I use both the 360 and 540. The 360 is very compact and great for carrying around. The 540 has nice options for tethering.
And for studio work I use them both at once
Matt

I have a list of things to try... Will come back with results later (probably next week).
Matt

Well, I run Silkypix on my aging Toshiba M200 - which is (IIRC) a 1.6GHz Centrino. But it does have 1Gb RAM (and needs it!).
For the sake of £20 or so, I'd suggest having a go at upgrading the RAM.

It also depends on what you mean by rather slow Even on my high end quad core Xenon with 2Gb RAM processing from RAW does take a while! RAW processing is a relatively slow process - expect in the region of 20 to 60 seconds per image (depending on what processing options you apply).

Not sure if it's in the Pentax software, but the best approach is to tag all the images you want after tuning them, and then process the lot in a batch while you have a cup of tea

Matt

Thanks Gwyn!
And I was resigned to no more updates for the K20D
I'll check it out later and see what else has been done (if anything). Good news about the SR accuracy though!
Matt

Simon,
Anything that is TTL dedicated for Pentax will only work in A and M modes (not TTL, nor P-TTL) on the K10D/K20D etc. But, as a slave, with a suitable "slave cube" then you can trigger it.

As far as I am aware, any flashgun that has "A" and "M" (with power ratios for manual mode, i.e. 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 etc) will do the job. Even if it's dedicated for a particular brand you can use it as a slave. If it's a dedicated flash without fully manual mode then I'd leave it alone

HOWEVER, I'd advise going for more "generic" (ie non-dedicated) flashguns - then you can still mount them on the hotshoe and get A & M out of them.

If you try and mount a Canon/Nikon/etc dedicated flash on your camera - you risk damaging one or the other!!! But with a "generic" flash you'll be ok (providing you haven't got stupidly high trigger voltages on the flashgun).


One of the funniest things I did was set up a studio setup with the AF540 in slave 2 mode and let my friend (with Canon gear) use it slaved from his pop-up. Worked a treat

Hope that helps!
Matt

I have a 36" x 24" canvas from an *ist-D (6Mp), shot RAW and upsized in Photoshop.
Printed at PhotoArtistry.co.uk
Looks great

It would also depend on the subject of the image
Matt

Paul,
If it works for you... then don't worry overly.
My problems:
* Driver incompatibilities
* Video driver interaction is AES encrypted in an attempt to protect "paid for" content (e.g. films) - but this has an impact on performance. This is part of Vista's DRM controls.
* Stability issues
* General code bloat

In the industry, Vista has been compared to the ill-fated Windows ME (remember that?). Many businesses still insist on XP and will not allow Vista - hence the reason that most business Dell machines, and pretty well all business Toshibas come with XP downgrade rights

If I was just using the PC for surfing, email, OpenOffice and Photoshop then Vista might be an option. However, I need so many applications (it takes about 3 weeks to install everything) that I can't afford the time to debug Vista compatibility issues.

At the moment XP just works

I do like Linux and OS X (which is based on FreeBSD)... most of my specialised apps will work under Wine (the Windows emulation), but there are still some things that won't run on those platforms. So, basically I'm tied into Windows XP because I can't afford to relicense all the software I need. Kind of "better the devil you know" as well.

As far as I can see, Windows 7 is being rushed out to regain things. But even then, I'd wait until SP1 before considering an "upgrade".

Have a Google

Matt

Each to their own

I run XP because I know what's going on inside Vista. I've been coding for Windows since Windows 3.1 And there are lots of reasons I'm not buying into Vista.
Maybe Windows 7... if OS X doesn't get me first

Matt

Hmmm. Another reason I'm still running on XP
Matt

Martin,
With the ISO on an e-dial you can press the Green button to instantly switch to Auto-ISO.
If you want to override the ISO just rotate the e-dial
And press the Green button for auto again

Matt