^^ I concur ^^

Bounce the light off the ceiling and you should see a huge improvement. Unfortunately this isn't down to limitations of the equipment, rather limitations in the Laws of Physics...

Normally this combination would have a tendancy to under expose so what you describe is rare. Start by checking the obvious:

1) Is the flash switched to P-TTL mode?
2) Has the camera and/or flash got the flash compensation turned up?

If this still doesn't solve the problem could you post an example picture here? You can resize it (800 pixels along the longest side works well in this forum) but leave the EXIF intact, this will let us see *exactly* what your camera and flash are saying to one another and will help in any diagnosis.

Hi and welcome to the forum

Hi there and welcome to the forum

You're certainly not alone - I've been saying for some while that I'd like to see a square sensor too for the same reasons. Unfortunately the DSLR market seems very conservative so I'm not holding my breath.

Having said that, if one company were to use such a sensor and it proved a success (and I think it would) then we'd see all the others hopping straight onto the bandwagon. Pentax has always had a record for innovation so maybe - just maybe - they'll be the ones to go first. I'll keep my fingers crossed...

Hi there and welcome to the forum

I'm not sure about the "non-linear" part but I was led to believe that the problem with the later Pentax screens is that they've had a bright coating (optional on Katz-Eyes) to make them more bearable when using slower consumer zooms. Unfortunately, when confronted with a genuinely bright lens (say f2.8 or faster) the camera assumes it's looking through an f/4-5.6 aperture and makes its calculations accordingly.

The older DSLR's didn't have the bright coating, hence putting one of the earlier screens in a K10D etc restores the natural balance. If you've bought a Katz Eye screen and specified the bright coating to be applied you'll get the same problem, hence the best bet would be an uncoated Katz Eye screen for MF with older (faster) primes.

I've no experience of that particular model but lenses lacking a focus mechanism are designed to be used with a set of bellows - you find the focus point by moving the bellows in and out.

No reason to suppose it shouldn't be an excellent performer, dedicated macro lenses generally are.

Oops! Perhaps it's 'cos I've never driven one - if I did it might grow on me!

When I was a kid my friend's Dad had an NSU which was nothing but trouble so he chopped it in for a Jaguar XJ6 - any car that makes a Jag look reliable in comparison...