does anyone use this ringflash,as i am thinking of getting one to put on the front of my old 100mm pentax macro lens

[GlassJunkie]

Love the AF160FC. Other than wishing it would go to 77mm for larger glass, absolutely brilliant (no pun intended). Recently they have gotten cheaper, just got a new one for $320. built well, modeling light is good. I was going to do METZ 15, but metering for my shoots helps a lot. With Pentax Macros, beware of which Macro you have. DFA100s (both are fine nice mount). According to the manual the FA 50 and 100 Macros have a focusing issue "focusing mechanism is unstable", but I didn't see it. No note is there for the F 100 Macro.

In the AF140c Manual it said the F and FA100 Macro's would work. Mine did.... Several other lenses have objectives that rotate a bit, "conflicting with the screw in ring mount. Just look at the front tube as rou focus/zoom, and you will know on AF issues. Metering s/b fine...

With the new 100 Macro WR, it is blow away (K-3 body).

[kiwi-paul]

anyone else use this ringflash????if so what do you think of it for doing macro

[kiwi-paul]

i take it not many ppl use this ringflash is it that bad???

[baro-nite]

Probably the main reason it's not used more is that it's an expensive unit. For certain uses there's nothing else like it. I tried one out and sold it after finding it did not work well with my typical macro rigs. It has limited manual control and so is really best suited for use with automatic exposure modes, which of course means no K- or M-series lenses (or lenses mounted reversed or on bellows). So if by "old 100mm macro lens" you mean K- or M-series, I don't think you'll like using this flash.

[sholtzma]

I recently picked up this ringflash used from the PF Marketplace and am enjoying it quite a bit. I too wish that the adapters went above 67mm--at least to 72mm, which would allow for my Sigma 180 without a step-down ring. But it works well and as advertised. Am still learning its ins and outs. Do we not have images from it on this forum? If not, I can share some of mine.....

[kiwi-paul]

I recently picked up this ringflash used from the PF Marketplace and am enjoying it quite a bit. I too wish that the adapters went above 67mm--at least to 72mm, which would allow for my Sigma 180 without a step-down ring. But it works well and as advertised. Am still learning its ins and outs. Do we not have images from it on this forum? If not, I can share some of mine.....

please show some images as i want to see what the light looks like on the subject to see if ity too hash or not

[manntax]

i take it not many ppl use this ringflash is it that bad???

As noted previously - it is farily expensive for what it does. Nonetheless I was enjoying it with my Pentax K10D and Z1p, but it turned that it wouldn't work in P-TTL auto mode with my K-01. Other users have reported similar cases of severe overexposure with K-5 and K3. I was contacting Ricoh for nearly a year about this issue - and they simple ignored all complaints with silly explanations.

Here is the thread documenting the issues with this particular ring flash : https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/120-general-technical-troubleshooting/274...c-problem.html

[Nass]

It's expensive, but I'm a big fan. It's particularly handy when it's dark outside with the modelling lights. It works at -3ev for me on PTTL with 2 stacked raynoxes. But for a shiny subject the reflection isn't that great.

[sholtzma]

Here are some of my first efforts. I have not worked on blending flash and ambient light yet, since I wanted to see the effects of just the flash. These were RAW, converted using ACR defaults only, resized for this site, and saved as JPEGS. So, essentially, SOOC.

[baro-nite]

Here are some of my first efforts. I have not worked on blending flash and ambient light yet, since I wanted to see the effects of just the flash. These were RAW, converted using ACR defaults only, resized for this site, and saved as JPEGS. So, essentially, SOOC.

Wicked catchlight in the toad's eye!

[kiwi-paul]

thanks for all the comments,also thinking of getting a 360 flash(quite like the LED LIGHT) built in as i could use it for focus and make a diffuser for it or still get the ringflash ??????

[baro-nite]

If your macro lens is full manual (no auto-exposure modes available), it's important to get a flash unit with good manual control. While many (most?) flash units are also capable of doing their own exposure control, for macro this may not work so well. It's easy to stick a diffuser on the end of a lens to mimic a ring flash.

[kiwi-paul]

If your macro lens is full manual (no auto-exposure modes available), it's important to get a flash unit with good manual control. While many (most?) flash units are also capable of doing their own exposure control, for macro this may not work so well. It's easy to stick a diffuser on the end of a lens to mimic a ring flash.

i got the 100mmD-FA pentax lens,do you know if i can get or could i try and make a diffuser for the ringflash?? so i can make the light softer so i dont see the semi-ring light in some shots???

[baro-nite]

The AF-160 is already a reasonable diffused light source for macro subjects. As to ring-shaped catchlights, that's still an issue with a diffuser; now you get a diffuser-shaped catchlight instead. For example:



Because the AF-160 (or any ringflash) is already at the front of the lens, to diffuse it further in an effective way would require placing the diffuser even farther out in front of the camera somehow, which doesn't sound very doable to me.