I'd agree and I'm finding the layout of the DS fiddly by comparison, especially as in manual mode the default action of the control wheel is to change shutter speed and not aperture as I'd prefer.

That's very useful to know as I've been considering one of those myself.

Matt,

That's most useful, thanks. I can particularily see why the 3rd method would give more flexibility when converting landscapes and I'm looking forward to trying it with some IR shots soon.

I'd just done another studio shoot when I read your post so I tried those methods out on some of the shots. Here's one done using the 3rd method - it's a more conventional shot of my son Fraser, with the halo light being replaced with a snooted hair lamp instead. I was messing about with different lenses as well and this one was actually using the 18-55mm kit lens at it's longest setting. I've not been too impressed with it at the wide end but stopped down to F13 at the long end it's pretty decent for portraits.




My next task is to try group shots - something I've not yet tried - as my wife wants me to get a shot of the whole family.

The little radio slave (£20 from Ebay, posted from Hong Kong) worked fine and it was very nice not to have any trailing cables.

Regards
Steve

The shots were all JPEG's converted to B&W using Photoshop Elements 4. Not a lot of post-processing was necessary other than setting the levels to get the correct skin tone. I'm planning to experiment with RAW files and using a channel mixer, however for portraits it doesn't look like it's really necessary.

I'm planning to set the lights up again today to experiment with using a snooted hairlight instead of the "halo" effect and I'll try shooting some RAW files then. I've also just picked up a little radio trigger cheap from Ebay so I'm looking forward to using that instead of having PC cables running everywhere.

I dug out my little Jessops Portaflash studio outfit and had a bit of a mess around with my DS. I was very impressed with the results and having the ability to instantly review the results of lighting changes was fantastic and much more convenient that using polaroids as I used to do with my old Bronica system - over all a joy to use in fact.

Here's a couple of the results




In this one I was going for a low key effect and using a flash unit directly behind my son Fraser to give a halo effect to his hair. Lens used was a FA* 85mm F1.4 probably at F11.




In this one I was going for a high key effect although my moody teenage daughter Alison ruined the effect a bit by refusing to wear a white top! Tokina ATX-Pro 80-200 F2.8 at about 200mm and F11. I had two heads lighting the white background to F16, a stop higher than the front soft-box and the exposure used.




My daughter is quite interested in photography and art in general so after I'd set the lights up and a given her a little tuition she got this one of me using the same high-key set-up as above.[/img]

As long as the trigger voltage isn't too high then either should be usable with your DL, although obviously not with the same level of functionality as with one of the later dedicated Pentax flash units.

You'll probably need to get a hotshoe to sync cable adaptor to use the Sunpak, and (depending on flash voltages) it might be necessary to get one which limits the trigger voltage at the camera.

I've just done a couple of portrait sessions using studio flash units with my DS (using a Nikon hotshoe to pc sync cable adaptor) and that worked really well. I especially like being able to see the results of lighting changes straight away without having to shoot polaroids as I did with my old Bronica medium format kit.

If use Cokin system filters the rotating from of the lens is less of a problem as it's designed so you can hold the filter in position while the lens rotates.

An item I was watching on Ebay just finished and, assuming it's genuine, it looks a decent bargain:

Z1p body, Pentax 28-80mm AF, Tokina 60-300 MF, Chinon 35-70 MF, Tokina 28mm F2.8 MF, 2x convertor, Cobra flashgun and omni-bounce, carrying bag, film, all for £100 plus postage

If I didn't have a Z1p already I'd have bought it myself!

I'd also agree that Ebay can be a good source as long as you're careful about who you buy off by checking the feedback. Also anything that looks too good to be true probably is.

I sold a couple of lenses myself there recently (FA* 24mm F2 and Tokina ATX-Pro 28-70 F2.6-2. and I'd have said the purchasers got bargains compared to what either lens would have cost elsewhere, even used.

A versatile (although more expensive) option for sports photography would be to get an F2.8 80-200 and a 2x convertor.