K10D remote control flash using built-in flash?

OK, the K10 is out and about... the manuals clearly state the remote firing of flash requires a second external flash plugged into the camera. Yet I see current reviews saying the built-in flash can wire-lessly fire remote flashes.

Anyone here actually have the K10 and a 360 or 540 flash and can state for a fact if it is or is not possible? I do not yet have any stores nearby that carry Pentax to go try this, so if any kind souls could shed some light on the truth I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

I have the K10D, the AF360 and the AF540

And, no the K10D cannot do wireless P-TTL flash using its popup flash

If you mount a gun on the K10D and put it in master or controller mode then you can trigger the remote in P-TTL. Perhaps that's where some of the confusion set in with the reviews - if you read some of the spec sheets quickly you can wrongly assume that the popup does the wireless when the spec is talking about the hot-shoe (and hence requiring more than one flash).

However, generally I now stick to fully manual mode especially for portrait and studio type work. The AF360 and AF540 have a "dumb slave" mode (Slave 2) which will trigger in "A" or "M" modes on the flash. Incidentally this doesn't work on other cheaper flashes because they fire on the preflash only. The AF360/540 will fire on both - as long as you use half power or less on the gun.

Another alternative is to use a cheap manual flash for studio work as the trigger. (I recently used a Metz 50MZ5 - hardly cheap nor small - as a trigger on manual 1/128 power for the AF360 and AF540 that were both on brolleys. Worked a treat, but I'd rather have had something a bit more managable!!)

That said, it's a lot of flashgun and expense to just do manual flash... I'm still hoping that the firmware team can somehow get the K10D to at least do controller mode from the popup (don't need "master" mode). But that's probably a long shot....

Matt

Thanks for the confirmation!
The Feb issue of "Popular Photography"states "The built-in flash can function as a wireless trigger to Pentax accessory flashes -- with or without firing itself. " That is a pretty straight forward contradiction, so I think they were probably just reading some websites for their source of information and never actually touched the camera themselves!


Anyway, I have been doing the same manual setup myself since I have been working with animals a bit and they react too quickly to the pre-flash of the wire-less remote anyway. So that seems to work well. (just would be nice to have PTTL control without the extra flash for stills and people)

I did not know about the sync with pre-flash with the 360/540. I have been using a totally dumb flash as the trigger. Is there something special to do to get the 360/540 to make that happen or do they somehow detect that the master is a Pentax flash?

If I could get the camera to do some of the work for me, that would be great.. I need an excuse to get another flash.

Thanks again.

The K10D pop-up's preflash is much faster than the *ist-D - I've yet to try it with the compulsive blinkers
...but it's probably still too slow for animals!

To get the 360/540 to slave in "dumb" mode, you just enable "Slave 2" (Slave 1 is the intelligent wireless mode). In fact, you can slave the AF360 off pretty much anything. I first used it as a slave to a Canon pocket digicam (excuse my language ).
Because the electronics in the 360/540 are designed for high speed sync and fast wireless flash they can sync off both preflash and main flash

And I've found Manual still more reliable than P-TTL for people and stills P-TTL is great for (a) fill in flash especially in HS mode, (b) for those situations you can't setup controlled lighting (e.g. weddings and events).
Even P-TTL can err massively on the side of caution and underexpose - if you shoot RAW it's not a big problem, but do be aware of it

Matt

Thanks for this thread..

I knew the 360 that I'd just bought didn't do P-TTL off camera with my DL, but I didn't know that it would work off camera in M or A modes. I just tested it, and it does. I use a radio unit in the flash socket for a big Sunpack (3600) flash, so I can use that, and the popup will still work with it. A three flash set up.

All I have to do now is get a connector from the 360 to a 1/4" female thread top mount it on a tripod, and I'm all set.

Thanks again.

Cheers

Liam