No problem Road_Dancer ('Twas somewhat tongue-in-cheek!)
Matt

Quick look - pretty excellent considering the conditions!

My initial thoughts:
1. High ISO has produced some noise. But I know Silkypix will do a good job of it.
2. There's limited DoF. You may want to do a focus check and adjust
3. Could be some motion blur in the bird. At 400mm and 1/400s it's likely that any movement in the bird will produce blur - my evidence is that the body features seem sharper than the head.

I'll run it through Silkypix/LR/PS and see what pops out...

Matt

Glad you sorted it Ray

When the situation is completely under your control - Manual is the way to go (even if it means a poke in the eye from Basil ).

The onboard technology is excellent for situations where you have no control, but even then it can get it wrong! With the kind of setup you described, using auto might have got some of the shots but others could be wildly off - and you'd have no idea if it was you or the system!

There's a lot to be said for going back to "basics"

Matt

Think of it like this - camera fires pre-flash trigger; Sigma fires (almost) into the lens; camera goes "woah! this is bright", and asks the Sigma to fire a tiny amount.

Manual. Manual. Manual.
Did I mention that you should use Manual mode?
The camera doesn't magically "know" that you're trying to produce a rim-lit subject - it just works on what light enters the matrix metering.

Matt

Nope

The original TTL is a single flash, through-the-lens metering. Instead of the flash doing the metering (as in the older "A" style flash) the camera had a separate sensor taking a reflective reading off the film - telling the flash when to stop. (The camera's multi-segment meter is only usable when the mirror is down.)

P-TTL, which uses a preflash, ditches the separate sensor (apparently there were issues with the reflectivity of the CCD in digital, plus an extra cost) and makes use of the camera's regular metering system. The flash fires before the mirror goes up (you can just discern the preflash through the viewfinder) - so the matrix metering system cna be used. When that's done, the mirror goes up and the main flash fires. The gap between preflash and main flash is usually tiny (fractions of a second), so sometimes it is perceived as a single flash.

As mentioned elsewhere, the original *ist-D and *ist-Ds were the only cameas that supported the original TTL.


For the OP's requirement (dancer on a black background) I would strongly suggest using everything in manual mode anyway. Any metering system will be wildly out when shooting against black

Start with:
* Camera to "M", 1/125s, f/8, ISO 400
* Flash to "M", power at 1/4

If the image is too dark do one or more of:
+ Use a wider aperture
+ Use a higher ISO
+ Increase the flash power
+ Put the flash closer to the subject (if remote)

If the image is too light, do one or more of:
- Use a smaller aperture
- Use a lower ISO
- Reduce the flash power
- Put the flash further away (though this makes it more of a point source)

Even then, with the camera's pop-up trying to provide the main fill you may have issues. Pentax metering is effectively two sided - even if the camera (i.e. ambient) metering is in "M", then any P-TTL flash (pop-up included) will meter on its own. So, you'll have limited control over what the pop-up can do.

For the situation you describe, the best approach is a cheap manual flash on the hotshoe, and the Sigma running as remote for the outline fill.

To be honest, it's harder to describe that to do It's the kind of setup that I could put up and adjust in under ten minutes and be ready for shooting. Once it's all set in manual mode you just fire away and don't think (since the lighting is now completely under control).

HTH!
Matt

P.S. This info and more is covered in my e-book for Pentax digital flash (Not that I'm plugging - it's just that you might find it helpful in gaining an understanding!)

Mike - yes, a shed-load of post processing in that shot, and doubtless a pile of compositing as well
...and after all that I still don't like the bokeh

It's very difficult these days to get everyone to appreciate the vast difference between out-of-camera and PP'd results. Many make judgments based on finished, PP'd results (where often the image has been professional PP'd by someone who only does PP!!!)

Matt

Re: virus on Windows & performance - run Eset NOD32 antivirus. Not only will it wipe out the viruses (I cleaned up a laptop that had 29 active viruses in only 30min!). Almost no performance hit.

But I'd still switch
Appreciate all the links everyone! Don - I already know a fair bit of "under the hood" OS X having dug around in BSD, plus lots of reading. Finding out what the core was influenced me to consider Mac afresh

So much to learn, and so little time
Matt

Brilliant Thanks for all the extra info!
Don - appreciate the comment I don't have a problem with the glossy screens - I tend to work in near darkness for photography anyway (also because the Tosh laptop has such a dim and poor display )
I use VirtualBox on PC for Linux/old Windows etc, so that was known about too.

Silkypix is due for v4, and I am hoping that I can offset the v3 Windows price against the price of v4 Mac (Though there's no firm info at present.) Looks like all the upgrades are coming at about the right time

I'm going to head off to the local Apple dealer and chat over the migration and other things....
Matt

Thanks Unlocker
There's an Apple store pretty much right next to work
Bootcamp would still be out - there's no way I'm paying £175+ for a Vista license just for the odd occasion But it's no problem though - I can live without it!
(And I can't agree with the "Mac costs 4x more" - when you factor in the Vista license cost )

I can hang on for a bit - cash flow won't allow it immediately. But the impetus is there for the switch over... I'm just about ready to throw the towel in on Windows!

Glad that some of you are running Win & Mac and coping with the constant switch between OS GUIs

Will keep you posted...
Matt

Just a couple of techie questions:

1) What NTFS support do you get/have? I have external USB2 drives that are NTFS formatted.

2) Are there any issues connecting to Windows network shares? (ie SMB/Samba)

3) Any experience on the LCD quality of the 20" and 24" iMac? (Preferably the newer one...). I'd use ArgyllCMS on it in anycase.

4) Any comparative reviews of PC vs Mac with: (a) bootup time, (b) Photoshop CS2/CS4 startup from cold, (c) Silkypix performance, etc?

Matt