Well, I'm not intending to insult given the current asking price, but I'd buy it for £300 delivered.

Something for your friend to consider anyway.

Nope, only those with the 'pz' designation and the powerzoom electrical contacts (which the HSM focusing uses)

These tend to be a bit rare and highly prized as Pentax only made powerzoom lenses for a relatively brief time in the 90s.

Here's a mini-review someone has put up:
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6475663

You can see the electrical contacts required on the left hand side of this picture:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2it0j8l.jpg
they're the 2 golden pins sticking up, inside the main metal ring.

I'm kinda interested in the 24-70, but it's a heck of a lot of money for a lens that I don't really *need* (Tamron 17-50 near enough has the range covered and was a lot cheaper!)

I know it's £600 new, but the last one on ebay went for £300 and I think unless Pentax do announce a full frame camera you're unlikely to get much more than that.

Of course, if they do, someone will probably bite your hand off!

It depends how you're shooting really. I have actually had 2 360's for much of the past year and a half, and yes, it's great to be able to set up two flashes off camera in a studio situation, or even if you're just taking pictures in one particular room - pop them discreetly out of sight on a shelf aimed up and it's hard to go wrong.

Unfortunately, if you're shooting pretty much any event it's hard to get away from a few facts:

- If you leave your two 360s positioned around the room, then they might get nicked, turned off or otherwise fiddled with. Also, harder for you to get to if you need to tweak settings.
- In larger rooms, they aren't likely to be bright enough to cover the entire room anyway.
- If used on camera, you find yourself either having to resort to nasty direct flash, or bouncing off the wall. You could also take portrait photos as landscape then crop them, but that's not fun at all.
- The 360 has lousy recycle time - the 540 has the same recycle time, but twice the power. Obviously you offset this by using two at once, but the fact is there will be times when you only have the one flash, and you'll be waiting for it to charge.
- Did I mention that the battery cover of the 360 is awful and easy to break? Eventually both your battery doors will be held on by cable ties. It happened to one of mine, and is part of why I bought the Metz.

I'd recommend having two flashes to anyone, but this should not be at the expense of a good primary flash. The 360 is simply not a good primary flash.

I'd suspect that you'd find the Sigma EX 24mm-70mm or 24-60mmm zooms a bit more useful as a range.

I used a 24-135mm as my main lens for a while and 24mm was often wide enough where 28 wasn't (from the 28-70mm I was using prior).

Can't really comment on how the lenses perform as I've never owned one of them (although often thought about it) but the reputation for these is generally good.

I did write a little bit about flashes just the other day: https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/two-door-cinema-club-gig-39309#comm447892

What I would say is don't bother with the 360. It's not very powerful, and the lack of swivel is a real handicap. It's fine as a slave unit, but on camera it's underwhelming.

The top end pentax 540 is a good flash, the only area it is really lacking is in manual control.

If the budget doesn't quite stretch to that, or manual is important, go for a Metz 58 AF-2. It's arguably the better flash feature wise, but lacks a few switches on the back.

If the budget doesn't quite stretch to that either, you probably want to look at one of the lower down Metz flashes - I have a Metz 50 af-1, but must warn that the user interface is horrible (although as with most things, fine once you get used to it....)

You could also consider the Sigma flashes, I was put off by the lesser build quality reports.

Blueforever just PM'd this and I don't see any reason not to reply in public:
Controls-wise, both the Pentax flashes are miles better than the Metz 50 af-1. The Pentax's have a number of dedicated switches to set individual functions, and the display is clearer and more detailed on the Pentax units.

In terms of actual flash features however, the Metz generally beats the Pentax. It's just a lot harder to control the thing (until you get used to it anyway - and even then it's certainly a bit slower to cycle modes etc)

Looking at the metz 50 af-1 vs the Pentax 360 you gain:
Swivel of flash head
Better manual control mode
Flash is more powerful

You lose:
Auto (aka Thyristor) mode - a bit redundant with PTTL mode taking over now

Against the Pentax 540 all you are really gaining is the better manual control mode.


Personally, for years I've wanted to get a Metz 58 af-1 or af-2 which to me seems to be the best camera mount flash out there - it wins on features, and having played with one the user interface is a bit clearer and more intuitive than that on the 50 af-1 (and presumably 48 ) however, it is a lot of money for me to spend as an occasional flash photographer.

I'd suggest if Manual mode is important to you that you look at replacing one of your 540's with a Metz 58.

Yeah, I realised when I went to check this later that the 360 only goes down to 1/32. I suppose with both the wide angle flipped down and the stofen it might get to a similar level of dimness to that desired (given it's not a particularly powerful flash.)

I then had another event a week or two later where I was frustrated by the lack of swivel with the 360, so when two Metz 50 AF-1 flashes came up on the classifieds shortly after for £190 I pounced.

Now I can just set the metz down to 1/128th, although I haven't had the chance to test it in a gig situation yet.

Worth pointing out that there's a Samsung rebadge for this lens - might make your search a bit easier, perhaps save you a bit of money:

http://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/schneider-kreuznach-samsung-35mm-f2-0-d-...

Wow! Taking a bit of a risk on the seller feedback but I'd go and pick it up for that money.