sharon,
You will love the 58-AF2. I used it to take portraits of my kid's swim team and they came out great just using the basic P-TTL (with me not really understanding anything much about its full use).
I concur with jase - the power level in the Metz can only manually be set to a specific level when it is in manual mode. Otherwise in P-TTL mode the camera controls the duration of the flash output (flash in P-TTL) to get what it thinks is the correct exposure based on expsoure settings (esp. ISO, Av) (the flash can do this too when IT is set to Auto mode using the built-in thyristor sensor. See below for manually controlling flash oputput.
A couple points - read the Metz manual a few times - it really isn't that bad and it is a necessity! Definitely have the camera/flash in hand (and camera manual too) and practice things as you go, especially P-TTL & wireless mode (using built-in to fire Metz) to get you going.
GREAT book choice - read that ASAP too! That book is mostly about using the flash and camera in manual modes...where you use the flash's manual 'partial light output' control AND/OR the VERY IMPORTANT
'distance to subject' to control the flash while using the camera settings to control ambient light. Peterson is all about YOU controlling and even removing ambient light using the camera Tv & Av settings, and how/why each affects the use of flash & exisiting light sources. He shows how to combine exposure settings with flash power & specific range to get very predictable very useful flash, and how to get photos with the different sources of light balanced the way YOU want in various circumstances. It works! He does mention and explain using TTL too when needed.
Luckily - the 58 & K-5 are wonderful at all this because they pass all the required info automatically! (the K-5 control of Tv can get annoying though). Though he uses Nikon Speedlights, his book is simple and straight forward, conveys all the info just fine though we're using Pentax and Metz (just need to know out how to change settings - RTM
), and is nicely repetitive till it too functions almost as a manual...you can follow along with trying the things he mentions.
The 58 is a powerful flash that has all the features one could want. Gotta learn to control it!
Last edited by jmg257; 05-03-2012 at 09:46 AM.