Quite a few of us have treated the D FA28-105 as a "Ready for Full Frame, good for now too" option ... Here's a few examples with the K7, of course not showing the whole image circle, but to give a flavour of the quality and versatility you can expect. Most reports indicate that the IQ holds up well to the edges of the FF image circle.





































If its still available at the Black Friday deal price (349.00 ?) its a complete steal!

The thing is Peter, as you also said 'it depends on the printing service' .... the point is with many services (and often they are very good ones) is that there is no way to prevent them doing their automated changes .... even if you provide the file exactly as you want, their software will perform changes anyway. So I feel you are unlikely to gain any quality advantage from performing resizing yourself. And if an enlargement is involved, how do we know that the interpolation method we use, or our own skills, would be superior to the professional grade systems of the commercial printing operation?

Great! Really pleased to see it's all set up ok now .....i do admit to finding this new Radio P-TTL plus HSS thingy we have all rather exciting!

Sure, I'll have a beer, but if we do meet then you'll have to take a nice new Off-Camera Radio HSS portrait of me to use as an updated Avatar !

I think this is one of the scenarios where you shouldn't resize your image files, as I was writing about recently on a related thread

Usually these online services have a choice you make, to either apply automatic cropping or scale the image down with a border added. This should be an option when you are making the order. If you can't tolerate a crop then you might have to accept a border and a slightly smaller image area than the actual physical print size. You can then trim off the border yourself.

I'd try next time not resizing the files ..... Just send them the maximum quality, full size JPEGs, and let the oneline system sort it out. The crop option is probably nearest, so long as it doesn't chop anything important off. .... Shooting a little wide can be a good idea in preparation for printing like this.

Hi Chris, here's a few key settings to check that must be right ...

1. Tx Unit Camera SetUp (Unit set to Tx Mode) ..... Menu / Camera & Flash SetUp / Camera System / Pentax

2 . Rx Unit Flash SetUp (Unit set to RX Mode) ..... Menu / Flash SetUp / Flash System / Pentax / Flash Profile / Metz AF58 (Can you confirm if your Metz flash is listed within the Profiles section - if so choose it).

3. Tx Unit Normal HSS Mode ..... Menu / Functions / Sync Mode / Normal HSS

4. Flash Mode (On the Metz) ..... P-TTL

These are the key basic settings to get this system going, for TLL / HSS and Manual. With these settings then the switching in and out of HSS mode is automatic, and all you have to do is control your shutter speed on the camera. You don't need to touch anything on the Flash or RX unit, its all controlled from the Tx unit.

Make sure that the same Group button (eg A) is illuminated on the Rx unit as the one you have activated on the TX unit. The Group button on the Tx cycles between TTL (shows 0.0 for flash compensation) / M (shows the power setting eg 1/16) / Off (light goes off). Another handy feature is to set the 'Swap Control' to Zoom .... this means that when you press in on the dial, it swaps to controlling the Flash Head Zoom on your flash (displays the zoom setting in Focal Length eg 70mm) .... so you can quickly swap between power control and zoom control of each active group.

I have now updated firmware and run tests with the V6II and RF60 and RF60x, and yes its all working as expected, including TTL and HSS. I tried it up to 1/2000th. I'll write some more details about it soon.

I've just seen a post from ClassA over at PF and also at Cactus saying that Metz flashes must have their profile selected manually on the V6II..... I'm assuming there is a specific one for your flash Chris? Apparently 'auto-detect' doesn't work work with Metz flashes.

I've now got 1 V6II & 1 V6, 1 RF60 & 1 RF60x, plus the 2 Pentax "540" flashes. This gives a 2-Flash Radio P-TTL/HSS setup (RF60s) .... The V6 can be used on one of the Pentax flashes, and included in the same set-up, but it is Manual Mode only, and non-HSS, because the original V6 does not support P-TTL or HSS.

Look, Chris, we don't know yet where the fault lies with your issue. .... We have users, such as Peter plus others on PentaxForums who have it all working with K1s plus Cactus flashes and K1s plus Pentax flashes.

It's quite a big ask really, to have full compatibility between devices made by three different companies who don't actually co-operate on it directly.

I wouldn't wait too long if it looks like being a total pain .... I'd return and refund one V6II and get an RF60x (or two) instead. You'll be away with it then! Also the RF60x's have a really handy screw thread in their side, so they can be screwed onto a light stand without needing a coldshoe bracket.

Hi Chris, there's just one other setting to check, that's the Radio ID (in the "Radio Setup" menu ... This number needs to be the same on both Tx and Rx units. The default is 0000, which is fine.

I would follow this new thread at PentaxForums, which seems to be about the same problem with the same combination of equipment. ....link

It's not clear yet if we're dealing with some sort of incompatabity between the K1 and Metz flashes, which might just be replicated via the V6IIs. In any case it is likely to get a good looking at and going over on that thread, so I'd follow it and see what develops .

Ultimately, it is this Cactus Community Forum where you should take the problem ... Here you'll get direct answers from the Cactus representatives .....link

Maybe the X-TTL upgrade will give a fresh start to everything, and it will just work after that! I hope so, try it, it would be good to have the option of P-TTL for the outdoor shots. Good luck going forwards.

Having a flash with an extra receiving trigger is one further complication and another link in the chain to go wrong I guess. Seb, were the tests at home also HSS, and with the exact same mode settings on both triggers and flash ? I wonder if the Metz flash needs to be set to its P-TTL HSS mode locally?