You cannot turn off the preflash on the pop-up.

However, if you use the slaved gun at less than 1/2 power, (depending on the gun), it will have enough power for both preflash and main flash
The problems come when the preflash causes the slave to discharge most of its power (or when the slave has filtering that prevents it from 'seeing' both).

There are also some slave cubes that have switchable preflash suppression

Matt

The Q is DNG only
Which means it'll work out of the box with any DNG-capable RAW converter
(i.e. no option for PEF)
Matt

No and yes.
If you are doing studio portraiture, then what I'm saying is that an all-manual simple flash gun will do the job just as well as an expensive P-TTL flash - because you should be using manual.

If you are serious, then a studio lighting system is the way to go (and you use all manual for these) because they pack a greater punch than a pocket flash unit, and are much more flexible.

But, if you want to just get started and have a good go, then a £30 manual flash gun and some practise will be better than a £400 flash gun and hoping that it will magically light the way you imagine the shot

That's what I meant

Matt

When I get the K5 back I'll try it out...

Oh dear...

I dare not think about this subject. Had a DA17-70 and switched to the DA*16-50... but still rather liked the 17-70 and its range and carry-anywhere ability! But then I have the FA24-90 that I can't quite bring myself to part with (even though I use it so little it pains me), the FA35/2 was rather nice indeed, the A28/2.8 was fun to play with, and the A50/1.4 was such a lovely piece of brick-like solid engineering, and the F100/2.8 macro is getting missed (even though I only ever used it a couple of times a year), the FA80-320 had a nicer rendering compared to the DA55-300 I currently have (though it does have rotating from element and no decent hood other than a sink-plunger type)... then there were some of the Tokinas I had, and some other bits too...

...definitely madness

It's always tricky as there are certainly different requirements. For pro work it's the DA*16-50 & DA*50-135, DA12-24 for me (can't beat that combination). But then the DA*60-250 would be extremely useful too

For fun stuff and walkabout it's something else!! Now the Pentax Q is part of that fun arena.

Oh the joy of Pentax LBA!!!
Matt

Actually, page 129 of the K5 manual says:
(My K5 is in for repair) It may be that you need to hold down the AF button to switch the enable/disable and then pressing OK will center it.

It's probably quicker to rotate the focus point selector - because when you switch back to the choice of AF point it will have remembered where you last were

Matt

Don't forget that if your shot out of camera is two or three stops underexposed, then you will be effectively shooting at that ISO. e.g. if you shot at ISO 200, and the shot/shadows are three stops under, then you have shot at ISO 1600

Looking at the difference between the untouched and PP'd image, I'd say your setup was underexposed, big time.

That said, if you shot RAW then you will find you can pull much more detail out of the shadows without getting significant noise (or more importantly posterisation). JPG captures about 8 bits per colour per pixel, where as the RAW is 12-bits (or 14-bits on K-5). Four bits may not sound much, but it's 16 times the detail (or 64 for the 14-bit). It really is significant.

But, I'd say work hard at getting your in-camera shot closer to your PP'd requirement. That will save you a lot of work later

Matt

The Q has two options for shutter.
The electronic shutter is always available.
The 01 and 02 lenses have a lens/leaf shutter.

The lens shutter provides higher flash sync, IIRC, and probably stops 'tearing' of images when shooting moving or rotating things Must experiment...

(There's a custom option to turn off the lens shutter and only use the electronic shutter)

Having a shutter in the PK adapter might well be a good thing for general compatibility. (Need more data!)

Matt

The flash sync speed is a factor of the camera's shutter mechanism (it's a physical limitation) - it's the fastest shutter speed where both leading and trailing curtains are open (showing a complete sensor). Shutter speeds faster than that require HS mode on the flashgun - the flashgun 'peppers' the sensor with light as the shutter 'slit' moves over the frame.

If you are doing studio work then I would strongly recommend using fully manual Even when using the AF-540 I use manual

Using a flash with "A" will work a treat too - you just set the camera into fully manual and let the flash do the exposure.

With those two options you should be able to get yourself a half decent flash gun set up for almost no money

(Using fully manual for portraiture takes less than 2 minutes to set up and works every time from then on)

Matt

Just to add to JR's comment...
I copied all three sets of firmware (Q, 01, 02) onto one card, and went into the Firmware menu - twice with 01 Standard Prime (body + lens), and once with 02 Standard Zoom.

Quicker than updating a K-5
Matt