[causey]

I'm considering buying one of these two flashes. I would go for the Metz 50 for the auto-zoom, swivel, and manual controls, but it seems to be much bigger than the 36 flash, and it might be awkward on my K-x... Anyone users of Metz 50 on a K-x? How easy is to move around with it? Are the controls intuitive? Is exposure consistent?

On the other hand, since as far as I know Metz 36 is P-TTL only, consistency of exposure is even more crucial... For any Metz 36 users: do you miss the swivel option? Thank you!

[Ratmagiclady]

Well, Causey, I've got the 36 AF-4: for the size and price, I'm generally pleased enough.

You get no more control than comes in-camera with P-TTL, but it usually does competent things. Swivel's one of those things that often comes in fairly handy, but can be done without as well. I'm kind of a flash-minimalist, so the relative lack of power isn't a big problem: I suspect ceiling bounce would probably eat a lot fairly quickly anyway, though.

My prime gripe with the AF-4 is that the AF assist beam is weak and annoyingly is directed rather high for a flash of this size: what do they think I'm going to be doing with a flash this small, lighting up the Hatch shell?

They may have improved that with the AF-5, I dunno. For all that, it's OK, you just don't get a lot of control. (I'm sticking with my old 285HV for now for jobs needing power and control, but I never want to carry that around. This model's nice for tucking in a bag, and usually doesn't take too much outguessing. Range and recycle time are better than you'd expect on ordinary Energizers, too. (I do still need to get some Eneloops, they're on the list: we'll see how those perform when I get around to it: I simply don't go through AA's so fast, and I've got little lights and things to get the last out of them when they get too weak for flash, so the waste hasn't been too galling, but does need attending to. )

Anyway, I'm pretty positive on the little guy, with the caveat that it's not for a lot of power that I'm here to begin with. (Actually, a Yuletide prezzie off a watch-list of mine, ) I've got kind of a cheapo modifier that works quite well, (if anything, makes very *flat* light) and is very convenient for aforementioned stuff-in-bag-on-the-way-out uses.

Exceeds expectations for general usefulness, though the AF illuminator isn't what I'd hoped. It's good for me for the same sorts of reasons it's good for its target market: mostly, it's nice and simple for when I'm fatigued and it's there when a bigger one wouldn't be. (I wanted to try an even smaller two-cell one like Metz actually just came out with, just for the occasional otherwise-unobtainable shot in a pub or something, the ...24? But I got tired of waiting for even the Tumax version to actually hit the market. This 36 is a more-useful compromise than I was really expecting.)

For fine or very-deliberate control or anything, you probably have to go bigger. But this is generally quite predictable: and only occasionally seems to get confused and ask for like a seconds-long exposure. For what it is, it's pretty good, though. What it's not is more than a nice basic automated-only flash. The controls are very intuitive, cause there *are* none. Zip. Zero. Runs like the popup flash.

[causey]

Thank you very much, RML, for your very detailed answer to my questions. In the end I decided to go with the manual YN-560, since it has power equal to that of Metz 50, bounce and swivel, and its controls seem to be very easy to handle. It's cheap, and I can get a 3 year warranty for about $10 from SquareTrade.com.