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07-21-2011, 12:37 AM   #286
Ash
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Hmm, interesting filorp. But strange as well.
Would have to see how it goes for me also over the weekend...

07-22-2011, 03:08 PM   #287
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Better here!

I have tried PTTL in a couple of modes with a few lenses of various FL's tonight. Usign K5 with AF360, on-body and wireless and so far I was not able to provoke any bad behaviour. Dare I say there seems to be an improvement - was it FW 1.11? Will try some more over the weekend.
07-22-2011, 03:28 PM   #288
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Aw, man, I really hate to get my hopes up . . . like I did with 1.03 and 1.10. But I'll try it too.

(Crossing fingers and muttering quietly under my breath.)
07-23-2011, 04:53 AM   #289
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Well, I gave it a go this weekend on a family shoot both bounced and off-camera with wireless triggering. FW 1.11 made absolutely no difference to P-TTL flash exposure. Still had some images OK at FEC 0, and others needing -1.7 or -1.3 for proper exposure. It's now no less reliable, but it's definitely not corrected for me.

Tell you what, though... I've now found that the camera's green AF assist beam now works whilst using an external flash unit. No more slow flash spotbeam! But I didn't take any notice of a menu option to disable that is desired (not that I'd personally want to!)...

07-23-2011, 06:01 AM   #290
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QuoteOriginally posted by filorp Quote
holly sh..... !!!!!
Short story. On saturday and sunday, last week i had a wedding (on sunday just location shots). oN thursday i have upgraded to fw1.11. i havent got a chance to check the camera because i had to get to the location of wedding, during the reception when iv started to use the flashgun, i'v noticed something strange - all my photos came out very dark - i had -1.3 flash compensation turned on for all time. i switched to 0 compensation - everything went fine smothly with perfect exposure....
ITS ALIVE - AFTER 8 MONTHS SINCE I BOUGHT THE CAMERA FINALLY EVERYTHINS FINE!!!! It must have been silent upgrade definitely. At Home i checked all other option. When i set flash beam angle to 16mm the overexposure was still there, however when i leave the beam unset at default angle and without difusing panel, everything's fine.... after 8 months!!! FINALLY!!!
amendment: something happend again, flash started to go crazy again, overexposure on white surfaces is pronounced - i swear iv done entire wedding with perfect exposure no compensation.... it depends on something i dont understend.....
07-23-2011, 09:33 AM   #291
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It seems to have improved indeed. Now it virtually doesn't matter (in terms of amount of light) whether the flash is on camera or on the P-TTL cable.
07-25-2011, 01:01 PM   #292
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I'm again surprised to find that external flash spotbeam AF assist has returned to haunt me again... I have no explanation as to why the on-camera LED AF assist worked with the flash mounted over the weekend, and now it doesn't but it's confused me. I cannot even find a relationship between settings and the AF assist, but flash exposure seems to still behave the same way (2 stop overcompensation in most bounced situations)...

07-25-2011, 03:25 PM   #293
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Maybe a poor example....but it is with 540 flash in wireless with the K5. Flash with the Soffen pointed straight up.

My shot might not do justice...but believe me, Mom's homemade Cherry Pie is to die for! I even offered to give her Otis for another one...but she wisely declined.



My 540 and 360 both work fine on the K5...attached or not attached, straight up or backwards, sideways or upside down.....or any other way you can turn them...I've had no overexposure problems at any time with either of these two flashes on the K5. Whatever the problem is, it does not affect all K5 cameras......or maybe I have the only one where it doesn't?
I will sell it....actually lease it, if you saw my post in another thread...great terms, a real bargain!

Best Regards!
07-25-2011, 10:13 PM   #294
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Now why would you sell (or lease) a perfectly good K-5, Rupert?
I regard the majority of K-5 users have no problems with their external flashes (we just don't hear about them here) and the few who do have issues eager to post in the thread.

