K100D flash question

Hi,

Im new here and have a quick question.

I have recently brought a K100D and am looking for a flash for it.

Ive heard alot of people talk about the Canon 430EX which I know is for Canon cameras but are there any Pentax compatible flashes that are equal to the 430EX?

I want to be able to use it on and off the camera and eventually plan on getting a second flash and us them both off camera.

Thanks

both off-camera will only work when you use them in slave mode.
If you get two AF-360FGZ flashguns you can put one on the camera and use one wireless. You will keep the full P-TTL in this way.

You could allso use a AF-360FGZ and a AF-540FGZ.

Thanks,

Ive seen two flashes used before with one connected to the camera with a wire is this considered to still be on camera or would i need them to be slaved still?

Heres the sort of setup I mean

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tQKqj4W0QWI&mode=user&search=
he has a flash connected to his camera with a wire and holds it in his hand.

can the AF-360FGZ be set manual so you can "dial down" the flash so to speak and can it be triggered externally via the camera's PC connection?

Thanks

Yes, if you get a hotshoe attachment for the flash, you can fire externally via PC cable. These can be found fairly inexpensively. (The Pentax five wire and hotshoe require you to sell one of your kidneys, but do allow PTTL via wire.)
Anyway, with the standard PC connection the flash is then unable to communicate via PTTL with the camera so you are required to set it manually. At that point you can, of course, dial in whatever you like.


If you're interested in setting manual anyway, try the dumb slave trigger mode. To eliminate cables, I bought a cheap manual flash without even TTL and stuck that on the camera hotshoe and set it for the lowest possible power. I then set the 360/540 in wireless mode (P2 - dumb slave mode) and it fires off any flash it detects.
I use this almost exclusively for my wireless lighting, as PTTL has not been friendly to me.

Note that this setup wont work well with the popup flash as you cannot turn off the pre-flashes and that makes it difficult to use the popup flash as a reliable trigger.
You really have to allow the 360 to be dialed down enough to allow it to flash for both the pre-flash and the final flash. I believe Matt has had better luck getting that to work with popup flash and may have some suggestions if needed... He is either much more skilled or simply more patient than I am. Most certainly both.
So you may want to try that a bit as well while lacking the second flash.