Hi there,

Just a couple of questions relating to a flash unit that I picked up for a reasonable price last week. It's an Osram S-440 (I think that's the right model number, though I haven't got it with me at the moment), & it seems to be pretty powerful & quite versatile. (As an aside, it used to belong to a wedding photographer who used it with a Pentax 67, which he was also selling. It's the first time I've seen one of them in the flesh, & blimey, they're massive! But, what surprised me even more was how well balanced it was when I picked it up...)

Anyway, back to the flash - it should do TTL with a dedicated module, but I've not had any luck trying to confirm this on the internet. The guy in the shop reckoned it was compatible with the Metz dedicated modules, which should be easy enough to get hold of. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Secondly, back to the voltage issue. The camera shop man measured the voltage at 11v. I'll initially be using it with a Z-1p, but am I right in thinking that this trigger voltage should be fine with a digital body?

Thanks for any help with these questions,

Jonathan

Just had my first proper picture published, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. It's for an Arts Council brochure, which is co-sponsored by, er, Canon! So my picture sits next to one which they point out was taken on an EOS 1D Mark II, though they didn't seem overly concerned to highlight what model mine was taken on (a Z-1p). Funny that...

Jonathan

I posted here a couple of weeks ago after reading the review, & was surprised by the mention of a poor viewfinder, as Pentax are supposed to be good in this respect.

Anyway, the gist of the review seemed to be that it's a decent camera, the SR works, but it's not yet worth upgrading from any previous Pentax DSLR - wait for the 10MP...

I think they also mentioned high battery costs as a negative point, which seems strange, bearing in mind the availability of rechargable AAs.

Jonathan

Thanks for the tips, & I've just had a look at Irfanview - looks interesting...

Jonathan

Sorry if this is a pretty basic question, but I need to convert some large 50MB TIFFs into small (1MB or smaller) JPEGs, & I don't know if there's a "best" way to do this so as to minimise degradation in image quality. Unfortunately I'm only working on Elements 2, so I guess my options might be limited, though I could use GIMP if that provides any better options. Should I just convert to the appropriate level JPEG in one step, or is there anything else I could try?

Thanks for your help,

Jonathan

Hello everyone,

The K100D is reviewed in this week's Amateur Photographer magazine (on sale today). One thing in particular that surprised me was mention of a less than bright focusing screen. This is contrary to what I've heard about Pentax DSLRs - has anyone used a K100D yet, & how does the viewfinder compare to other Pentax & non-Pentax DSLRs? I speak as a film user, but am looking to get my first digital later this year. I sometimes do fairly low light (theatre) photography, & the K100D's high ISO settings appear quite good, but I also tend to focus manually a lot of the time, so suggestions of a dim viewfinder concern me a bit...

Jonathan

I'm with Dan on this one - half the fun(!) of it is the fact that nine times out of ten the little creature flies/scurries away just before you release the shutter, or else, even more annoyingly, it'll stay put but will use its special insecty powers to induce camera shake or some other photographic calamity!

Jonathan

I don't know for sure as I don't remember much from the late 70s/early 80s that's photography-related (except that I had a Polaroid called "The Button"!), but isn't Pentax's bizarre strategy of releasing lots of cameras with similar specifications (K100D, K110D, *ist DL, *istDL2 etc.) the same as what they did back then with the ME, MVand MG? Did it work back then? And why are they doing it now?

Jonathan

On the same topic, does anyone know who makes Tudor branded film? They sell it for stupid prices in a cheap shop near me, but I'm always a bit scared to try it. I think Tudor also do 110 film, which I don't know much about (& don't know how many units the shop sells a week in order to justify stocking it), but it's made me think about trying to get hold of a nice Pentax Auto 110...

Jonathan

Hi there,

Can anyone help me with a problem that my ME Winder II has developed? Whenever I turn the dial to the on position (either for single or continuous shooting) it winds on continuously until I turn it off. It is currently not attached to a camera, but when it started playing up it seemed to try to wind on before the shutter fired. I acquired it cheaply, & even though it's in good condition it won't be worth repairing unless there's anything that I can do to change its ways - any advice would be much appreciated.

Jonathan