This is difficult to explain, but I'll try. In PTTL, Pentax flashes never contribute enough light. In a dimly lit room, I can set my AF540 to fire at +1 power(maximum!) in PTTL, and it still contributes nearly NO useful light to the photograph(Bouncing the light off of the low white ceiling). The camera is still bumping its ISO up to 3200 and beyond. It's useless. BUT if I put the flash into manual (1/4 power or something), I am then able to get a beautifully lit scene using only ISO 400.

This is why I refuse to use PTTL for any situations - because I can never make it do what I want. I don't know if I'm just that useless with it, or if it's just that useless. It's one of us, to be sure!

[quote:3496ace15f="johnriley]
How about a simple flash bracket - the bracket attaches to the tripod amount and there's a handle with a cold shoe on top to hold the flash. Lots of these on eBay I'm sure.[/quote]I own tons of those, yeah. It is a solution, yes, but I'd really like to find a solution to this problem that doesn't require me to use those very unreliable shoes. I always run into technical problems when I've got one between my body and flash unit.

Well geez. Thank you. I knew it had to be simple like that! I've always been trying it in M or TaV.

Well that means I've found an inconsistency in Pentax's design. If in a bracketed shot, Tv locks the shutter and Av locks the aperture, why doesn't TaV lock both and make the ISO vary?

Oh well, it's not really that important.

Thanks again, John.

Ideal for most situations, but in this case, the flash has to stay attached to the body (I'm bouncing the light anyway, so it looks fine). I had two camera bodies with flashes around my neck while I was running around getting shots. It would have been difficult to then also have the flashes off camera.

Thank you for the suggestion, but I already own 6 flashes, and my AF540 and AF360 are the best I've used. I'd rather not buy any more. I'd rather make these work.

Sometimes, I like to take a 3-shot bracketed exposure for landscapes and things. Well to change the exposure from shot to shot, it seems Pentax cameras like to modify the shutter speed AND the sperture from shot to shot.

So my three shots would be 1: 1/250, f8 2: 1/160, f6.3 3: 1/125, f5.6

So my depth of field is changing from shot to shot along with the exposure. NOT USEFUL!

Does anybody know if I can isolate which aspect I'd like to bracket? Let's say I want to only bracket the shutter, or only bracket the aperture, or only bracket ISO - how do I set that? (I'm using both the K10 and the K7, so I'd like to know if it's possible on either camera)

I want to be able to shoot with my external flash in manual and with the camera using a slow shutter speed. It sounds simple, yet I can't do it.

Indoors at an event yesterday, I wanted to use 1/20th shutter (K7) and 1/4 flash power (AF540). I had my camera on manual. I tried to set my flash to manual. It would refuse to do it; it would set itself back to PTTL stubbornly every time. I was ONLY able to use my flash in manual if I set my camera to X-Sync, so I was stuck with a 1/180th shutter. Gah!

I tried to do this with my K10/AF360 combo. Same result. What am I missing? I know this has to be possible, but why can't I make it work?

Can any of you get your camera in 1/20th and manual flash power? If so, how are you doing it? This issue is driving me mad(I've asked this question in the past, haha)

Well yes, if for some reason you're shooting at really high ISOs, then of course there's nothing in camera that will be as good as something like the Noise Ninja plugin in Photoshop.

I'm simply talking about the simplest way to convert your images to Black and White, and my advice still stands.

The best way to get good monochrome images without using a computer is to shoot the image in colour like normal. Never shoot with your camera in the Black and White setting. Never.

(If you do that, all you're doing is limiting your options and getting a mediocre B&W conversion. Shooting in colour so you can convert with more control later is the way to go.)

You then take the colour image and use the camera to do the conversion afterwards. Why would that be? Because the onboard image editing on the K20, K7 and K-X is awesome. For the conversion, you can choose to emphasize the Red, Green, Blue or "Infrared" channels of the image. This allows for some very striking B&W conversions. And it's quicker and simpler than using the channel mixer in photoshop.

Seriously, it's the best way.

Do you see that button that says "edit"?

When the Pentax rep comes to our store for his yearly spiel, he always takes out a plastic tub, places a Pentax with lens inside, and pours a 2L bottle of water over it. He then leaves it like that in the corner of the room as he gives us his 2 hour demonstration. Then once he's done his presentation, he takes the camera out and lets us play with it and take shots with it.

He does this every year. It seems these cameras can take at least a little bit of water pressure.

You caught me! What I did was put the K10 on a tripod, composed my shot with the two K7s on the ground and then set the self timer on the k10. I then pressed the shutter release, quickly took it off the tripod and placed in on the ground beside the other two cameras. That's how I got all three cameras in the shot.