Pentax only features

That's a flash at the end of the exposure instead of at the begining, it can be set in the flash menu. here is a link

Yes you're right Dan but if you said it was a flash option/setting they might have a good idea where to find it

@Alan, thank you for being so supportive ^^
I never looked in Pentax in such a way but it has a good user interface, you only need to go into the menu once to asjust the camera to your likings and during shooting, Fn menu is all you need. Very thought out system.

No you're right Ti it's that and you're a new user so do you know how to set your flash on that setting?

Well, it's nothing to do with focus.

It's all about when, during the exposure, the flash happens, specifically in terms of any movement taking place during the exposure.

Consider the example of a person carrying a candle across a room, in the dark.

The important things to note are:

- the candle provides its own light, so will be visible whether illuminated by a flash or not.
- the person doesn't, and so won't be visible, except in the instant when the flash goes off.

Consider now a very slow exposure, long enough for the person to walk across the frame. The flash will go off during the exposure, and is effectively of zero duration compared with the exposure.

If the flash happens at the beginning of the exposure, you'll get the person lit by the flash, and then the candle trail continuing in front of him.

If the flash happens at the end of the exposure, you'll get the candle trail first, and then the person lit by the flash at the end of his travel. The light trail from the candle will appear to trail behind him.

If you think about whether the flash happens at the end or the beginning, and what else in the frame is providing non-flash-lit illumination, all becomes clear.

'Trailing curtain' is when the flash happens at the end of the exposure, ie just before the trailing curtain (of the shutter) passes across the film/sensor plane.

Nope - it was words to me . I'll settle for the light trail I got by accident - 30 sec exposure on the Tripod - ISO at 200 and I honestly can't remember what the F stop was .

To be able to use it you would have had to practice and practice till it came second nature to you.

New users are not ready for that sort of thing - those who have just come to DSLRs want to know less complicated things - they need to understand the link between shutter speed and aperture , they need to know enough to decide if they want to shoot on Auto [ say Green to them and they would blink ] or Av , then they have to learn about using the other settings .

Curtain trail - it's just words that seem to have nothing to do with camera settings

You'd be surprised how many people that have been taking photographs for quite some time have no idea how a focal plane shutter works.

Or, consequently, how shutter speeds faster than the sync speed are actually achieved.

If you think about it, most of the time, you have no need to know.

Basically I think we all learn what we need to know for the sort of things we do . This applies really to everything - our work , our hobbies etc etc

If we need more then we go and find out . But at the beginning we need to take it
s l o w l y , till we gain confidence - and that time varies from individual to individual.

I'm still very much struggling with some things . I'm off to France at the end of next week for a week and the K-x will be coming too - to re-take things I've taken before on the P&S and Fuji [ both now defunct ]

I thought some of my original pics were OK - till I looked at them again last night , and I now realise how bad they actually are

I'll be shooting in a wee Church with dark blue decorated walls and side windows though which will come strong light - it's a nightmare to even think about it . I'm just going to experiment this time and hopefully by the next visit [ October-ish] I'll know more .

I appreciate your view but the beauty of a DSLR is that it is so versatile! You can attach it to a microscope or a telescope, Take pinhole images, Use one flash or ten, Take a shot at 1/8000th of a second or one of several hours duration. So whilst trailing curtain may never be used by one person. To another photographer it may be vital to his style of photography.
When i began using a film SLR back in the 1970`s i would try everything i possibly could. From early Cibachrome with a home modified Gnome enlarger to using second hand bellows and lens reversing rings, Night photography, or playing with various filters and home made devices in fact anything to do with photography! My point is every one uf us can take as much or as little from this great hobby and still enjoy it 100%

Regards - Pete

Sorry you didn't really understand me - later I said we learn what we NEED .

I'm enjoying finding things out at my own pace - and I don't suppose I'm the only one

Yes i did understand,Honest

Regards - Pete

Canon 50D
Canon 7D
Canon D500
Canon D550
Nikon D90
Sony A500
Sony A550
Olympus E-420

I gave up on Google soon after

Well yes and no, of course this are flash settings but in situations that you use a trailing curtain your camera settings are important to.

It's simply the difference between this shots, and that's quite significant.






With this it doesn't matter but if you've a person moving, it would look if he's running backwards instead of forward.

That brings back some memories. My enlarger was a modified Zenith, but it was still fun being able to do color prints at home.

Was trying out a Nikon D90 a few weeks ago, try putting one of those into centre spot, focus mode or selected, buried deep in the menu sub system!!!

We didn't tried it with a Nikon but glad you did, also Fuji has it buried in the menu so Sony probably also...

These are those little things you find out when you've used a camera a bit, why don't Pentax advertise these features more?

Very poor marketing ? Sometimes it seems as if they want to keep these things quiet.

Cheers,

/Ian