I don't have much to complain about myself - apart from the occasional exposure inconsistency in P-TTL, FEC -2.0 seems to do the trick for me - and it has been that way from Day 1 (FW 1.02).
07-26-2011, 01:05 AM   #295
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QuoteOriginally posted by Rupert Quote
or maybe I have the only one where it doesn't?
No you are not unique, I'm also happy with my P-TTL.
10-05-2011, 01:09 AM   #296
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Hi all,

I've been really frustrated with the PTTL performance lately. Trying to shoot a party in a night-club. Faces get randomly overexposed! A HUUGE dissapointment! When testing at home, I also get different results, depending on bounce/nobounce and amout of white color in the frame. One thing is for sure: when bouncing, exposure goes up at least 1EV. When there's a lot of white (walls and ceilling), then I get always about 2EV overexposed shots with bounced flash. When not bouncing, then getting even slightly underexposed when no white and normal when with white. This is a bloody riddle, I cannot solve... To me it just seems like PTTL is a bad piece of.... software I'm praying PENTAX to solve this and save me the money of switching to canon!!

ps. firware is 1.11, flash is both: 540 and metz58 af-2, lens is DA16-50 2.8, I use Manual mode on camera (ISO 200, F2.8, 1/100), i tried other modes, don't see much difference

pps. at least metz works more or less fine in A mode. But 540..... it's amazing... in A (a-u-t-o-m-a-t-i-c) you need to set ISO and aperture MANUALLY! Also AF assist doesn't work!! Outrageous.

Last edited by andreik; 10-05-2011 at 04:16 AM.
10-05-2011, 03:58 AM   #297
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I think the issue in most cases is one of user error, not so much in the actual use of the camera, but in the expectation of the flash.

I have shot 2 weddings as a guest in the past 4 months, one with my K7 one with my K5. In bosth instances, what I found as the issue was that depending upon the metering mode, and auto ISO selection in Av mode, you get wildly varrying results, but all are explainable.

Auto ISO is the worst possible thing you can do with a flash, because the camera will try to achieve exposure without flash first, and as a result, in dark situations you will invariably wind up with ISO Max shots.

For this reason, I always shoot manual mode in flash.

Bounce vs Direct flash also can be a mixed bag, bounce usually is more reliable because it offers global illumination, therefore the flash is much more uniformly spread across both subject and background. Direct flash, if the camera is not looking immediately at the subject, will see mostly background, which is further away. Since flash is a square function with distance, if you do not carefully meter off the subject in the foreground, and let the background fade to black, the subject will be over exposed simply due to the difference in distance from the background

Selection of metering mode can help greatly for this. You may wish to use spot metering and then the camera has a much better chance if the background is further back. FOr a large group, matrix metering may help, but you really need the metering if using matrix mode, to see a large area of bright subkects, A single subject will generally be ignored and allowed to burn out in order to save the highest percentage area of the frame.

Note that the metering is not perfect, and is not automatic. Most importantly it lacks the MINDREAD.EXE function we all assume it has. The flash works reliably within its program parameters, it is us poor humans who don't
10-05-2011, 04:21 AM   #298
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QuoteOriginally posted by Lowell Goudge Quote
auto ISO selection in Av mode
setting everything to manual was the first thing I did after seeing the first results with 540, doesn't help

QuoteOriginally posted by Lowell Goudge Quote
if the camera is not looking immediately at the subject, will see mostly background, which is further away
this might be a good point... But why in the situation where I have no object in front at all (just shooting a wall in a dark room), I get EV difference of about 3 when shooting direct and bounced? How can this be explained? If it's a PTTL, it should not matter if you bounce or not. It must always measure the ACTUAL illuminance and act accordingly.

QuoteOriginally posted by Lowell Goudge Quote
Selection of metering mode can help greatly for this
my personal tests didn't show *any* difference between the metering modes... I might need to test more...


QuoteOriginally posted by Lowell Goudge Quote
Most importantly it lacks the MINDREAD.EXE function
I have a feeling then, that canon has been able to discover that one.
10-05-2011, 07:36 AM   #299
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andreik - i got the same problem and my conclusion is almost the same... it sound really stupid when one is saing: overexposure depends on haw many white surface is in the frame - i would add: it depends on haw many of ambient light you let to contribute in the exposure the more ambient light the more k5 is prone to overexposure.... but there is a cure: d700 cost almost twice as k5....
10-05-2011, 10:04 AM   #300
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QuoteOriginally posted by filorp Quote
there is a cure: d700
I would wait a little... Heard some rumors about d800. Also 5d-mkII is very old.
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