Pentax Support?

Just called the Support number and bless the young lady ... she could simply not help. I asked her to recommend the equivalent of the Pocket Wizard for the K200D and 360 flash(s). All she kept of telling me was I needed the "f" remote which I obviously don't. Does ANYONE know what is out there that WILL work. I obviously don't want to short the flash/camera, so if anyone can advise if there is anything locally (UK) that can fire one or more flashes (off-camera) please let me know. tks

Just checking you are aware that the built-in flash on the K200 can act as a controller in P-TTL mode?

The Pentax young lady was referring to the F adaptors and cables for OCF.

As Adqam says though you can use the built-in flash to control the flash off camera. You need to set it up correctly first but then it works a treat. Read you manual for how to do it.

The remote trigger also works with the flash in "M" and "A" modes as well

Don't forget they are optically triggered, not by radio.

I have tried some radio triggers from ebay. They did work - but only at slow shutter speeds. I know there are some forum members that have other radio triggers, and other infrared triggers as well.

And, as Pentax says, you can use the F series cables for off-camera-flash. That is Pentax's solution

Matt

I would have thought that Pentax support was precisely that, support for Pentax products, maybe 'Pocket Wizard' support would have been more worthwhile.

Calling Pocket Wizard and then asking them which other company sells the same things they do... yeah I don't think they would love to answer that.
It's like calling to Mercedes and ask them what other Germany company makes cars.

Please realise, however, that as your built-in flash can only operate in P-TTL mode, it will pre-flash and trigger your flash early - and it may not have enough power left for the exposure-making flash. If using your flash remotely in M or A, use an old cheap manual flash on your camera to trigger.

Not fully true.
What you said is true with the older flashes that only has "dumb" slave mode the newer flashes have a smart slave mode and you can pick 4 channels.
You don't need to have your flash set to P-TTL but you can also set the flash to A or M and it won't fire with the Pre-flash because of the smarter sync.

Hiljon has a Pentax 360 and that one support the smarter flash mode.

... if you want hi-speed, sync optically with a high speed flash on the shoe.

Bret

If it does I have never found out how. I use an old AF160 to trigger my AF360 in slave mode. This was the subject of just about my first post to this list! Mind you, that was with the K10D, not tried to crack this one with the K20D yet.

K.

I am looking to fire flashes by radio .. not optically. I already fire optically ... so need to know what compatible triggers are out there and that work.

I have 16 channel radio triggers which came from Hong Kong via ebay, they have now been in almost daily use for 4 years and cost about £19. However, they plug into the sync lead sockets on the studio heads. This might be what you are after: link, you will also need a hot shoe adapter which only costs a couple of pounds, all for a fraction of the cost of Pocket Wizards.

... they all work. Depends on the flash head you're using to a certain extent (see Anvh's issues with a 540 and Cactus V4s), but my cactii fire d-lites and Sigma Ef500s without a problem.

Bret

Yep, I could refund them but I've kept them and will buy some cheap second hand flash from ebay, it's cheaper then getting a sync that does work.

The Cactus v4 do work with the Pentax AF360, the design of the syncs are good and the quality decent for the price.
There are some report of the Cactus not working but it fired my flash all the time, it never failed it just syncs to slow with the Pentax AF540, I can only use shutterspeeds slower then 1/15 of a sec
But like I said that isn't the case with the AF360 from what i've heard.

Most of the time it's the problem is that the channel isn't set on the same number.
The best way to sync your flash with the camera is to put the flash on your camera turn them both on and then in the camera Fn menu select the wireless flash, in the top screen the channel number appears and that's the same one that's on the flash now you can change that number by change it on the flash and the camera automaticly follows.

Is that understandable or do you really want a step for step list?

Does this solve the problem, this should make it to work if you set the flashgun on wireless as well.