I recently purchased the K-10D. My workhorse lens, purchased several years ago along with a PZ-1P is a Tokina AT-X 287 PRO f/2.8 28-70 mm zoom. I used an AF-500FTZ flash with the PZ-1P.
When I got my *ist-D, I continued to use this lens and flash combo. I never had any problem balancing the flash with the *ist-D, and the flash would zoom along with lens, although the AF-500FTZ thought it was a 35 - 105 mm zoom, which I attributed to the 1.5 "crop" factor. However, when I purchased the K-10D recently, I found the AF-500FTZ will *NOT* work with it. The flash blasts out at full power, won't do TTL, and won't even do manual. I can set the flash to manual, and select 1/x power to balance the flash output, but I only get a single shot before the K-10D switches the flash back to TTL and goes back to full power. So I bought the AF-540FGZ. It seemed to be working just fine in P-TTL, but it wouldn't detect the focal length of the Tokina lens. It stays flashing "16" mm all the time. I've been re-reading the manual, and it seems to say when there's no lens focal length data, the flash will set itself to 16 mm. Looking at the info displayed about the pictures I've taken, the camera is getting the focal length info from the lens. In fact the K-10D is showing the real focal length instead of the "crop" focal length equivalents. I don't have any Pentax DA lenses, but I do have the 18-35 FA-J lens. I get the same flashing "16" mm display when I have it mounted. If I turn the power off and slip the wide angle panel into place it will flash "13" mm when I power it back on. Won't change back to "16" mm when I slide the panel back. Gotta' turn it off and back on. Also blinks whatever the appropriate wide/normal zoom value is for the different formats (35mm, 645, 6x7), sensing the position of the wide angle panel when it's powered on. ------------------------ *And now*, somehow, I've managed to change the flash over to manual zoom mode. It wouldn't change the way the Operating Manual said it would by just pushing the zoom button, but something changed it, and it won't change back. It still won't cycle through the zoom settings though. In addition, it's no longer responding to the sync setting switch either, which it would do earlier today. Tried it on the *ist-D with both lenses and am getting the same results. The batteries were fairly fresh set of Energizer Lithium AAs (FR6). I tried a fresh set, and still no joy. I'm afraid I have a defective flash. Drat! Anyone else have thoughts about this? -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
