K10D / Wireless Flash

On this subject I find both manuals thin and ambiguous. Maybe some one can

clear this up with a brief response.

 

Will a 540FGZ fire wirelessly from the pop-up flash on a K10D?

yes

Yes. I have both, and it works well.

 

I think the prerequisites are -

 

1) The flash and camera are on the same channel (in the manual)

 

2) The FLASH is set to wireless

 

3) The CAMERA is set to wireless

 

4) You have an appropriate lens (Won't work with K, M (and others I think)

 

5) The camera can "see" the flash

 

6) The pop-up flash is popped (I always forget that bit and can't work out why nothing happens. It always takes me two duiffed shots before it twigs.

 

If I've missed a step, someone else will chip in I'm sure.

 

Cheers

Why the heck do you think they disabled this great feature on the k100D I was trying to get it to work the other day, and finally found the line in the manual that says it won't work.

Was it even an option to disable? I don't recall it being included on the K100D.

There is a missing step and there's a reason the manuals are thin & ambiguous about it--it wasn't enabled with K10D firmware 1.0. You need to upgrade firmware to 1.1 or newer. I think this feature was available on MZ-S, MZ-6/ZX-L, *ist film, and *ist D but was missing from *ist DS/DS2/DL/DL2 as well as K100D/K110D. Until K10D firmware came out there was quite a bit of bellyaching about this omission. It will be interesting to see whether Pentax includes it on their next entry-level body or not.

 

I believe you may also need to set the flash to slave mode with M/C/S button. There's also a custom setting as to whether the on-body flash is a 'Master' or 'Controller'--as controller, it supposedly contributes less light to the image--though I believe it still contributes some as I think I've seen its reflection in a recorded image.

 

For wireless flash on other models you need to have a second accessory flash such as AF-360FGZ or AF-540FGZ mounted on or wired to the shoe.

Hmm... In control mode, the trigger flash shouldn't contribute any light to the scene. It

has worked as expected for me.

 

I'll also throw in that setting the remote channel is covered in the 540 flash manual, not

the K10D manual (really, it is just a matter of setting the channel on the flash and pushing

the shutter release half way with the 540 in the shoe and the camera will detect the

channel from the flash and sync to it).

 

It really doesn't surprise me that this functionality would be omitted from the lower end

cameras, and Pentax has been fairly consistent in providing this feature only on the top

end cameras. It is called a value add, a reason for people to buy a more expensive

camera.

"It really doesn't surprise me that this functionality would be omitted from the lower end cameras, and Pentax has been fairly consistent in providing this feature only on the top end cameras. It is called a value add, a reason for people to buy a more expensive camera."

 

Makes sense. Why would someone buy the K10D if the *ist and K100/110D had the same functionality with greater MP? Personally, I'd have bought the K100D if MP was the sole difference.

 

Just like buying a new car. You wouldn't expect to see all the bells and whistles on the base model. Who would then buy the top end model? Marketing is key! If you want more, you got to pay for it!

This logic sucks!

A device must be left to deliver all the features its hardware is able !

The price must reflect manufacturing costs and not firmware added features !

Renato, I'm not sure whether or not you're being facetious. Tell this to the folks whose entry-level bodies have mirror lock-up and depth-of-field preview stripped out. Or no in-body autofocus motor. Or spot meter. The *ist D-series and K1?0D were/are very well equipped by traditional standards. The competition doesn't offer wireless control in their base models either. Nikon doesn't even offer it in their SB600 speedlight--you need to pony up for the high-end SB800 for that or buy an rather pricey 'wireless commander' (though unlike the AF360FGZ, the SB600 at least has a horizontal swivel head). It appears that Canon has a similar scheme.

I wasn't against Pentax with this rant, I was and I am against any manufacturer who cripple features that a given hardware is able to deliver in order to issue "different product lines".

I posted the same some years ago on Nikon forums, and was my main reason to not buy 300D when it was first issued, after seeing how Canon crippled it. And, at that moment there was no competition... Even so, I prefered to wait. Compared to 300D , D70 was a lot less crippled, they succeeded to squeeze any feature from its hardware.

A note about MLU. This IS a good example ! You can have or not hardware able to perform MLU... but to have it in body and cripple in sofware, I think could be only in an idiot mind !

Thanks Renato, that was the rant chasing through my head too.

Matthew--when you use control mode, is that with the on-body flash or a second accessory flash? I believe I saw the on-body flash in a reflection in a window even when configured as control flash. Difficult to say for sure just how much illumination it actually produced though.

I begin to wonder if wireless flash the Pentax P-TTL way would be useful for me (at that high price) . Since I still use M/M42 lenses on the K10D quite often, radio triggers circumvent the severe limitations I would have then and let me use any kind of flash and brand in manual or auto mode. I'm quite happy with my infrared slaved Metz inside rooms so far and at close distance. Is there anybody getting good and consistent results with P-TTL and letting the camera decide about the exposure (during events)?