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My rule of thumb - if you have complete control over the lighting then always, always, always use fully manual

As Mannesty says, you can either use the wireless (light) triggered flash gun approach, or use the simple "dumb" approach. The Pentax and Samsung flashes support both approaches.

If you have a subject that tends to blink on the preflash then use the "dumb" approach (or the Cactus triggers) as you'll get a single flash.

(Start with one flashgun and reflectors, and add a second or third as you get comfortable with the techniques)

...Oh yes, and lots of practice!

Matt

Very rugged, water-resistant, small and lightweight (K7D)
Very intuitive handling.
Superb lenses (some weather resistant too).
Great value for money.

For example, my Pentax gear is about half the weight of my friend's equivalent Canon kit bag

To be honest, a lot comes down to your preference of handling You just have to try out the cameras and find out what works for you - they're all capable of superb image quality these days.

Matt

Better late than never

At the request of Ken (Gartmore), here are the images of the hack to the Pentax grip:

Taking off the cover to reveal the screws:



...another screw...



The plate and bolts that hold the hotshoe grip on. Watch the black wire doesn't break!



Slice a little off the rubber padding so you can get NiMH batteries in the holder!




Close-up view of the 'work' end. One filed out isolation area on the top right (so the digital pin isn't grounded), and one drilled locking hole on the top left to accept the lock pin of the AF540. Pay particular attention to the fact that the locking pin is in line with the bottom left pin, but the digital pin is offset somewhat (you may want to carefully measure against the dSLR hotshoe):


(Measure twice, cut once )

Personally I use Picasa to generate a low res slide show CD. Something 600 pixels is normally sufficient for viewing, but a pain to print.

You can add a horrible watermark if needed using something like IrfanView (IIRC).

Matt

Just a small point - it's crucial that you disable the "AF on shutter half press" and rely on the AF button instead

I've shot school plays etc at ISO800 - ISO2500 in RAW with the DA*50-135 at f/2.8 to f/5.6 and the DA17-70 at f/4 to f/5.6. Most of your success will come down to technique and experience rather than equipment

As commented, using wide apertures at long focal lengths is a recipe for focus-disaster, especially with moving subjects! Even at 135mm, f/2.8 has an extremely shallow depth of field. You have about 8cm of field at 4m - it doesn't take much movement at all before they're out of shot!

Also, don't get paranoid about 'freezing' the motion of everything! Capturing some motion blur (in the right places) will add to the overall feel of the shot - so, as I've said, and as Ken says, timing is everything

Matt

Do you mean the back panel LCD brightness?
(There's a setting for that!)

The viewfinder has no brightness controls - it's optical
And the digital display doesn't have a brightness... I often find cupping my left hand over the viewfinder and my eye helps in bright side lighting.

Matt

Manual is here

I think you mean the "Bounce Lock Release" button?
You have to push it to move the head

Matt

It might be worth considering the DA*16-50 (though I can say the DA17-70 is exceptionally sharp. Ok, it's f/4, but even wide open it's a cracker of a lens! I even use it in dark situations where the 50/1.4 would be used)

The extra width will really help. 24mm isn't really that wide, and you'll probably be wanting a little extra!

Don't worry so much about creating a 'complete' zoom range either. In many ways it's better to have a bit of gap - you can always move closer or farther away!

HTH!
Matt

That really surprised me as well!
Amazing. Kudos to Pentax for providing these!

...but I have a few little niggly K7 bugs to report Must get on with that

Matt