When using a flash in fully "M" mode you have to:
a) keep the flash-to-subject distance constant
b) keep the aperture constant

If you can work with those restrictions then you'll have no problem

Although you can use the flash on "A" (where the flash meters the scene), the flash's sensor is designed for "regular" scenes and will likely not meter correctly when using macro.

If your macro work is a tripod setup then you'll be fine
If you are 'in the field' trying to grab insects and the like you may be ok, but there will be some exposure variation.

HTH!
Matt

LOL!
Let us know how you get on
Matt

I just re-read the post... unless I'm being completely thick (which is possible), that still isn't what I meant
I have a short 4P coiled cable with a hotshoe on one end, and the 4P plug on the other. I suspect it's the same as between the hammer head and camera (that would mount only a little way away).

With the short cable, you could connect into the Hama slave cube and not have any trailing wires.

Was that what you needed?
Matt

But there's the 4P connector - which is a hotshoe-to-flash lead
(I had one with my Pentax grip... but it doesn't get used!)
Matt

Ken,
How about one of these for the Wein,
or even a Hama slave (which is what I use when I'm not using the AF360 & AF540 pair... which isn't often TBH)

EDIT: Ooops! The first one isn't the right way round But there are others that add PC connection to the flash via the hotshoe.

Matt

Perfectly safe in electronic terms

Anything made by Pentax will be fine on all bodies

Matt

BTW:

TTL = available on film, and the first two dSLRs (*ist-D & *ist-Ds)
P-TTL = Pentax's Pre-flash TTL metering used by all current dSLRs.

Matt

The only current swivel head flash gun from Pentax is the AF540-FGZ.
The AF360-FGZ has tilt, but no swivel.
The AF200-FG is fixed.

But, as you say, if they give you a "take it now or never" approach... well, that's usually a good sign to steer clear
Matt

Even when using the pop-up as a non-contributory master it still needs to fire some light to trigger the slaves

How about holding some tissue paper over the pop-up?
(Depending on how close the slaves are of course.)
(Or even some silvered card or paper to reflect the small amount of light towards the slave.)

The advantage of using a full gun for a controller is that you can point the flash away from the subject too...

Just a thought
Matt

You could use an EXIF renamer tool. That way you can rename the files based on date, time, shutter count, aperture etc. There are plenty of freebies around.

Personally, having more than 50k images, I keep my archive in subdirectories of yeardate-event

e.g.
images20092009-12-04 Pentax User Tests

Then RAW converted images go in a subdir under that, as do processed images.

Keeps everything tidy
Matt