Sorry John,

That last message was from me, but somehow I failed to notice that it had "lost" my signature

Yes John, I agree with you on your comments regarding "tests" and "reviews".

I remember reading the tests in Practical Photographer all those moons ago. Sometimes the descriptions of the "rigs" used to test the various aspects of the body/lens under scrutiny was an article in itself. By the time you finished reading the test, and the details of the instruments used to measure each aspect, and the accompanying graphs and charts, you felt that the only thing missing was a "credit" stating that the test had been performed in NASA's, or the Atomic Energy Commission's laboratories or some other such august facility

If my memory is correct even details such as shutter speeds were often somehow actually measured for accuracy.

Well first of all may I wish a very happy, and snappy ? New Year to all members. Now that Christmas is over I thought I would get in my quota of questions in early!!

I am wondering about how best to use the AF360FGZ and AF500FTZ together (with *istD) in wireless slave mode e.g. the 360 as the primary light source and the 500 as the secondary source. The question is : do I use the 360 in TTL mode only - disregarding P-TTL, or, if I use the P-TTL function, will the P-TTL "pre-flash" cause the 500 to fire too early?

Regards to all

I was standing in a store the other day looking at some storage media when a voice behind me said "What do you think of the Pentax?" A complete stranger had spotted the *istD on my shoulder and was apparently eagerly awaiting delivery of one. We stood talking for a while and in the course of the conversation Photoshop came up. I commented that a lot of people were disappointed that no RAW plug-in was available for the older versions of Photoshop. "Not so!" says he, "I'm still using V7, take a look at the Pentax site!". So I did, and here's a link that might make somebody happy. We parted company, he was happy that he had had his first physical touch of an *istD and I was happy that I had some information that might make other users happy.

http://www.pentaxusa.com/digitalupdate/includes/ps_plug/ps_plugin.htm

PENTAX *ISTD RAW DATA PHOTOSHOP PLUGIN MODULE

Pentax is pleased to introduce a Photoshop plugin module that will allow the direct importation of Pentax *istD RAW images into Adobe Photoshop.
System requirements: Windows ME/2000/XP, MacOS 9.0 or later, MacOS X 10.1.3 or later.
This plugin will only recognize Pentax .PEF files (*istD RAW data).
Usable with Adobe Photoshop 5.0 or later.
Add custom processing of RAW picture data during import.

Seeing a mention of the PC Synch socket elsewhere, I thought you might be interested in this story.

Shortly after I got my *istD at the tail end of last year, I decided to checkout some "old" equipment with it. I set up a Vivitar 283 (approx 20 years old, but still being produced today!!!) on a tripod and connected it to the *istD via the PC synch socket. Everything worked perfectly and I have used this setup a number of times since.

However about three weeks ago, I set up the same system, went to run off a couple of test shots and ........ "phut"!!!!. I pressed the shutter release and nothing happened, or to be more correct what happened was that there was a short barely perceptible sound from the *istD but little else. Disconnecting everything and trying to fire the camera by itself simply produced a very very low sound as if the mirror was attempting to flip up but not actually succeeding in doing so.

At the moment the camera is now with Pentax, who have said they will repair it free of charge as it is still within warranty - with the usual caveats of course. I don't know what the full story is so far, but at least, when I originally contacted them they didn't throw their hands up in horror saying "Oh no, you shouldn't have done that"

As often happens in cases like this you go throw the motions automatically and it's only after something goes wrong that you begin to doubt your motions e.g camera off? yes. Flash of? yes. Make connections, switch everything on, and away we go.

If their findings are anything out of the ordinary, I will let you know - just in case.

As a slight aside, is anybody aware of any "adapter" that will allow "hot shoe only" cameras e.g MZ3 etc to use a PC cable for off camera connection to the likes of the Vivitar 283.

Hi all,

This may sound like, in fact probably is, a daft question !!

When using the AF360FGZ on an MZ3 in a "direct flash" situation i.e. no bounce, catch-light or other method of diffusion, how does one control the dreaded red-eye. Having just run off the first couple of rolls of film in a long time - managed to leave the *istD out of my hands for a short while - but not yet having seen the results, it suddenly struck me that on the few occasions I used the 360 there was no "pre-flash". And looking through the manuals doesn't exactly help either.

Anybody got any views?

Hi all,

I have a somewhat unusual question.

Can anybody supply me with an *istD .pef file which is smaller than 5Mb. I am using a neat little package called "XnView DeLuxe" which does not read Pentax RAW files yet. I have been in touch with the authors and they have asked me to send a sample file. However their email system does not allow attachments larger than 5Mb hence the need for the file.

I don't know if Vuescan Professional can help here - I haven't purchased it yet. However, users of Vuescan Professional (Matt???), can Vuescan Pro crop an area from an original .pef file and save the selection as a RAW file whilst preserving the .pef "characteristics"?

XnView is quite a handy little app. For anybody who doesn't have such a facility it is a file viewing/archiving/ retouching/slideshow utility. Now as regards "manipulating" it ain't no Photoshop but the archiving feature is quite handy - plenty of different fields etc for archiving information and only costs 40 Euro. (It also reads Canon RAW files - I don't know what others it might read) You can get a freeware version, and buy if desired, at the address below.

If this request cannot be fulfilled, can anybody think of another solution - other than sending a file by snail-mail?

http://www.xzeos.net/site_xnview_uk/

Regards to all

Hello Matt,

Apologies for being so late with this, but many thanks for the information above on scanning - all very helpful. I somehow suspect that I'll be sending Mr Hamrick the few dollars for Vuescan and your response has given me something to work on.

When you say you are getting the *istD "profiled", what will that produce? does it enable Mr Hamrick to write Pentax data into Vuescan or is it a file/plugin which can be used by Pentax users?

regards

Hi Matt,

I've moved this message to a new thread in case the topic of scanning starts to grow either through my own questions or other users comments.

First of all, many thanks for your response to my original query on the "Resolution and Quality" thread. I have downloaded Wysiwyg and the trial version of Vuescan (V7.6.72) as you suggested. Vuescan certainly gives you plenty of options and "twiddly bits" to play with - if you know what they all do - but at least it seems that you can start "simple" and then expand your control as you learn.

Can I ask a couple of general questions regarding scanning (film) before I go any further? Is it necessary to do a "prescan/preview scan" before doing the "proper" scan? Does the prescan actually "set-up" the scanner to do the actual scan?

I also did my first batch of scans from colour negative film on the Minolta today (Minolta default software with no correction applied during scanning) and immediatley noticed that the scans from negatives produced output that could almost be printed/displayed without further correction - well almost, if you know what I mean. But they certainly had the appearance that you could get away with less post-scan "intervention" than the initial output from slides? Is this generally the case?

With regard to Vuescan itself, I noted that the User Guide refers to the ability to create RAW files from the scan. However when I go to the "Output" options there is no sign of a RAW tick-box. Even deselecting TIFF and JPEG does not cause a RAW option to appear. Is there something else I should be doing or is the RAW facility only made available following purchase of the utility?

Regards

Sorry folks,

The previous questions, image size and Linear Processing, should have had my name attached.