All Forum Comments
Comment by RobL posted on Off camera flash question at 09/12/2016 - 23:04
Thanks all for your carefully considered comments. My thinking is for the most lightweight and easy to set up option where there is no built-in flash trigger. So, a second full size flash would take space and increase weight, ditto with a radio trigger, and the added risk of batteries losing power and carrying extras in case. Where weight isn't an issue then the other options are available.
Comment by RobL posted on Off camera flash question at 08/12/2016 - 22:24
McGregNi wrote:
Could you just clarify again which flashes you are trying to use, and are you wanting P-TTL or only manual flash exposures?
Hi, the flashes I use are the AF 201FG and AF 360 FGZ II, and I would like P-TTL if poss. More searching has revealed all the available adaptors with a tripod thread are imported from Japan, so to avoid import duty, vat etc (been caught before!) I'll just get another F adaptor discounted somewhere. My plan is for a lightweight portable option in the field for fill-in flash (AF 201FG) and for fill-in flash in architectural interiors.RobL wrote:
Update: just received a Pentax F 5P cable for flash and a hot shoe adapter F (I had ordered an off-camera F adaptor). The cable has 5-pin connectors so doesn't fit into the X-sync socket of the K-1 as I had expected. So, what does fit into the camera socket? Nothing in Pentax accessories as far as I can tell. Seriously p****d off, just spent £67.00 and the only way I can use this stuff is to buy an off-camera adaptor as well. Can anyone tell me the point of Pentax fitting a flash cable socket to their new cameras if nothing they make fits?
Just found the off-camera adaptor is £79.00 if I can order one, what a rip-off.
Rob, you have bought the accessories for using a P-TTL flash off camera. The other socket you referred to is the PC socket (I think), and that is a much simpler connection and provides only a basic trigger signal for manual flash systems (eg studio strobes). Update: just received a Pentax F 5P cable for flash and a hot shoe adapter F (I had ordered an off-camera F adaptor). The cable has 5-pin connectors so doesn't fit into the X-sync socket of the K-1 as I had expected. So, what does fit into the camera socket? Nothing in Pentax accessories as far as I can tell. Seriously p****d off, just spent £67.00 and the only way I can use this stuff is to buy an off-camera adaptor as well. Can anyone tell me the point of Pentax fitting a flash cable socket to their new cameras if nothing they make fits?
Just found the off-camera adaptor is £79.00 if I can order one, what a rip-off.
Could you just clarify again which flashes you are trying to use, and are you wanting P-TTL or only manual flash exposures?
Comment by RobL posted on Off camera flash question at 08/12/2016 - 19:14
LennyBloke wrote:
Hot Shoe adapter F on the camera, 5P lead into side of Hot Shoe adapter, other end of 5P lead into AF540 - doesn't that do it?
Thanks LennyBloke, unfortunately neither of my Pentax flashes have a socket for a cable connection and the instructions show using these mounts (different references just to confuse even more). I am thinking that this cable set-up is a hangover from before the cameras used a wireless flash trigger but I would have thought the Pentax philosophy would be to make current stuff backwards compatible. Very confusing parts reference which Pentax don't help to clarify, as there are four different adaptors. There are two virtually identical, one with a hot-shoe mount for putting on the camera and another with a screw thread for tripod mount, and suppliers not surprisingly seem to muddle them up. Clifton Cameras kindly looked into this and sent a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyHT7j_u96E . So far I haven't found a supplier for the off camera mount (tripod version) so i will simply have to find another F mount as I have a widget for putting a flash hot shoe onto a tripod head. Perhaps I am overthinking this but at the insane prices for these bits and their limited availability it is rather frustrating.Hot Shoe adapter F on the camera, 5P lead into side of Hot Shoe adapter, other end of 5P lead into AF540 - doesn't that do it?
Comment by RobL posted on Off camera flash question at 08/12/2016 - 17:35
Update: just received a Pentax F 5P cable for flash and a hot shoe adapter F (I had ordered an off-camera F adaptor). The cable has 5-pin connectors so doesn't fit into the X-sync socket of the K-1 as I had expected. So, what does fit into the camera socket? Nothing in Pentax accessories as far as I can tell. Seriously p****d off, just spent £67.00 and the only way I can use this stuff is to buy an off-camera adaptor as well. Can anyone tell me the point of Pentax fitting a flash cable socket to their new cameras if nothing they make fits?
