Thanks Kim,

I hope you were able to make use of the pdf manuals I sent you recently. Now, where can I find Mike Spencer ?

Regards, Peter Smith.

Hello,

I have a circa '83/84 Super-A body and the shutter does not operate. Metering fires up etc. when the shutter release is pressed halfway. I have a copy of the repair/spares manual so if anybody out there can tell me which part to look at I can have a go. It'll be bin-fodder or spares/repairs on eBay otherwise, which would be a shame because it was a great camera. I only wish I'd gone for the f1.2 50mm A lens instead of the f1.7 when I bought it all those years ago.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated? In particular, where can I get the tools to undo those round slotted nuts? Stilsons are a bit overkill and my son's borrowed the mole-grips

Regards, Pete Smith.

The built-in flash uses P-TTL mode. Essentially, when you make an exposure with flash on, it actually fires twice (not to be confused with red-eye reduction) once to illuminate the scene for the camera to measure light levels etc, and a second flash for the actual exposure.

I can confirm that when using the AF360FGZ in wireless mode off-camera with my *istDS, BOTH flashes trigger twice. Again, my understanding is that the camera and popup flash is in P-TTL mode where the flash(es) fire once for the camera to do its measurements (evidenced by visible flash in viewfinder with mirror down), and then a second time for the actual image recording. The ofcamera AF360FGZ in slave 2 mode can be set to either 'A' or 'M' flash modes. This operation is actually very easy to prove. Place the AF360FGZ in front of the camera with the flash head pointing at the lens. Take a photo in Auto-Photo mode and watch the off-camera flash in the viewfinder. When you release the shutter, 1) you will see the slave flash fire in the viewfinder because the mirror is still down for the first flash, and 2) you should record a very bright flash image in the shot when the camera records the shot. Again, I believe the camera and its popup are in P-TTL mode and the slave is in 'A' or 'M' mode but the whole shot is processed as P-TTL.

My understanding is that the 'wireless' functionality is even cleverer than that in that P-TTL mode is also used. When setup correctly, the pop-up flash fires and triggers the off-camera AF360FGZ at which point the camera does its sums and works out the 'perfect' exposure. Then the whole process is repeated using the cameras computed settings and the image captured. To me this is not true wireless operation, more enhanced slave mode. That said, I believe the AF360FGZ can work with another AF360FGZ in true wireless mode in that the two guns have to be on the same 'channel'. I have only just received my first AF360FGZ and am still finding new functions to explore. I have it mounted atop my *istDS.

My outfit is istDS, AF360FGZ, AF400FTZ. Using the AF360 as the primary and the AF400 off-camera. The AF400 on a cheap photo-slave trigger does fire too early and with the AF360 on-camera TTL mode seems to be not an option. P-TTL mode and SB are they only modes I can select on the gun when it is on the camera. The other way round works OK however. AF400 as primary and AF360 in Slave 2 mode and 'A' flash mode it works just fine. I don't know about the istD capabilities.

I have my use aperture ring permission set to allow and with my kit DA 18-55 lens (no aperture ring) or my Tamron SP 500mm Mirror (f4 fixed aperture) on everything 'seems' to work OK. The lens stops down with preview in all modes.

What I have discovered is that the A lenses don't give an exposure measurement unless the lens is set to A or M (use preview to check exposure in M Mode and adjust shutter speed). To summarise:-

With 'KA' lens fitted:-
Lens set to A - Everything works in all modes
Lens not set to A. Mode set to M, use preview to make exposure check and adjust shutter accordingly.
Lens not set to A, Mode not set to M or B, exposure is automatic and the only indication of the exposure is the captured image. Exposure compensation can be used to correct an incorrect exposure.

I think I might have stated the blindingly obvious here. Apologies if I have.

: Why keep changing the aperture ring permission : . I don't think it affects any lens operation if it is left enabled. I have a mixture of F, FA, DA, A, and manual non-pentax lenses and I have not noticed anything odd with the operation of any of them.

I have extracted the following from page 179 of the *istDS manual (download it from http://www.pentaximaging.com/customer_care/manuals_literature )


Manual operation:-
Quote
Pictures can be taken with the set aperture value and shuttr speed. In the viewfinder [F--] appears for the aperture indicator. When depth of field is checked (Preview), AE metering is switched on. Exposure check is possible.
Unquote.

All Lenses having a 'K' Mount will work with the DS in Manual mode. Screw mount lenses need an adapter but will still work.
I have some old 'KA' lenses and they work great with lens set to 'A'.
The only manual lens I have (no 'A' setting is a fixed aperture Tamron 500mm mirror lens, and that works great too.

For a more complete list of capabilities and available lens functions, download the manual.

Its fairly safe to use the following rule of thumb:- If it was made by Pentax, for a Pentax SLR, it'll probably work with a Pentax SLR (including the new digital SLR's) with some minor limitations. That said, it may not be true 100% but everything I have, including AF280T, AF400FTZ, AF360FGZ flashguns and ALL of my old 'KA' (20+ years ) lenses work fine.

HTH.