good word George! flabbergasted should be used more often in general conversation in my opinion.

I don't think I'll be mounting MY 283 on my K10D, it's the one I was refering to above. Guess mine must be an early one!

the problem with asking Pentax is that it's very hard to tell how much of the response you get is actually "we want you to buy a 360FGZ" and how much is "seriously dude, don't do it"

I've never actually seen one as high as 600V myself, but I do have an old Vivitar which IIRC came out at about 360V. I decided not to use that one on camera!

The problem with using old flash units is their terminal voltage. Some old flashes charge up their hot shoes to truely amazingly high voltages and this can be dangerous for modern cameras with their delicate digital electronics. They simply aren't designed to get 600V put across them. I don't blame them, neither am I.

The only reference I am aware of on this is a reported quote from Pentax saying that their SLRs were safe up to 600V. That quote, if it were true in the first place, is now several years out of date. We don't know what may have changed since then, we don't know if they were refering to DSLRs, film SLRs or both.

The first thing I would do is get a multimeter (if you don't have one, Maplin will usually sell you one for about a fiver and it's a useful thing to have in a drawer somewhere). Charge up the flash and carefully measure the voltage between the main central contact and the secondary contact on the side of the shoe (both on the flash of course!). Be careful doing this, remember that you are not designed to get 600V across your terminals (fingers) either! if you are unsure, find someone who knows what they are doing to help you.

If the terminal voltage is low, of order 10 or 20V, then you should be fine. If it's higher, it's worth doing a google search to see what you can turn up. Pentax seem to be one of the more robust brands when it comes to flash voltages, but you should be aware of the potential risks involved and the fact that the safety margin has never been documented.


Edit: clarky got in first actually the *istD DOES support P-TTL, but it also supports old style TTL so what Clarky says holds true. Still if the flash is ME-Super era, it's probably Auto at best, you'll still only get modes the flash itself can support.

oops, looks like the MZ-5n does have PZ contacts after all, my bad! I was assuming that all the MZ series bar the MZ-S lacked these contacts.

My guess is the lens identifies itself to the camera and the camera goes "Aha, a DA* lens. I will use SDM" but then for some reason the pass through isn't working. Have you tried cleaning the power pass through contacts on the TC?

I don't think so because the hardware is present. The PZ bodies all support AF screw drive, so they already have SAFOX auto-focus circuitry, albeit an earlier version. They also have power contacts to provide the juice for the motors, and all seven data transfer contacts. The only thing they lack is the ability to transmit commands from the AF system to the motors via the data transfer contacts.

There may be an issue particularly with the early Z series bodies about how the systems of the camera are hung together, it may be physically impossible to interface the AF system with the digital contacts, but this we will never know unless some mad fool dismanled a Z-50 and tried it.

/me looks accusingly at Don

the connections you need are the Power Zoom contacts, not the normal data contacts. These are located inside the K mount on a sortof wedge thingy at the bottom right of the opening as you look into the body (I'd show you a picture, but I don't have my K10D with me).

If you look in the MZ-5, it has the wedge but the contacts are blanked off, whereas in the K10D and other SDM/Power Zoom capable cameras they are copper.

Since SDM is just a different way of doing the same thing, any camera with the contacts would be able to do SDM if it had the necessary firmware. Alas, even if Pentax wanted to there is no way to easily update the firmware in a film body, so it wouldn't be viable to do.

I argue that as a users camera this makes the ME-F the very best of the M series, unless you want the manualness of the MX.

OK the AF system only works with one lens which is about as common as rocking horse droppings, and even rarer if you want one that works, but the AF assist is pretty good with fast lenses and you can always turn it off.

You get all the features of the ME Super, plus AF assist and because no one has heard of an MEF they go for about half the price of the Super.

Ideal. I love mine to bits and will never part with it.

About 11 years ago, my Uncle got married. It was a big family wedding. I was quite young at the time so I'm not completely sure if there was a pro photographer or not, I know my Dad was wielding his Pentax P30 and the best glass his lens collection had to offer. A lot of photographs were taken that night with some very fine equipment.

A decade later there is one photo from that night which has been copied more times and hangs on more walls than any other. It is a beautiful candid portrait of the bride and groom laughing at some now forgotten comment or joke. Taken by the pro? no. Taken by my Dad the experienced amateur? no. So who took it?

My little sister, aged 12 with a Pentax P550 35mm fixed lens compact.

You don't have to be a pro to take a great photograph. You don't even have to be a good photographer. All you have to be is lucky. Technique, skill, equipment, practice and all the other things that go with our hobby only serve to reduce the level of luck you need.