Just found the off-camera adaptor is £79.00 if I can order one, what a rip-off.
Just found the off-camera adaptor is £79.00 if I can order one, what a rip-off.
Comment by RobL posted on Off camera flash question at 08/12/2016 - 11:22
It is worth looking at www.pentaxphotogallery.com, there is drop down menu top right where you can select lenses to see what images have been produced.
Comment by RobL posted on Glass for a K1 at 07/12/2016 - 15:07
Simonmac wrote:
I stopped using CC earlier this year.
I had two months left on the plan and a job loss and financial problems meant that I missed a payment.
Contacted Adobe a day after the due payment date apologising and offering to pay by debit card. I was told that this was not possible. I then offered to pay the remaining two months and was again told that this was not possible.
Their suggestion? Take out a new 12 month plan and contact them again as they may be able to help.
Cancelled there and then. Awful customer service.
Admittedly my fault initially.
Corel? Total opposite. I just missed out on an offer on an upgrade, contacted them, they offered the upgrade at a better price than the missed offer. No problem.
Precisely why I refuse to use software available only on subscription, you are a hostage to their whims, charges and company stability. Much better to stay autonomous and if possible buy one-off and get hard copy versions for back-up. Miss out on updates unless they can be bought but generally I can live without them.I stopped using CC earlier this year.
I had two months left on the plan and a job loss and financial problems meant that I missed a payment.
Contacted Adobe a day after the due payment date apologising and offering to pay by debit card. I was told that this was not possible. I then offered to pay the remaining two months and was again told that this was not possible.
Their suggestion? Take out a new 12 month plan and contact them again as they may be able to help.
Cancelled there and then. Awful customer service.
Admittedly my fault initially.
Corel? Total opposite. I just missed out on an offer on an upgrade, contacted them, they offered the upgrade at a better price than the missed offer. No problem.
Comment by RobL posted on 20% Pentax customer discount on Adobe CC Photography plan at 06/12/2016 - 22:14
If you check out the lens charts in the news section, the first includes D-FA and FA lenses available now, and the second chart shows some new primes coming next year.
Comment by RobL posted on Glass for a K1 at 06/12/2016 - 18:01
I don't think anything beats handling a camera and lens to make your own mind up, and at the last camera show enjoyed comparing at first hand the different products available. This tends to throw up things that reviews don't cover, like how a Canon FF body feels compared to the Pentax (more cumbersome), or on an Olympus how the large lugs attaching the strap really get in the way of a comfortable grip. Feeling the weight of a 24-70 on the K-1 persuaded me to pick the 28-105 lens instead as a general purpose lens. I am quite prepared to make the trip to SRS Microsysrems or Clifton Cameras for a major purchase. The local LCE is now just for bits and pieces.
Comment by RobL posted on Pentax-no show. at 04/12/2016 - 22:53
What a stylish bunch (apart from the twerp in the hollow earrings)! Difficult to pick a favourite but the first just edges it for me. Really well done.
Comment by RobL posted on More Street Strangers On Film at 30/11/2016 - 22:11
....
And I don't think it'll happen in time to help you out, Rob!
If anything this thread has prompted me to look in more detail at the Pentax Extension cord accessories, not the least in order to improve the guidance on it in my 'Pentax Flash Guide' . I gave it cursory coverage up to now, both because of my own lack of experience with the cable options, and by seeing it as a more peripheral aspect. But this has shown that it has a new specific significance to owners of the latest flagship models ...
I have just finished writing part of a planned supplement document to my Guide, which covers the K1 and K3II and their flash modes and considerations for working without a Built-In unit. This cable solution now warrants better attention .
May I ask all of the participants here for your help ... would you be willing to provide some brief 'user summaries' of working with the cables on the new cameras, and more importantly, would anyone be happy to provide a few close-up images of the adaptors and cables with a release for publishing them in the Guide supplement and future updated versions ?. That would be a really big help and hopefully support more widespread knowledge going into the future. Please let me know and we can liaise via PM, thanks