loose and pops open even when sliding the flash on to the hot shoe.
So, out came the photographers best friend (a roll of duct tape and this problem was fixed)
Now to the pictures. The overall quality is great BUT 99% of all pictures taken where over-burned.
I can deal with that in PP but it is time spend that should not be spend. The flash should use in pTTL or A mode with the camera and I did not expect to see the over-burn in nearly every image.
I did NOT had my Pentax K-5 'Bible' to hand, to see how I could step down by 1.0 to 1.5 to see if that would do the trick and I could not figure out how to do it in the short time I had so I will do it in PP. I do not why the camera was nearly all pictures over-exposing but it may be of the reflection of the bright wall in the back.
Clearly I need to look at this again but last night I just wanted to do some test shots before I do something in earnest and mess it up.
The first one will be a Flash Bounce Diffuser as this will help for sure.
I have to figure out how to post pictures in this post and as soon as I have done so I will post a couple of examples.
The only GOOD part on this is that when I print any of then out the pictures are perfect as both my Epson's (R300 for up to A4 and R1800 for up to A3) tend to print darker and on this occasion it seems to work out in my favour (I am meaning of getting a calibration tool to get the same print quality that I see on screen all the time, but they are ((even second/third hand)) very expensive, at least the ones I have come across so far), its just for 'screen images' or for images that go on the net where it is a real pain, but as I always shoot in RAW+ I should be able to deal with this in the PP using the Split-RAW technique that I recently learned from here (link) and I find this a very handy technique to use. It just took me a little while to figure out how to do it in Corel Photo Paint X4 as most of the buttons are named different and other parts are in different positions but I managed it. Did not find a way of doing this in Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional. Its a shame really as I find it a very good program but I will keep it for the NetBook for just some fast and on the spot PP, everything else will be done at home anyway.
I am looking in to Lightbox or Adobe Creative Suite (Student/Teacher) but it is at the moment way down my list as a Sigma 170-500mm would be of more importance for me and I know how to work Corel Draw X4 I am in no real need for the Adobe Creative Suite or Lightbox anyway.

just use the flash in full manual,(its a pain i know) but if you use it with auto iso it bumps the iso up to 1600 when it might only need iso 100.

OK, I hope that works


link
link

Cant figure out how to post a picture from flickr in here so please use the link.

use the image code and place that bettwen [@img] here [/img]
just forget that it has th @ as thats just so it shows up.

I usually have a fixed ISO (for flash usually 100) but as it is my new K5 I thought I try the pTTL settings to see how 'good' those work with the camera. It is not too bad as you can see in the link (I can not figure out how to post the picture from flickr in to any of my posts Something along the line I do wrong).
I got a custom menu set now for flash with ISO100 and saved so next test I may get a bit better results and I have to get a Flash Bounce Diffuser for next test as well.

IMGP0022 by smutjeuk, on Flickr




I think I got it now (at least on preview)

Thanks for that pentaxanne. I used the wrong code
ISO settings where restricted to ISO 800 on them as I changed after the first two over to P setting and pTTL.
I will have some reading to do to get the settings correct for flash.
Like I say, its not too bad and nothing that can not be toned down in PP. This are straight from the camera just resized to fit in here. No PP at al done to it.
Probably use Slit RAW to get them right, but when I print them they are spot on. Its just if you look at them in preview or on the NetBook/Desktop when they are too bright. A diffuser probably will help as well.
I wonder if an ND2 would do the trick as well? This thought just pooped in to my head.

I set only on for tonight just to see what this will make on a difference. I thought of the diffuser and the power it may take away. I may try the ND filter just to see what it would do

BTW Anyone is welcome to c&c here! Like I say it was the first time I used my new equipment and will have to learn a lot before I can really use it correctly. Trial and error at the moment.

I heard about the book, but don't know where to get it from
As for the ISO settings, this is what I restricted the camera to as maximum settings for P but I was hoping that the K5 would have used the lower settings when working with a flash. The first two where ISO 3200 and ISO 1600 in Green Mode
Like I say, I did not had the bible with me and I did not want to mess too much about that's why I changed to P with pTTL and it made a difference but you are right with 800 being too high.
I would have preferred ISO 100. Strange that the automatic settings mess the pictures up so badly in flash. Maybe an firmware update in the future is setting that one right?

Agreed. Flash at Gigs is not a good idea....But if you must. I notice the ceiling is low and white the best diffuser around if you avoid reflections off the light and air conditioning fittings.

I am with Don on this one, I use foam or the carton of long life milk cut down into strips of different lengths to fit my Metz (silver side to flash).They work very well and the milk carton one is always a talking point. Here are some examples LINK

John

Thanks for that. Never seen it even I been a few times on there

DOIK: I was hoping that the flash would just have given me that extra bit of light needed as it is really dark in there even with white ceiling and walls. I took one shot without flash but it was just close to black even on 3200. So the flash was a must.
Maybe I should have tried the build in flash?
I recon that the flash focused through the hall and not on the closest point I was aiming for.
Like I say, its still all new and this was the first 'real' try. Next time I will be wither, thanks to all of you and your help.

Smutje you should do just fine with the built in flash with higher ISOs. Problem with flash is it kills the atmosphere. Try experimenting using slow sync and maybe even popping a small diffuser over the built in flash.

IOW aim to get as much ambient light in the pic as you can and only using the flash as a sort of fill in.