The camera power supplies are almost certainly switch mode power supplies (like for laptops). As such they have a very wide working voltage - usually 100 - 240V.

Matt

I have had the Smartdisk Flashtrax for some time now.
I have an adaptor for the SD cards. And it's no longer 40Gb... but 160Gb
(Really, really easy to upgrade.)

Yes, it's slow at copying, but I have 5Gb of cards so I transfer at the end of the day while connected to mains. It's pretty quick when used as a USB drive though

And amazingly it reads the thumbnail in all the PEF files, including the K10D.
Matt

I've used both Lexar Pro and Sandisk Extreme III cards - both very good and very cheap from www.picstop.co.uk
Amazingly fast, reliable, and very long warranties.
No point bothering with the "cheaper" ones.
Matt

The other topic on here is:
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4479

Still waiting for "real" (aka concrete) news...
Matt

The other thing that's always bothered me a little...

One thing that's often forgotten is the wavelength of the light. I wonder if the sensors used for the metering (esp. the flash metering) are particularly sensitive to one wavelength - more so than the CCD?

(AFAICT, even the RGB histogram is affected by the colour-space, so you can't take it as a concrete guide )

Just a thought for the melting pot...
Matt

I do know that reflective strips on kids coats are a real, 100% certified nightmare for P-TTL and TTL flash
But normally when you have reflective surfaces you can see that something has reflected the flash and skewed the reading. I can't see any great evidence from the supplied images.
What about other subjects that are definitely not reflective?

(Having seen how my AF360 and AF540 respond on both the *ist-D and K10D I do wonder whether you've got some real problem though).
Matt

I've just tried it on my K10D and I can't make it go wrong. Holding my hand in front of the AF360's red area makes absolutely no difference.

(I did also notice that it's tricky to put the flash in "A" mode. You can do it though, by powering off the K10D, setting the "A" mode, then powering the camera - the mode seems to stick. Now that may be useful...)

I would double check that the flash actually says "P-TTL" on the LCD.
Incidentally, I was using the K10D in Av mode, with ISO100 forced, and tried f/8 at about 0.5m taking a shot of a book.

(You may also want to check which version of firmware you have. I have the latest 1.20. I know that Pentax updated flash control in the early days with the *ist-D when the exposure was all over the show, and they fixed it without declaring it on the version history.)

HTH!
Matt

I'll double check this with my AF360 and AF540... but bear this in mind:

You may be hitting the minimum distance for the flash. The external guns are 3x and 5x more powerful than the popup. Now you might think they can "throttle down" to nothing, but that's not the case.
I reckon what's happening is this: preflash fires, camera says to itself "whoa that's bright", and throttles the flash back to nothing because even 1/32 power would be too bright.

Now that may be off track, but I've been caught by it with TTL and the Z1 with the AF360

If you want to go really close, I suggest you point the flash straight up, and flip out the catch light panel. That'll cut the power down by a looooong way and it should give just enough light for close work (either that or use wireless P-TTL).

But, as I said, I'll double check when I have a minute
Matt

(For completeness...)
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Pentax-put-645-Digital-Medium-format-camera-on...

LOL!
Personally I only use the white translucent ones
I find the silver light much too harsh, especially on digital. But it depends what you're taking shots of
Matt