Thanks for all of the suggestions. Here is my reply (or replies) to the comments thus far. Maybe this will help spark some other ideas. Otherwise, it sounds like Pentax will be "borrowing" my equipment for a while (once again!).
Paul: You mentioned insufficient current (from rechargeables) as well as trigger mechanism for the "f" stop. Well, I dont use rechargeables (yet!), but the second part sounds reasonable. Since the flash apparently IS going off (I can see it, plus the reflection shows in the animals' eyes), perhaps the camera is choosing the wrong aperture for some reason (?!). In which case, not much I can do but send it for repair. Lawrence, See my inserted comments below: > Did you get any flash confirmation signal after you took the picture? Yes, before (to let me know the flash was charged) and after (I actually saw the flash but) nothing out of the ordinary was displayed. This does bring up another point (perhaps related). The other day, I was shooting in Tv mode with flash the other day and noticed something strange. I set the speed to 1/60 and the lens to "A". The camera indicated that the flash was ready to go, so I fired away. But after each shot, the aperture setting flashed (5.6) in the viewfinder. To me, that means that the picture was under or over exposed (likely under since it could have chosen a smaller aperture setting, but not a larger one)... So I guess I expect those to come back dark too (???). But why would this happen??? I'm OUTSIDE, and that much flash should not have been necessary. Moreover, the camera was content (no flashing signals) before the shot, and also when shooting at 1/100 just a second ago with flash. The flash shouldve been able to make the adjustment of me going to 1/60, especially since metering without flash showed about 1/15 or so was sufficient. Perplexing! (BTW, the subject was 6 feet away). > fired, bad batteries, poor contacts... etc. You bring up a good point about the contacts. I'm guessing that since I get a "flash is ready" type of signal (plus the camera goes up to the flash sync speed), the contacts are fine... but maybe there's more to it (??) Maybe I should figure out how th best clean the flash contacts and try that before I use my test roll. > Could you see the flash firing Yes. Plus, in the examples I posted, the animals eyes are proof that there was a flash. > Was the sync speed set correctly when the flash is charged up? I'm in Aperture Priority mode, so the speed changes automatically (and it does display 100, the max sync speed, once the flash is charged). > Have you made sure no exposure compensation has been set? Yes. Besides, wouldnt this affect all pictures (and not just the ones with flash). > I found that sometimes body/flash contacts may not be good, and I need > to remove/insert again to get good contacts (no automatic sync speed > setting or no flash confirmation signal are the clues). These clues are never present, so I'm guessing its not the contacts <sigh>, but that is a good guess that I didnt even consider. GrayWolf, you wrote: > From this I would guess that you are taking pics > beyond the range of the flash. I do not know > the guide number for that > flash, but with the slow zoom > I would guess that it is only good out to 12-15ft I checked that after your email. The sleeping hog photo was done from about 6 or 7 feet away, with both the 80-320mm and the 105mm Sigma Macro (max aperture = 2.8). The Gray Wolf photo (no, not you, the one with the four lit up eyes) was taken from about 8 feet away. The table in the manual says that I should have an effective range of 3-18ft (~1-6 meters) wide open or one stop down, which is where I pretty much stay. Plus... even if it was, say, 15 feet away, I couldnt imagine the drop-off being THAT dramatic from in range to out of range given the ambient lighting wasnt so bad in all of the shots [as Bruce pointed out, in many shots, I was only using the flash for fill]. But thanks. Based on your email, I suppose I'll run the test roll after all. Mark, most of your points were the same as Graywolfs. I will add, however, that I have indeed taken many shots in Full Program mode as well... same results unfortunately. Bruce, your last comment was about the flash settings. There's leading shutter, trailing shutter, contrast control and spot beam. I tend to keep it in the first one... but this still leads me to the next comment... With all of that said, someone sent me an email off-list suggesting that the flash and shutter simply may not be in sync. I guess this makes sense since I DO see the flash go off, and its shown in the eyes of the animals in the pics... but I havent a clue if its in sync or not (nor can I distinguish with my eyes if the shutter is open when the flash goes off... too many fractions of a second). Perhaps this is the problem (??) It sounds like its either that or the camera selecting an incorrect aperture for some reason. Either way, it appears to be beyond the scope of my ability to fix. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
