[tombrown]

Just bought a K3 and have a Cobra 700AF with dedicated flash from my SFXn will the Cobra work on the K3?

Tom

[jatrax]

Tom, the first thing to check is the trigger voltage. Some film era flashes used trigger voltages high enough to fry your digital camera. The source for this is: Photo Strobe Trigger Voltages or you can check the voltage yourself if you have a digital multimeter. In general a trigger voltage of less than 12v is considered safe for Pentax.

The next question is "will it work" and the answer is usually "maybe". If you mean in full TTL mode with auto exposure, then most likely no. If you mean in full manual with the power controlled on the flash and the camera providing only a 'fire' command then most likely yes.

Pentax now uses it's own TTL signaling called P-TTL and there are only a few third party flashes that support that. Not sure exactly when they moved from TTL to P-TTL.

[stevebrot]

Welcome to the Pentax Forums!

It is unlikely that your flash supports P-TTL since the camera it was dedicated for (SF-Xn) did have that feature. I suspect that your flash will be supported with simple dedication on the K-3 meaning that:

• Use in M or X mode
• Calculated aperture using distance and guide number (flash fires at full power)
• Flash ready indicator in viewfinder
• Auto set of shutter speed to max sync

There are more than one version of the Cobra 700AF out there. If you flash has a built-in light sensor along with Pentax dedication you may have additional automation features.


Steve

[tombrown]

Thanks for the feedback I will look for a dedicated unit and sell off all the film based Pentax cameras and kit

Tom