K10D and AF360FGZ

Happy new year folks.

Well its about 16:00 GMT and I am finally coming round from last nights celebrations, despite my reluctance to take the K10D out to a drunken new year party the chance to play with my new toy was far too great, coupled with the AF360FGZ I got some excelent pics, though not without a few failures too, dont know if it was the batteries in the flash but I would get a run of poorly exposed shots despite the flash ready light been lit, at one point I discarded the 360 and used the cameras pop-up which turned out to be equally as good.
Has anyone else experienced similar problems with the 360 with continued use? I had the camera in AV and was varying the aperture between f5.6 and f8

Happy New Year to All.
I too am over my druken New Year celebrations and playing with my new toy. I just did a run of over 80 shots at a rock concert on 22 Dec using K10D and AF360FGZ with no under exposed shots at all.

It may be you were too far from subject or the flash not mounted properly etc... I found that auto ISO worked best limited to ISO400
You also have to be very careful that the camera is in the correct mode, as much as I hate to say it, reading the manual can be good
Have a look at the memo on page 180 of the K10D manual about modes that the external flash will not fire in and check the ISO rating the camera selected.

Hi folks, a happy new year to you all.

I've had my K10D for a few weeks now and I too have found some under exposure problems (upto -2 stops) in Av mode both with with and without the AF360-FGZ.

Not really had a lot of time to sit and work it all out, hopefully tomorrow will be decent weather wise and i'll get a full day to put it through a proper workout.

Unfortunately there is nothing on page 180 to help with my problem, the flash was on P-TTL, I was shooting well within the coverage scale on the gun, the flash was charging promptly and the ready light displayed, the ISO on the camera was fixed at 100. as for distance they were mostly taken between 3-5 feet away.

Maybe my 360 has a fault?

Sounds like you're right. 3-5 feet at ISO100 should have been fine.
Might be worth cleaning the contacts if not may be worth trying under the waranty on the camera.

May also be worth seeing if the flash works correctly in manual mode. If so may be more of a metering issue.

Just be aware that the flash metering of the K10D will check the highlights
If you have very reflective surfaces then the shot will look underexposed. For instance, I took a snap shot with the AF360 in bounce mode but didn't immediately see that I was facing a window - the AF360's reflection was metered and the shot was underexposed. A quick reframe and the second shot was fine.

Even the pop-up will do the same thing - I took another snap of the kids in the woods, but they had reflective strips on their coats which threw the metering off.

If you are shooting in "controlled" conditions (like studio), always go for fully manual - it's much easier

Matt

Thanks for that piece of advice Matt, didn't realise that the K10D metering was that much different from the D, there is a bit of a learning curve with K10D when switching from the D.

Brian,
The K10D very much errs on the side of caution. It's only a problem if you shoot JPG. With RAW it can be a stop or two underexposed and have absolutely no problem bringing it back - I am still stunned by its phenomenal dynamic range compared to the *ist-D!

Did a family shoot with AF540 + AF360 with brollies on Manual mode (Slave 2), triggered from my Metz 50MZ5 set to M and 1/128th. Took all of 30 seconds to get the exposure right and then rattled away! Got some really nice images for them, sharp as a tack, with a really smooth look to the skin (even they commented on it when looking at the shots through their TV). Now all I want is for the K10D to act as a wireless controller for P-TTL and M mode then I can ditch the hunking 50MZ5

Matt

Hi Matt

I was playing around as well the other day https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3537 and commented on the huge dynamic range of the K10D when shooting in RAW, like you a few test shots and adjustments is all that was required. Overall I'm over the moon with the K10D, what problems arise are down to me but I'm sure just like the D I'll master (or try too) most of them.

Thanks for that Matt, one of the shots did have some glass in the background, the others...Hmmmm, will have to go through them and see if I can find anything reflective that may have upset the works, its also interestig to hear the K10D metering will check the highlights, something else to be wary of.

One thing I will say about this setup was I got very few problems with red-eye, maybe because of the height of the flash from the lens? despite the underexposed shots the good one were tremendous.

You meet some very funny people at these parties though!

http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j168/impotentspider/General%20Photography/?action=view&current=IMGP0057.jpg

approx 50% crop and sharpened, otherwise untouched.

I'm guessing with the 360 and 540 in Slave 2 they just act as dumb slaves and fire slaved to any flash?

So you could use the popup to trigger them?

I think only the D allows the popup to trigger slave flashes.

Yep - but that's in P-TTL mode.

I meant if the flashes were put into slave 2 then they fire off any flash.

So surely it's possible to use the K10D pop up (with camera set in manual) to fire the slaves in their dumb slave modes?

Yes, you can use Slave 2 and put the flashes in M mode.
However, there are a couple of things to bear in mind:

* The K10D preflash and main flash are very close together. I've not had much success when using 1/2 power. 1/4 power and below seems fine though.

* The K10D flash can only be set to -2 EV, so it may be a bit bright in comparison.

(I used the 50MZ5 pointing at the ceiling at 1/128 power).

Hope that helps!
Matt

Aha - didn't realise the pre-flash was still in place even in manual (although it makes sense as metering for fill flash or slow synch)

To dim down the pop up - how about a home made diffuser? even the loop of paper taped over the front should do the job - as long as there's enough of a flash to trigger the heads then it should be enough I'd have thought?


Or how about this... what happens if you use AE-Lock in manual mode with the pop up? does it lock the flash power after the first shot? If so you could try taking a shot of a white piece of paper in manual mode, then use AE-Lock to make the camera stay with the low power output of the popup?

The last suggestion is based on a trick we used with a mate's 10D (that's Canon 10D ) so that he could use my spare 360 as a remote flash. On the 10D in manual mode you can set an exposure lock where it fires the pre flash once, then after that as long as you have the AE-L set it will no longer fire pre-flashes and just stick with the pre-measured flash power.

Mind you - he still admits it's a poor substitute for the D being able to use the pop up as either master or controller in full P-TTL


Does anyone have a sensible suggestion as to why the K10D popup can't do wireless? I can only think it's a way of selling more 360's - and it annoys the hell out of me That one feature would make it a perfect replacement for my D - but even buying a really cheap simple flash to use strikes me as being unnecessary when I know Pentax can make the camera do it