[Skylight]

Evenin all,

A friend is givin away a Metz flash with a SCA 3701 module that was used with a MZ5n..........
Is it worth keepin to use with my K7 for general/portrait use ?

[RKKS08]

Welcome to the forum.

I am using the 40MZ-2 with my K200D all the time, with both SCA3701 and SCA3702 adapters. The 40MZ-1 is only missing the integrated additional small flash for fill when bouncing.

In P and M mode (of the flash) it works perfectly with its built-in photo cell. In my experience very often better than pTTL.
Despite its age, with the exception of macro I would prefer that flash to any of the actual Pentax flashes.

In (flash) P mode you don't need to make any settings. At least with the K200D it reads all settings of the body and adjusts itself accordingly, including zoom (if you are using lenses where the camera gets all the needed information from its lens).

With both adapters leading and trailing curtain is supported.
The Guide Number (GN 40) of this flash is defined as it was common till the mid eighties - before the phantasy GN inflation started.
It is roughly equal to a GN52-GN58 as they are advertised nowadays.

To use all the many functions you will need the manual.

Be aware that with older MZ40s breaking a gear of the power zoom mechanism is often an issue.

[Skylight]

Welcome to the forum.

I am using the 40MZ-2 with my K200D all the time, with both SCA3701 and SCA3702 adapters. The 40MZ-1 is only missing the integrated additional small flash for fill when bouncing.

In P and M mode (of the flash) it works perfectly with its built-in photo cell. In my experience very often better than pTTL.
Despite its age, with the exception of macro I would prefer that flash to any of the actual Pentax flashes.

In (flash) P mode you don't need to make any settings. At least with the K200D it reads all settings of the body and adjusts itself accordingly, including zoom (if you are using lenses where the camera gets all the needed information from its lens).

With both adapters leading and trailing curtain is supported.
The Guide Number (GN 40) of this flash is defined as it was common till the mid eighties - before the phantasy GN inflation started.
It is roughly equal to a GN52-GN58 as they are advertised nowadays.

To use all the many functions you will need the manual.

Be aware that with older MZ40s breaking a gear of the power zoom mechanism is often an issue.

Thanks for the reply RKKS08,
guess its worth keepin then, I'll find a manual and get flashin !

[RKKS08]

There is one thing I forgot to tell. It is a bug in a range of Metz flashes, including the 40MZ series.

If you first take a picture with flash directly to the subject, and after that switch to bouncing, the flash display will still show the ISO correctly as set from the body. But internally there MAY BE a wrongly set ISO (to lowest setting) in the flash. Whether this will lead to over exposure or not, depends on aperture, distance, etc. This forum (and all German forums) are full with discussions of the problem. A quick fix is to recall program 0 (the actual settings) after switching the reflector to bounce mode.

Strangely enough, in German forums there are many postings where users own more than one copy of a Pentax DSLR, and they tell the problem does not exist with all of them. In one case it was even reported there was no error with a K-5, but after it was returned from service (sensor stains) the issue was there - they had not updated the ROM version!
So it probably is not really a bug, but some kind of incompatibility caused by very small tolerances during communication.

The issue was reported with K10D, K200D, K-x, K-7, K-5, and K-01.
With K-5 and K200D there are reports that there is no problem with some bodies.

One user send a 40MZ to the German Metz service for a test, and got it back with the following answer (rough translation to English by me):

...meanwhile we were able to test your configuration in respect to over exposures when bouncing. We can confirm the issue. After changing the flash mode to bouncing, obviously the ISO value set by the camera does not get recognized correctly anymore. The flash display still shows the correct value, but the flash auto function will now use a lower ISO value frequently causing over exposure. The effect will be more visible at higher camera ISO values.

RCL will delete the wrongly set ISO value, and with the next data exchange the correct ISO value will be used.

Because of these facts the problem cannot be solved by using a newer SCA adapter, or upgrading its ROM. It could only be fixed by a program modification of the flash itself, but the 40MZ series was not capable of a ROM update.

There would be a way to solve the problem by disabling the capabilty of the flash to detect bouncing mode. Then the mis-interpretation of the ISO value would not happen anymore. The drawback would be, that now the shown flash range would always be the one for direct flashing, not for bouncing. However, exposures would be correct for direct flashing as well as for bouncing.

This user asked Metz to disable the bouncing detect (2 micro switches), and they did it for free. He told, after that all problems were solved.