Well, I've just Googled here and it says it's compatible with the AF540...

The only issue that I can think of is that the hotshoe on the Phottix may have confused the AF540 - I've found that if some of the Pentax dedicated pins are shorted to the main area of metal that the flash gets "stuck". Maybe this is what's happened to you?

When testing this out I cut out a piece of 35mm film leader and used it to insulate the dedicated pins on the flash

As far as I am aware the AF540 should trigger normally if only the centre pin and outer (ie main metal) are shorted.

(FWIW, there are some adapters, from Hama I think, that provide an insulated hotshoe with just the centre pin)

Does that make sense?
Matt

Stills for me

Have done the occasional bit of video - but the pain and time of post production just completely puts me off! I have to have my arm twisted to do anything video

So, stills definitely - I much prefer catching a "moment" in time.


Though the new technologies of mixed SLR/video, plus a new iMac might swing me more towards video...
Matt

What settings have you tried on the AF540?

The AF540 should be in normal mode (ie NOT wireless - because that's the Pentax P-TTL flash wireless not your Phottix), and in either "A" or "M" mode.

PS. Did you know the K10D can trigger remote P-TTL to the AF540 without any extra equipment??

Matt

...you need both histogram views

You may have an image that has a luminance histogram that sits nicely inside, BUT is seriously clipping on an individual channel.

Clipping on a single channel might be fine - some RAW converters can recover from the other two channels (e.g. Lightroom). However, it's likely that you'll experience a colour shift in these circumstances.

A shot of a bright yellow dandelion can blow out the red channel, for example. In my last shot in the gallery I manually brought back some texture detail in the yellow by some channel mixer magic in Photoshop

Matt

LOL! I had to find the hardest answer I could

Basic answer:
1) If the front element rotates then the hood is always circular.
2) To get the most effective hood you want to extend as far as you can - a rectangular hood would be great, but it's not very convenient. A petal hood approaches the rectangular for effectiveness while being portable like a round.

Matt

Googled this: http://toothwalker.org/optics/lenshood.html

In a way, yes - it's very specifically Pentax. The Pentax PhotoLab reads the settings from EXIF that were set on camera and starts the RAW conversion with that.

Other converters start from their own default position. The third party converters do this because some manufacturers still keep a lid on the complete EXIF information

Matt

Glad to help Amin
Happy shooting!
Matt

Depends on the RAW converter

The embedded JPG image always has the settings applied, but the RAW image is just that - the data straight from the sensor with absolutely no processing applied (saturation, sharpness, curves or otherwise).

ALL camera settings and information are buried in EXIF data (which doesn't actually change the image, but are like little post-it note tags on the image).

But note that the Pentax supplied software reads the settings from the EXIF and applies it to match what you had set

Other software completely ignores the embedded EXIF data and just applies the defaults in the software (e.g. Silkypix) - so the camera settings are not relevant. In these cases you'll see the preview change - for example Silkypix will show the embedded JPG until it has had a chance to decode the RAW and apply its values. You'll see the image change as the RAW converter works out its stuff (which is actually annoying sometimes, since I like the look of the out-of-camera embedded JPG!).

Matt

Just to explain the ETTR (Expose To The Right) thing a bit more -

The sensor is linear, but the light levels are logarithmic. This fact affects the noise levels in the shadows. So, the top 1Ev of the exposure occupies a full half of the digital levels (ie 2048 levels of a 12-bit RAW). The next 1Ev of exposure occupies 1024 levels; the next 1Ev occupies 512 levels and so on.

By the time you get in the muddy waters of 6Ev down there are only 64 digital levels available and the noise starts overwhelming things.

So, ideally you want your subject sitting where there's most digital information - in the top stops of exposure.

But, of course, everything is a compromise. You may not want the background blown into oblivion (because an overexposed digital image is not recoverable - the sensor just max's out and can't record anything, unlike film which has a "knee" and tailed off in its response). So, you have to pull back the exposure to kind of fit everything you want in.


With the bird shots the background probably isn't that important - you can blow it out in order to get the bird exposed correctly.

For landscapes and the like, using ETTR you can find that the recorded image (having done ETTR) looks too bright and washed out. Don't worry - you can correct that in developing from RAW and with a little PP. However, you can make use of the preview clipping in the K20D to show where you've blown stuff out.

The bottom line is that you often have to use Manual and a few test shots to get the exposure sitting where you want it on the histogram - but if the situation allows for ETTR you'll end up with far more tonal information than if you underexpose trying to make it "look right" on the LCD of the K20D

Does that help?
Matt