Miranda 700 cd with Kx

Hi everyone, i am a pentax user just over a year. I decided to get cheap flash gun few weeks go. From ebay I graped one. Actually it is clean nice and work on its own with test button. Then i tested trigger voltage and it is about 9 volts. I thought that is safe to use and put it on the camera.

My problem starts here camera see flash, i cannot up shutter speed more than 1/180 which i can go up without flash. So everythink is normal but when i shoot, flash does not fire. Something is wrong in their communication.

I just wonder if anybody tried any of these flashes and managed to fire it?
Secondly, I just wonder, if there is any adjustment need to be done in camera to use manuel flashes?

Kind Regards,
Melih

You cannot use a shutter speed higher than 1/180th with flash

How are you trying to fire the flash? on the hot shoe or on a cable or what?

The 'limitation' on 1/180s has nothing to do with the flashgun - it is a physical issue to do with the shutter in the body. And, to be honest, it's rarely an issue in real world use.

(That said, the AF360/540 does support 'HS' mode which allows fill-in flash at any speed - but it works by 'machine-gunning' the flash gun at ultra high speeds.)

You use manual flash like this:

* Set the camera to 'M'
* Set a shutter speed slower than 1/180s
* Set the ISO & Aperture on the camera to match the flash settings

Note that the shutter speed has NO effect on flash exposure - it is just the ISO+Av. The shutter speed affects the balance between flash and ambient lighting

Check out the details on the sticky thred

Matt

A quick question while your on the subject of Flash, I'm looking at a future purchase of a Metz 36 AF-5 Flashgun from WEX they are around £65. I'm looking but can't see if this will allow HS Mode.

I read that you kind of need this to freeze things like water droplets.

Not sure of my overall budget but i can manage £65 alot easier that £250+ for the Pentax AF 360 or 540 FGZ.

Will

Decided to look further and i think i need The Metz 50 AF-1 Digital for HS cost £180 WEX

You dont need HS to freeze water droplets, flash duration which is, to most intents and purposes, the shutter speed can be as short as 1/30000th of a second.

HS mode is useful when using flash as a fill light in daylight when you have to use a shutter speed higher than 1/180th second

As Ken said, you definitely do not need HS mode to freeze motion!

Pretty much any old flashgun will do - including the pop-up flash
It's all down to getting the ambient light balanced with the flash, and taking a LOT of shots to get the timing right

Do note, that the camera's shutter speed has no relation to the 'freezing' ability of the flash.

My advice - try your camera on "M", with the pop-up flash and experiment. Once you know where the limitations are, then you can purchase extra gear

Matt

Thanks for the advice, the book i'm reading is the free one from this forum a few days ago on kindle. It menstions curtains and shutters. I guess it's still a good choice to get an external flash to offer bounce flash and reduce risk of red-eye, might just stick with the cheaper Metz as i'm still a noob. I'll hold off a bit longer and see what i can do with the built in flash.

Again Thanks.

Will

Hi guys thanks for answers;

I think i could not explain in detail. First of all, I have to mention that flash works as it should, when i press test button. How ever, it is another issue on thr camera. This is how I do it; I mount the flash gun via hotshoe. Then open the turn th flash and camera on. I set everythink in manuel. I set shutter speet 1/60, apeture to 5.6 and ISO 200. I adjust flash to exactly same settings. Then I shoot nothing happens. Flash does not fire.

what could be the problem?

Any body there knows solution???

This Miranda 700CD is a very old design and is either not compatible with current and recent Pentax DSLRs or is faulty. Either way, you should send it back and try to get a refund.

In my view, your options are to save until you can afford to purchase a flash unit that will allow you to take full advantage of the features offered by the KX (prices start from around £50.00 in the U.K., for a very basic model such as the Metz AF-24), or buy secondhand. If you decide on the second-hand route expect to pay around £20.00, for which, if you are patient, you will be able to buy a Pentax AF-200T in good condition. This will not allow you to use the P-TTL capability of your KX, but it a very robust unit that can be used in auto-mode (on-flash sensor) and gives you manual control of the flash output (full or 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 and 1:, which, take my word for it, is a very useful feature to have and adds enormously to its flexibility and range of applications. NB the externally similar AF-200S does not share this feature and should, IMO, be avoided.

You can find more details about the AF-200T here: link and more about Pentax compatible flash units (new and legacy) here: link

Jon

I used to have a Miranda 700CD - worked on my k200d. So not sure why yours isn't! I did 'upgrade' to a Cobra AF480 (for the princely sum of about 8 quid) which is more powerful and has a more neutral colour (the Miranda was a tad yellow).

Jon thanks for answer but i am after some kind of cheap bouncing head flash. The reason for it is that i normally do not use flash in photography but when I am taking casual indoor shoot (birthdays etc) I need flash. The problem my wife alergetic to flash units. With direct foward facing flash units there is noway we can catch her eyes open.

So I need basic cheap bouncing unit to be used few times a year and i am not willing to pay more than 10 - 15 pounds for it as I will not use this my photograhpy.

Thanks for your advise, I will consider, if it continue to not to work.

In my first post i asked 'How are you trying to fire the flash? on the hot shoe or on a cable or what?'