Tom will be able to give the best report, but from my memory and others I have heard, ANY digital camera doesn't seem to be as consistent with TTL flash as the film bodies. Some of it could be latitude of the film, and some of it could be that the cameras purposely underexpose rather than blow out highlights. On negatives, this is not an issue, but with digital, once the highlights are gone, no amount of PS will bring them back.
Tanya, you have shown, for those who didn't already know, that you can bring out an amazing amount of detail in an underexposed image, so it is not quite as bad as it seems. I have been shooting with an AF360FGZ for mostly daylight fill and an AF400T with Lumiquest softbox for my normal flash work. For daylight flash fill, I notice no problems with the AF360FGZ. When used as the main light source, it seems to err on the side of safety so most images need a bit of tweaking in PS, but never any lost highlights. The AF400T for the most part works reasonably well. If anything it seems to be a bit strong at times. I did have a few shots, that I just couldn't bring down the highlights enough. FWIW, I have heard similar stories from Nikon and Canon DSLR owners. -- Best regards, Bruce Saturday, January 31, 2004, 7:20:03 AM, you wrote: WR> ----- Original Message ----- WR> From: "Kevin Thornsberry" WR> Subject: Underexposed *istD w/ AF360FGZ (Was:D - Not Pentax but an WR> interesting . . .) >> How many people are experiencing this problem and what are you doing about WR> it? >> I've tried some to use camera exposure compensations between +0.5EV and WR> 1.5EV >> depending on the situation with mixed success. WR> My last bout with flash, I set the ISO to 400 (someone here mentioned that WR> this was the sweet spot for TTL on the camera) and set the image profile WR> controls to the middle range. WR> I don't use a digital flash, I am using an older Metz 60 series analog TTL WR> unit. WR> The results from this combination are just fine. WR> I don't have my AF280T around to try, but I expect this unit would be good WR> as well. WR> I don't think Pentax has integrated digital flash control as well as they WR> could have from the sounds of all the problems people are having with their WR> digital flash units, but the analog stuff still seems to work fine. WR> I find this compatability to be very satisfying, since as a rule, I hate WR> portable flash, but do see it as a necessary evil from time to time. I would WR> have resented having to buy another flash for the istD. WR> William Robb