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11-12-2010, 08:04 AM   #61
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I've just been playing with the K5 & AF540Z and get the same behaviour..

In PTL, direct flash works fine, bounced flash is OK up to about ISO500, then as you raise the ISO the overexposure on bounced flash increases. Direct flash continues to work fine.

11-12-2010, 09:18 AM   #62
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congratulation dave and Fl_gulfer - wellcome to the club - im sending my in to repair..... ;-))))))
11-12-2010, 10:32 AM   #63
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QuoteOriginally posted by dave kitson Quote
I've just been playing with the K5 & AF540Z and get the same behaviour..

In PTL, direct flash works fine, bounced flash is OK up to about ISO500, then as you raise the ISO the overexposure on bounced flash increases. Direct flash continues to work fine.
I have just tried to repeat this with a view to determining the amount of compensation required as a work-around. I had to replace the AF540FGZ batteries since the previous set were exhausted, and the ambient lighting is different (it's dark now), but otherwise I just repeated what I did before.

I can't reproduce the problem, can't get any overexposure at all, in direct or bounced flash.

I'm confused

dave
11-12-2010, 03:04 PM   #64
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Sounds like it was a battery issue.

11-14-2010, 11:49 PM   #65
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Same for me, contacted Pentax Germany/Switzerland yesterday.

In General the K-5 exposes more than my K20D, that usually was slightly underexposed, but:

At least with large aperture shots (or higher iso) any bounced flash leads to overexposed pictures (using the Metz 48i). Will try with the Pentax AF 360FGZ of a friend as soon as possible...

The problem is, that it is not constant as the underexposed pictures of the K20, those were easily fixed by increasing the power of the flash.
With my K-5 I have to do math before taking a picture (bounced or not? large aperture?)

hope this is fixed soon. I do not think this is a hardware bug even if only a few cameras are affected. They might use different suppliers for parts. Some of them work fine with the firmware some do not - we will see soon...
11-19-2010, 06:59 AM   #66
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does anyone can confirm improving the cooperation with flash gun after firmware upgrade?
11-19-2010, 01:02 PM   #67
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QuoteOriginally posted by filorp Quote
does anyone can confirm improving the cooperation with flash gun after firmware upgrade?
I notice no improvement. Still erratic results. Both with Metz 58 AF-1 (after recent firmware upgrade) and with Pentax 360 FGZ.

One of the things I noticed that was interesting was when I used the Metz as the controller (not master - so it wasn't adding directly to the light) and the 360 as a wireless P-TTL slave. There was an increased flash output from the 360 (my guess is about 2 stops) when the head of the Metz was angled away from the subject and toward the slave flash. This shouldn't have any effect, yet there was a distinct difference. So there seems to be some mechanism at work when the flash is tilted that I don't understand.

11-19-2010, 02:55 PM   #68
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yes, -1.7EV (on the external flash) seems to do the job for me.

Any Wireless P-TTL option works fine (at least with the internal flash as controller)

Firmwareupgrade did not change a thing, but today Pentax Germany finally forwarded the problem without blaming me "use a P-TTL flash", "are you in manual mode" or similar

Last edited by vespats; 11-19-2010 at 03:06 PM.
11-19-2010, 03:22 PM   #69
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QuoteOriginally posted by jrforman Quote
I notice no improvement. Still erratic results. Both with Metz 58 AF-1 (after recent firmware upgrade) and with Pentax 360 FGZ.

One of the things I noticed that was interesting was when I used the Metz as the controller (not master - so it wasn't adding directly to the light) and the 360 as a wireless P-TTL slave. There was an increased flash output from the 360 (my guess is about 2 stops) when the head of the Metz was angled away from the subject and toward the slave flash. This shouldn't have any effect, yet there was a distinct difference. So there seems to be some mechanism at work when the flash is tilted that I don't understand.
Actually that can make a difference in some cases.
If you are close enough for the control flash to contribute to the exposure, and you turn that control flash to no longer contribute to the subject, the remote flash is going to try to compensate to make up for the lack of extra lighting.
Although 2 stops seems like a lot of compensation....

FYI, just posted this elsewhere regarding a slightly related topic. You can see some of the effect here. But still the compensation is not that great,
http://jalbum.net/browse/user/album/818277/
11-19-2010, 04:03 PM   #70
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QuoteOriginally posted by amoringello Quote
If you are close enough for the control flash to contribute to the exposure, and you turn that control flash to no longer contribute to the subject, the remote flash is going to try to compensate to make up for the lack of extra lighting.
Actually now I am beginning to question if there is a flash mounted on the camera whether or not it behaves differently in Master or Controller mode. In my test shots I can not find a difference in the lighting. It seems like it is always in Master mode. This isn't true if I use the pop up flash. Same for my K20D and K5. The custom option (#21) says "fires the built-in flash as ...

In your example did you try setting the on camera flash to Master and Controller to see if you experience a difference? (nice examples by the way).

The K20D doesn't increase flash output of the remote wireless slave when I point the on camera flash to point toward it.

I usually use cybersyncs when I use flash anyway but would like to use P-TTL and wireless if it was reliable. Sigh, oh well. Everything can't be perfect.
11-19-2010, 04:15 PM   #71
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QuoteOriginally posted by jrforman Quote
I notice no improvement. Still erratic results. Both with Metz 58 AF-1 (after recent firmware upgrade) and with Pentax 360 FGZ.

One of the things I noticed that was interesting was when I used the Metz as the controller (not master - so it wasn't adding directly to the light) and the 360 as a wireless P-TTL slave. There was an increased flash output from the 360 (my guess is about 2 stops) when the head of the Metz was angled away from the subject and toward the slave flash. This shouldn't have any effect, yet there was a distinct difference. So there seems to be some mechanism at work when the flash is tilted that I don't understand.
I also have the P-TTL error for external flashes. Both the Pentax AF-540 FGZ and the Metz 58 AF-1 suffer from this malfunction, according to my experience. It seems to affect mainly tilted flashes. But I assume there will come a firmware fix. Reports here (Nain Kahn and others) tell that Pentax is well aware of the problem by now. At ISO 250, the overexposure can be temporarily handled by adjusting Ev to -1 or -2, or using f9 or smaller apertures. Higher ISO creates need of more Ev or f value compensation.

Oh, I almost forgot to confirm that the late 1.01 firmware upgrade did not fix my flash issue either!
11-19-2010, 06:50 PM   #72
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so we can conclude that new placebo firmware doesn't work?
11-19-2010, 08:30 PM   #73
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One of the frustrating parts for me is sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and I can't figure out what is what. Just took 15 shots, ISO between 100 - 800. Some direct, some bounced. Different distances. FEC at -1. Every one came out perfect. Tried some earlier with totally different results. I did have ISO expanded to 3200 at that point. Will try more testing later to see if I can figure out what is going on.
11-20-2010, 04:35 AM   #74
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Guys i got email from Pentax signed by Hans Libbers one day before releasing the new firmware it states that "You called and emailed us regarding an issue with overexposed pictures when using a flash in some situations. I'm happy to inform you that a new firmware-version will be released soon that will solve this issue.''
Its preposterous if it doesnt work....
11-20-2010, 05:29 AM   #75
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QuoteOriginally posted by filorp Quote
Guys i got email from Pentax signed by Hans Libbers one day before releasing the new firmware it states that "You called and emailed us regarding an issue with overexposed pictures when using a flash in some situations. I'm happy to inform you that a new firmware-version will be released soon that will solve this issue.''
Its preposterous if it doesnt work....
Did he identify FW 1.01 as containing the fix? or is 1.02 in the pipeline?.

May be worth asking your contact for clarification.

dave
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