Isn't it the sound of the aperture actuator? (ie stepping down the lens)
A bit of a 'zip-zziiip' kind of noise?
With the lens off you should see the lever beneath the mirror move forward to push the aperture pin.
Matt

K100D - use the AE-L button when in "M" exposure mode. See page 146 of the manual
See also page 188 about using the aperture ring - it mentions that for M mode "When depth of field is checked (Optical preview), AE Metering is switched on". So, presumably you have to meter by stopping down on the K100D?

Ditto

K5 utterly walks over all the other Pentax dSLRs
(Even at low ISOs where the huge dynamic range is incredibly useful for me).

That said, all the dSLRs (including the *ist-D) can produce excellent images! I'm still using the original *ist-D

Matt

FWIW, the K10D & K20D had extremely aggressive action when using flash. Even the slightest highlight would slug the flash so that often images would be severely underexposed.

The K7 & K5 flash control is (IMHO) generally better, especially given the fact that the K5 has astonishingly good dynamic range (esp in RAW).

I'm sure there's a rational explanation to the situation you have shown...
...I'd really like to examine the full EXIF (i.e. from exiftool) information from the shots you show at f/3.5. You see the EXIF contains the ambient light levels, the preflash levels and the slave flash levels across all 77 segments. That data may well help explain.

Failing that, I'll try and find a little time to setup the same kind of test (I have the AF360, AF540 & Metz 50MZ5). At the moment I still have the K7 and *ist-D as well (and a newly acquired semi-dud K10D) so I can compare across a wide range of situations

Matt

Very striking image! Well done
Matt

PM sent.

I've just had one Extreme III go
The corner by the lock switch cracked. Superglued it... and it's just about working, but I'm not using it.

Currently using two of the Samsung tough 8Gb cards. Haven't done any speed comparisons, but they certainly feel better built than the Sandisk (IIRC, they claim 1.5ton car can drive over them, and you can put them in water for up to 24hr! :shock

I was wondering if I could claim my lifetime warranty on the broken Sandisk...

Matt

You can generate your own: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

We generated a small QR code online and my son made it out out of Lego (it ended up about one foot square ). His Android app read it just fine!
(Though the white border is important too!)

This might be of interest: http://sourceforge.net/projects/zbar/

EDIT: zbarimg on Windows just read the URL from your supplied IMGP file


Matt

No
As the saying goes - you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

Composition and correct exposure are your first priority. You should be able to get very close to what you envision within the camera... and then you can take it further with Photoshop (even Elements will do 95% of most people's photographic needs).

Check out some of the excellent tutorials and videos on the sister site - ePhotozine

Another tip - visit your local library and borrow books on photography, composition, lighting and exposure. Google Books does have some snippets of decent books too

Matt

It does look about 3 or 4 stops underexposed (making it ISO4000 to 8000 - hence the noise).

Shame Flickr has stripped most of the EXIF Exiftool, or even PhotoMe will tell you three sets of exposure readings - pre-flash, slave-flash, and ambient across all metering segments. That info is very helpful in working out what happened

If you don't mind, email me the original JPG and I'll do some checking
(PM me for email)
Matt