Pentax *istDS flash with Takumar lens ?

Hi, I've taken to using an SMC Takumar 85/1.8 lens on my DS body with excellent results using ambient light. However at low light levels the built in flash usually results in very washed out pictures. Are there any settings I can change to avoid this problem?

Thanks,
Rowdy

Have you remembered to stop down the lens? With a screw lens this is most easily done by setting the A/M switch on the lens to manual and simply using the paerture ring. The camera should be quite happy with that in Av mode.

The flash could be set to Auto (old fashioned Auto, not P-TTL or any of the other more recent modes) and the appropriate aperture you will be using, so if for example it gave f5.6 and f11 as its options then you would use the one that was appropriate for the distance you were working at.

Er, we're talking about the pop-up flash here I think...

I don't know how well the flash metering works with the older lenses, but is it just a case of a typical flashlit image, where skin looks pallid and backgrounds are dark? Not sure if the DS has flash compensation (where you can reduse or increase the power of the flash), but the first thing to try if you haven't already, is balancing the flash with natural light.

Get a correct or slightly under-exposed exposure for natural light (using manual exposure mode), then use the flash, and this will avoid the dark background.

Other than that, you'd probably need a hot-shoe mounted flash that you could bounce off a nearby surface (ceiling or wall).

Dan

Ah, yes, it's been a long day...I wasn't talking about the built in flash, was I?

Thanks for the response.

I use the takumar in Av mode.

Reading through the manual again it appears that using the pop-up flash in Av mode the shutter speed is fixed at 1/150th sec when any lens other than an FAJ, FA or F series lens is used. Shooting wide open with the Takumar (at the lowest ISO setting of 200) gives a washed out photo but stopping right down gives an acceptable exposure with the flash - so I imagine it's just a matter of trial and error to get the right aperture. Perhaps the K10D allows more control over the pop-up flash?

Rowdy

Page 147 of the DS manual: "(in AV mode) The shutter speed is fixed at 1/180 when lenses other than DA, D FA, FA J, FA or F is used. The built in flash always dischages fully"

Pages 149 and 150 go on to explain how to calculate the correct exposure.

Often a much underused piece of kit, the manual

Doh! - Thanks for pointing me in the direction of the manual. As you've probably realised I have'nt had much experience in using flash.

Rowdy

Or reading the manual it seems . . . we've all done it . . . but it is a valuable resource even though some info may be well disguised.

Honestly, flash isn't really the problem, the difficulty here is that you are using a fantastic, highly desirable lens that was designed and built more than thirty years ago. Pentax, as everyone here delights in, have made their modern cameras backwardly compatible for almost ever but we do have to be aware that old glass doesn't contain microchips and the like to communicate with the camera body.

Why are you using that hideous little pop up thing anyway

Ken