On Feb 11, 2011, at 3:58 AM, Paul Stenquist wrote: > > On Feb 11, 2011, at 1:27 AM, Larry Colen wrote: > >> >> On Feb 10, 2011, at 6:24 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote: >> >>> >>> On Feb 10, 2011, at 6:22 PM, Larry Colen wrote: >>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> The good news is that the metering on the K-r is good enough that TTL >>>> flash is actually useful. The bad news is that the AF540 is damn near >>>> useless as a manual flash. Keep your eyes open for cheap manual flashes, >>>> but watch the trigger voltage and make sure it isn't so high that it'll >>>> fry your camera. >>> >>> TTL flashes don't work on the K-r, or any of the other recent Pentax DSLRs. >> >> Mea culpa, I mentally translated TTL to P-TTL, just treating it as Through >> The Lens metering in general. >> >> >>> >>> The AF540 is a good flash. It's P-TTL, which is the Pentax auto format. Why >>> would you want to use it in manual mode. >> >> So far, I've found three reasons to use my AF540 in manual mode, My >> K100Dsuper, my K20D, and to a lesser extent my K-x. Frankly, in my >> experience, Pentax flash metering technology lies somewhere between useless >> and destructive. Granted, it has improved a lot lately, and I have actually >> found several situations with the K-x that using p-ttl with the AF-540 has >> led to photos with nearly acceptable exposure. But, even if p-ttl were to >> work perfectly the question of why I would want full control of any piece of >> photographic equipment stuns me from a photographer of your ability? Do you >> just leave your camera in green mode and autofocus and let it make every >> decision for you? I didn't buy a DSLR because of how well it took photos >> without my input, I took a DSLR because of how well it lets me control it. >> > > I can exercise much more control over the P-ttl 540 flash than I ever could > over a manual flash. I can dial in exposure comp, plus or minus. I can synch > it at high speed, and I can tell it to flash trailing the curtain. Now are > you stunned? Apparently, you didn't know how capable this flash can be.
I know that it has all of those controls on the back, and I've even used them all. > > Yes, Pentax flash technology is far from perfect, and the 540 doesn't always > work in complete harmony with the cameras. But I've found it's very accurate > with the K-5. It was less than perfect with the K20, but I was still able to > use it very effectively on many occasions. On many occasions? Then you had much better luck with yours than I ever had with mine. I had far better success with the exposure on the 540, especially on the K20, adjusting it manually. Unfortunately, it refuses to stay in manual mode, so I'll get everything dialed in. Have a shot turn out fine, then it'll switch in and out of p-ttl so I never know what I'm going to get. Interestingly, I do have a similar problem with another flash (not pentax) which doesn't have a hard switch for p-ttl that switches in and out of p-ttl when I try to set it to manual, so it may not be the flash's fault. I just found that the combination of AF540 and K20 was a combination that practically guaranteed frustration. The metering on the K-x is so much better, likewise on the K-r I used, that I'm better off just letting it do what ever the hell it wants. > > I use studio strobes on many occasions, and I've used manual flashes > extensively for many years. They're very limiting. At a given distance, > you're either locked into an f-stop or forced to resort to diffusion, > filtering and other means to try to get to the stop you want. Not good. > Somewhat useless in many situations. In the strobist DVDs, he basically disables any sort of automatic metering and dials his strobes in manually. Then again, he uses Nikon speedlights which seem to be much, much nicer flashes than the Pentax gear. -- Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
