[wildweasel]

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Rob, not advice as such but my own observations. I've got a kx, a yn560 and a set of the jjl triggers and I found it only took a few days to get the hang of the manual flash; what works for me in situations like you're describing, ie, shots in parties, nightclubs etc, is to take a few test shots at the beginning of the night in different parts of the room and make adjustments on the flash to get the best results and remember the settings - easy with the 560. Then I can quickly set it according to where I am, how far the subject is from me, what the lighting is like in that area, etc. Triggers are great, I use mine a lot. For example, the other night I had a few friends over for dinner so I put the flash on top of the kitchen cupboard, zoom at minimum, the pull-out diffuser over the front and aimed so it covered the whole (white) ceiling over the table. That was all I needed to do for the whole evening - it didn't matter where I was in the kitchen the lighting was consistent. You can also hold the flash in one hand - or mount it on a tripe or get someone else to hold it for you to get different lighting angles. The flash was £50 and the triggers under 20 quid for 1tx and 2 rx's, both from UK based ebay vendors so were through the door in a few days.

[rob_k20d]

Thanks wildweasal. Incidentally, are the triggers necessary? Can't the yn560 be triggered by the kx's wireless flash?

[audiobomber]

I have looked but I have yet to find a list or database that has flash to camera compatibalty. Also, who do you beleve? After talking to a salesman at a local camera store and he started talking about flash voltage that, if it is to high, you take the chance of destroying your camera.

In other words, I'm a bit confused as to which flash would work with my K7 and *st DL.

This is a great resource: The Definitive Guide - Pentax P-TTL Flash Comparison

[audiobomber]

i'm wanting to get my 1st flash
the 2 areas i'd use this would be for portraits and macro with a Raynox DCR 150
i have never used a flash before(except for the inbuilt camera one) and don't really understand the differences between the settings/ttl etc..
any advice on what to get and general flash info would be appreciated
(budget approx £70/$100)
thanks

With that budget I would recommend the Sigma EF-610 DG ST.
Sigma EF-610 DG ST Electronic Flash for Sony SLR: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

It has P-TTL, more power than any other hot-shoe flash for Pentax, manual mode and a lot more. It lacks wireless and HSS, which I consider essential features, but if you don't need those, nothing in this price range keeps up. My advice though, is to save up for a full-featured flash.

[wildweasel]

Thanks wildweasal. Incidentally, are the triggers necessary? Can't the yn560 be triggered by the kx's wireless flash?

They can, the '560 has two optical slave modes to allow for red eye reduction/ pre-flash but I often want to place my flashes well out of range for that, or, more often, I don't want to use on-camera flash at all. The example I gave before of putting a flash on top of a cupboard wouldn't have worked too well either. Here are a couple of the shots I took that night, you can see how diffuse the light is in them with the flash well away from the camera. BTW, that's left over chocolate from the pancakes we had for pudding....

The triggers aren't always necessary but they can be pretty essential for some of the projects I've got on, such as freezing the faces and bodies of some fire-spinners I'm working with whilst still leaving the trails from their staffs, clubs, hoops and poi.

OT, but is their much of a loss of quality when posting pics on this site? The shot of Gosia is sharp straight off the card but looks a little blurry after posting.