[kmwsbabe]

Thanks everyone for all the helpful replies! I really appreciate reading your thoughts and experience. You've made clear to me that my budget needs revising.

Twitch - thanks! I didn't realize before reading your post that the 360 doesn't swivel.

Luis, I'll admit those low price tags are starting to look too good to be true. If I could be sure, I might try one, and not worry too much about the lack of wireless.

Gene, you have been most helpful with your posts. Really. Thank you.

This chart was really helpful to me:
Pentax P-TTL Hot Shoe Flash Comparison - a knol by Matthew Miller

Looks like the Metz 58 has EVERYTHING. A pretty penny, for sure, but it has every feature I could ever hope to have. (Unless, of course, I am overlooking something, which is quite possible!) Oh, except high speed sync. Is that an important feature that I will be sorry to not have?

I'm still open to thoughts. Gene and ozzi-paul, thanks again for your informative posts. I think I am now leaning toward the Metz 48. Maybe the 58 if I feel I can justify it. I like what I am reading about the power, and since I want to bounce off a brolly or shoot through a diffuser, that makes a difference for me. BUT....yeesh, the pricetag! The guide numbers on the AF540 look great too, but it is lacking in so many of the features when compared with the 58.

Any other advice/input before I make it final?

[Eruditass]

The Definitive Guide - Pentax P-TTL Flash Comparison is a more up to date than that knol copy.

Metz 58 has HSS?

If you want power, the Metz announced updated stronger flashes (equivalent to Sigma's current lineup but not the ones they just announced), and then there's Sigma which has more power but other tradeoffs.

[kmwsbabe]

The Definitive Guide - Pentax P-TTL Flash Comparison is a more up to date than that knol copy.

Metz 58 has HSS?

If you want power, the Metz announced updated stronger flashes (equivalent to Sigma's current lineup but not the ones they just announced), and then there's Sigma which has more power but other tradeoffs.

Hey, thanks! I actually had both links open in tabs at one point. The knol version had the nifty chart, which helped me quickly compare features. I wasn't aware that it was dated.

Metz doesn't have HSS for Pentax, and I don't know enough about it to know whether I would miss it. I'm a complete flash noob. I want a powerful off-camera flash that I can shoot into my plm and that I can use on-camera at events. I have considered the Sigma Super, because it has many of the features that I want and is closer to my price range, but I am confused about its slave capabilities. Is it capable of being triggered by the k-x's built-in flash, or will it be triggered prematurely by the pre-flash?

Thanks for all the help!

[twitch]

Metz doesn't have HSS for Pentax, and I don't know enough about it to know whether I would miss it.

That is definitely incorrect. I own a Metz 48 flash and it most certainly DOES have HSS. The 58 also definitely has it.

I find HSS very useful for fill flash on sunny days where I'm not able to get my shutter speed down below 1/180. In fact I just leave my flash on HSS all the time and it's smart enough to alter it's burst pattern automatically according to whether my shutter is above or below 1/180.

[mattdm]

Hey, thanks! I actually had both links open in tabs at one point. The knol version had the nifty chart, which helped me quickly compare features. I wasn't aware that it was dated.

It grew to be way too much information for a single Knol page to handle elegantly, so I moved to hosting it at wikidot.com . The "nifty chart" (thanks!) is intact, though, at:
Feature Tables - Pentax P-TTL Flash Comparison

Metz doesn't have HSS for Pentax, and I don't know enough about it to know whether I would miss it.

Clarification: it does have HSS, but not off-camera. (You would need to have two hot-shoe flashes for that anyway, though, because the onboard camera flash can't do HSS either.)

I have considered the Sigma Super, because it has many of the features that I want and is closer to my price range, but I am confused about its slave capabilities. Is it capable of being triggered by the k-x's built-in flash, or will it be triggered prematurely by the pre-flash?

The Super model (but not the ST) can do wireless P-TTL slave. The note about being triggered prematurely is a problem I had with my K10D's focus-assist strobe (which I believe is the same on the K-x). When it needed to do that horribly blinking thing to achieve focus in low light, that would often set off the flash during focusing. This isn't an issue with the K-7 or the K-5, or with the K-r. (Nice of Pentax to bring that down to the entry-level model!)

[clark]

sorry to thread hijack- i'm currently running 2 100% manual flash guns, and getting good results. I mostly shoot using pentax M/m42 lenses so naturally the on board flash doesn't work at all.

But, with preflash on the metz/360, will that mean it'l correctly expose when shooting in Av mode with m42 lenses stopped down?

I'm very interested to hear the answer

[Eruditass]

sorry to thread hijack- i'm currently running 2 100% manual flash guns, and getting good results. I mostly shoot using pentax M/m42 lenses so naturally the on board flash doesn't work at all.

