Yet another K100d/K10d flash compatibility thread!

I must disagree, I'd like to thank you very much for mentioning it

I was a little uneasy about the prospect of the Sigma, and the Pentax is just too much money.

So now I have a realistic prospect of being able to afford a very well-specified gun, so I'm very grateful.

Thanks ChrisA its nice to know I did someone a good turn.

George to the rescue (of your pension).

There really isn't a lot of point in buying an expensive wireless flashgun, and then buying loads of wires to enable you to use it off-camera. That's what wireless is for.

If you don't want the RTF shining on the subject, deflect it with a bit of card.

If you WANT to use wires (and of course, manual flash by wire or with slave triggers is much more reliable than P-TTL), then buy any old manual flashgun for a tenth of the price. Plus, of course, the wires. Or triggers.

G
The pension saver (unlike our new PM in waiting)

I used to have two Canon fit Sigma 500 DG Super

To clear this up, the LCD and a couple of funky features are the only difference between ST and DG Super - they should both do PTTL.

However, according to Sigma they may not be compatible with Pentax flashes in wireless mode. In Canon style they seem to use the Canon wireless protocol - but they say you need a Sigma flash to trigger them on Pentax which suggests they don't do the Pentax wireless protocol.

If you don't need the wireless stuff, the Sigma flashes are powerful and easy to use - and cheap.

I bought a 540FGZ on Ebay brand new from the UK for £200. I got lucky - I'd like to see anyone else pull that off in a hurry!

Seems a shame to sell your best lens. Or are you saving up for something better?

G

All excellent points, well made and taken.

I suppose I'm looking for the option. If you could switch the pre-flash off on the K10D's built in, I'd use that with the trigger I picked up recently for about three quid, and fire a manual slave off camera. I expect with a bit of trial and error I'd get the exposure right.

But I also want the power... and be able to carry it around, and not have to think too hard. The big guns weigh about a pound - turn that sideways and there's a stress on the shoe that I'd rather avoid.

So a hammerhead thingy on a bracket would seem to be a reasonable option, which was why I was considering the wires.

However, it occurs to me, now that you mention all this, that I could still fire the big gun wirelessly from the built-in, with the big gun on the bracket.

So maybe I can avoid the 60 quid or so for the wire and the adapter.

The way I do this is to mount a small AF240Z on the hotshoe, pointed at the ceiling, and then have a 360 or 400FTZ on a flash bracket.

Flash brackets are quite cheap.

G

Vic, apologies for causing confusion.
If the samsung works (and it appears as though it does) and costs less...no brainer.
If there were any corners cut, materialwise, I doubt an amature would ever abuse it enough to find out.
Some people will pay extra for the Pentax name, and hope the're getting more durability. truth is I don't know for sure, which is why I spent the extra money.

Is that just relying on the flash units' sensors to get the exposure right?

No, I am talking about a situation where I have chosen to set the exposure manually, and the flashguns are set to manual.

However, if used on its own, the AF240Z will often do a better job of exposing correctly on Auto, using its sensor, than the 360FGZ using P-TTL.

G

To George....All I asked in the first place was if anybody had thoughts on the Samsung 54/36 guns.If you look at my posting earlier (AF400T Flashguns) you'll see I don't need any more cables or any other bits as I have a Hotshoe grip - AF280 - 2 x AF400T 2 x TR Power packs AF500FTZ Plus 4 little slave units that fit to the bottom of any flashgun and make them fire when any other flashgun (built in gun etc.) is used. Exposure on Digital cameras is then easy to correct as the picture is instantly available for veiwing. As to my first question about the Samsung guns it is just because I want an on camera flashgun for normal everyday use and now I understand P-TTL a lot better I will most probably get a Samsung 54 when I am ready.

Interesting point, this, one that I had completely missed until I tried it.

Since the pre-flash on the K10D can't be switched off, AFAICS, using one of those little slave triggers with the built-in flash is completely useless - the pre-flash fires the slave, and by the time the shutter opens, the flash from the slave is long since over.

It is possible to achieve this without a P-TTL flash gun, by putting another manual gun on the hot shoe, and using that as the master to trigger the slave.

But it's a pain, since one of the nice things about the built-in is that it's very small, and therefore ideally suited to moving around with the camera (probably with the compensation set to max negative), and using the one or more flashes off camera to provide most of the light.

If only they'd put "pre-flash on/off" in the firmware.

But it would mean they'd sell fewer flashguns, so I can't see it happening, sadly.

To Vic....I was responding to Chris. If you look at my posting earlier you'll see that.

G