Slave Flash question from newbie

Hi,

Just joined as am hoping to get a K10D very soon, all being well from srsmicrosystems. Thinking of joining the club magazine too. There is an offer to buy a slave flash for £6. I have no clue so could people advise?

The Slave Flash attaches to a bracket and a hot shoe? Do you buy these separately? It is triggered by the light of the standard flash on the camera? What is it most useful for? How does that compare with an additional flash gun placed on top of the camera?

Many thanks

Welcome to the forum and the world of the K10D

Regarding the flash:
The little/tiny Pentax slave flash won't work with the pop-up of a K10D

It is like a matchbox-sized flash that has a plastic stand. Unfortunately the digital SLRs all have P-TTL flash which fires a pre-trigger and then the main flash. Alas, the pocket slave will trigger on the preflash and have nothing left for the main flash.

The only way to make it work is to use a "dumb" flash on the K10D hotshoe - a flash that fires only a single burst of light (any flash in "M" or "A" mode).

Hope that helps!
Matt

ok thanks for reply. What would you use this flash for? If it looks like it might be of use at some point and this is a good price I might just get one anyway.

Technically this is not entirely true. It will work with the pop up flash, however, I only managed to get it to work with the camera set to M and using an older lens with an apature ring and setting the desired aperture using the ring (i.e. not set to 'A'). You then need to work out flash to subject distance and set the apature accordingly.

I've got one of those little slaves, it has come in handy a couple of times for "special effects". Quite good fun to have around, particularly given the price.