But, with preflash on the metz/360, will that mean it'l correctly expose when shooting in Av mode with m42 lenses stopped down?

I'm very interested to hear the answer

Unfortunately, P-TTL only works with A-series lenses and above. Auto-thyristor flashes (360, 540, metz 58) will work just like old auto-thyristor flashes, which means you set the exposure based on the flash settings.

There is a work-around to get P-TTL working. According to this thread ( https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-beginners-corner-q/83348-p-through...al-lenses.html ), on some bodies you only need to short one pin with foil and it will not affect any other lenses.

On the K-x, it looks like I need to short the data pin, which means my AF lenses will be detected as MF, which is really disappointing. I may just carry around a piece of foil otherwise...

[bkpix]

in the interest of simplicity and low cost, you should consider using an old automatic flash like the Vivitar 283 or 285.

Please understand that "automatic" here is not the same as P-TTL with its fancy through-the-lens metering.

Automatic means the flash has its own photo cell that records reflected light and shuts down the flash burst once the cell sees enough light. You set your aperture to a manual setting, like say f/5.6, to match the setting on the flash and then shoot away.

For almost all indoor photography it's extremely accurate; my experience, shooting side by side with a Canon E-TTL system, is that it matched the Canon shot for shot quite well. You can make any needed exposure tweeks by chimping.

And it's gobs cheaper.

You can buy one of the flashes mentioned above for $50. Which means that for much less than a single dedicated flash, you can buy two or three auto flashes, and use them -- as I often do -- as remote wireless flashes, triggered by cheap optical slave triggers. (You can't, unfortunately, use the onboard Pentax flash as a control unless you buy more-expensive digital triggers that block out the Pentax pre-flash. I use an old AF280T, set on low power and aimed away from the subject, as a controller.)

Or you can buy just one, snap it into the hotshoe and flash away.

[Penmacgal]

I just bought the AF 540 at B&H on Monday for $385 plus shipping. It arrived with regular shipping on Wednesday, great service.

I'm not sure, but I think that is a good price. I also did lots of reading, but finally decided on the 540 because of the good price.

Good luck, I am a newbie too, and also read and read, until my head hurt!

[clark]

I just bought the AF 540 at B&H on Monday for $385 plus shipping. It arrived with regular shipping on Wednesday, great service.

I'm not sure, but I think that is a good price. I also did lots of reading, but finally decided on the 540 because of the good price.

Good luck, I am a newbie too, and also read and read, until my head hurt!

I just bought a jessops 360afd canon ETTL compatible flashgun, that triggers wirelessly- for £70
pretty cheap I think- don't know if i'll get a canon camera to go with it though
i'm using it totally manually right now, I usually shoot the flash off camera with radio triggers

[kmwsbabe]

Thanks again for all the input! I made the decision to try out the YN-560. I know, I know, I know.... well, for the price it is worth a shot. Hopefully!

Just so you know, I didn't read all your replies and then just disregard them to do something stupid. Some unexpected medical bills last week made me place the decision between this one and the Vivitar. The YN-560 won with the tilt and swivel. There is also a nice following of Strobists that convinced me that maybe it was worth trying out. Were there other good flashes that maybe should have been considered? Probably. But, I was tired of waffling about it. Tired of comparing every minute detail. In a way, it's very cathartic. I was stressing a bit too much over a flash.

I know some of you are haters, and that's ok. We'll see if this works out for me.

And thank you all again. Even if I didn't follow your advice, I now have a better understanding of OCF and the different functions (slave, master, etc....) and I will be better prepared to actually use this thing when I get it. So, thank you again for posting.

[newarts]

Suddenly the YN-560 choice appears fait accompli with no previous reference.

Might you provide a pointer to info about it?

[kmwsbabe]

Suddenly the YN-560 choice appears fait accompli with no previous reference.

Might you provide a pointer to info about it?

I know, right?

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-camera-field-accessories/115459-ju...-shipment.html

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-camera-field-accessories/101116-ch...lash-guns.html

Yongnuo YN-560 Speedlite Review | Speedlights.net

I purchased mine directly from the company, along with the Nikon triggers. And yeah, I didn't mention it before because it isn't p-ttl, so it didn't actually fit my initial criteria. However, since I was suddenly seriously considering the Vivitar after much encouragement that p-ttl is not the end-all-be-all, I realized that opened up my options a bit. Combine that with suddenly having a tighter budget and being too impatient to wait another month, and we have a previously excluded runner in the race. The Strobist blog has a bit about this flash and a google search will yield a myriad of flickr threads. As I said, there are fans and there are haters. LOL!