Just an update on this issue.

Samsung confirmed the fault, but apparently there is no one in the uk (samsung/pentax) who can service the flash (wtf???), so they agreed to a replacement.

Given that the last post was dated 12th September, and my replacement arrived last week, you can appreciate how frustrating this process has been.

i honestly can't say a good thing about samsungs service, except that once i called the Customer Service Director, and he took an interest, i had my replacement within 5 days. To compensate for the problems they replaced it with a SEF-54 (AF-540) so i'm pleased with the end result, just not the time it took to get there.

The delay was due to the fact that apparently the SEF-36 has been discontinued by samsung (and the AF-360 by pentax) This seems odd to me, as no replacement has been announced to my knowledge. Anyway the 54 is still in production and they had stock.

i wonder if i would have had the same problems if my flash had pentax written on it instead?

anyway, thanks for your help Matt

Well i was a bit concerned that i would only end up with 1 roll of labels, but happily, since i ordered 3 flashes i have received 3 rolls of labels.

dispute opened with paypal accordingly.

What's interesting is that they have obviously been sent by a uk based forwarding company based in "The Mill, Horton Road" if you google that address i have found no less than 20 'companies' that offer frieght forwarding at that same address. Either i'm very suspicious, or there is some sculduggary going on here...

Anyone have a dymo Labelwriter and fancy some supplies??

I have just spoken to ebay.

eBay removed the user account DVDLegacy, and all of the listings that they had. They tell me they are unable to disclose why the account was removed, but that i might still receive the item (fat chance!)

they have advised that i may like to wait a few days to see if the item arrives, but since the listing was forcibly removed by eBay, pay pal should refund the payment without any problem at all.

In an email from ebay they said:
"However, due to the circumstances that led to your seller's change in status, we no longer recommend any attempts to contact the seller directly."

read into that what you will....

DVDLegacy has disappeared of the face of ebay.

No longer are they registered members, so looks like those brave (read: daft) enough to part with our cash need to open disputes with paypal.

I have contact details for dvdlegacy who are based in quebec, but i don't expect much of a response to emails.

have a phone number too, but yet to try it....

b''tards!

ok, thanks for getting back to me, i'll give that a go over the weekend, but i'm preparing myself for the fact that i may have to buy a new one.

if thats the case, do you know of/think anyone would be interested in the old one for spares/repair?

thanks for all your help
nick

just a quick update, thankfully (ha!) it is just the flash.

i met up with rob.7wood tonight to borrow his gx10. after some experimenting in the pub, we replicated the fault on his body also.

since my post the other night the flash (seems) to have stopped locking up. but the 100% black capture is not what it first appeared.

the camera is still capturing properly, but the images are greatly underexposed, i am assuming this is because the camera is reducing the tv to allow for the flash - but, whilst the flash is firing i think its either firing too soon or too late.

i now belive its a sync issue, becuase adding robs flash to my body works fine, as does the popup flash, so my k10 is ok (phew)

does anyone know if this could be a faulty cap, i know that used to be a common problem some years back, but in my experience caps seldom fail. is there a seperate trigger system for hot-shoe syncing and wireless, because now the flash is not freezing, shooting wirelessly is working fine, so i'm leaning towards a electrical sync problem.

does this make sense to anyone, or might i be barking up the wrong tree.

still no reply from samsung

i have opened up a wrnty ticket, and am waiting for samsung to get back to me, (its the sef-36 actually, but i couldn't remember the model number last night)

i think your correct in that the flash may now be dead, but does that account for it preventing my camera being able to expose properly with it connected?

if the shutter is open, and the mirror is up, and the flash fires, how can it possibly record a 100% black image....

i'm starting to worry there may be more at fault than the flash.

hello all, been trolling this forum for a few weeks now, and now i have a problem.

my AF360 has started playing up.

first, when i attach the flash to my k10, it fires, once, maybe twice perhaps up to a dozen times, then when i release the shutter it does not fire.

once it has got into this state, i can't even discharge it using the test or modeling function (on or off camera).

it doesn't even work in slave mode.

If i turn it off and remove the batteries and leave it for a while (over an hour) it works again, but again only for a few flashes.

worse still, even when it is firing, all i get is a black capture.

with the camera firing at f4 for 0.5sec with (what appears to be full power from the flash i.e it takes 6-8 seconds to recharge) i still get a 100% black image.

turn the flash off on the AF360, and using the same settings i get a picture as expected.

its almost as if the flash is affecting the cameras ability to expose properly...almost like the mirror or curtain is not opening... is this even possible. (camera sounds like it normally does)

i'm at a total loss as to what has happened, or what i can do.

has anyone come accross this before, or have any ideas?

i'm supposed to be snapping at a wedding on saturday, typical isnt it!


perhaps i should mention the body flash works perfectly.