[Danas_Anis]

Hello!

I admit that I am not a technical guy, I thought maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe miss something, but well, I take my sis DSLR and when I adjust built in flash power, I actually see the difference between -2 and + 2 values for the pop up flash. My sis has Olympus DSLR, then I tried on my friend's Canon 60D, the difference between power levels are also visible. However when it comes to my K-30, regardless of what power level I have for it, it just shoots flash at max value. There is no difference ranging from -2 to +2. is that an issue with my K-30 or is this normal behavior and I am supposed to use special technique because on Pentax pop up flashes always shoot at all they have got?

Sometimes I need to use the pop up flash and would like it to not make my pictures be burnt white. On some occasions I want to do some slight fill light thingy but even bounced flash light from the sealing or somewhere else is just too active, not to mention that it drains the battery really much.

I am very grateful for every advice.

[jatrax]

Should work. Does work on my k-5 but I don't have a k-30. What mode are you shooting in perhaps that makes a difference?

[IchabodCrane]

Hello!

I admit that I am not a technical guy, I thought maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe miss something, but well, I take my sis DSLR and when I adjust built in flash power, I actually see the difference between -2 and + 2 values for the pop up flash. My sis has Olympus DSLR, then I tried on my friend's Canon 60D, the difference between power levels are also visible. However when it comes to my K-30, regardless of what power level I have for it, it just shoots flash at max value. There is no difference ranging from -2 to +2. is that an issue with my K-30 or is this normal behavior and I am supposed to use special technique because on Pentax pop up flashes always shoot at all they have got?

Sometimes I need to use the pop up flash and would like it to not make my pictures be burnt white. On some occasions I want to do some slight fill light thingy but even bounced flash light from the sealing or somewhere else is just too active, not to mention that it drains the battery really much.

I am very grateful for every advice.

The K-30 built-in flash works very well and is adjustable (assuming it's working correctly). I don't think I ever use a setting greater than 0, more often between -1 and -1.7 depending on how much ambient light I want included. Please give us more details on what you are changing and the actual results you see. I'm sure we can help diagnose what's happening.

[enoeske]

Hello!

I admit that I am not a technical guy, I thought maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe miss something, but well, I take my sis DSLR and when I adjust built in flash power, I actually see the difference between -2 and + 2 values for the pop up flash. My sis has Olympus DSLR, then I tried on my friend's Canon 60D, the difference between power levels are also visible. However when it comes to my K-30, regardless of what power level I have for it, it just shoots flash at max value. There is no difference ranging from -2 to +2. is that an issue with my K-30 or is this normal behavior and I am supposed to use special technique because on Pentax pop up flashes always shoot at all they have got?

Sometimes I need to use the pop up flash and would like it to not make my pictures be burnt white. On some occasions I want to do some slight fill light thingy but even bounced flash light from the sealing or somewhere else is just too active, not to mention that it drains the battery really much.

I am very grateful for every advice.

I'm not sure what lens you are using but P-TTL doesn't work with Manual lenses (those without the A setting). It will shoot full power with non-A lenses.

[bcorson]

Hello!

I admit that I am not a technical guy, I thought maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe miss something, but well, I take my sis DSLR and when I adjust built in flash power, I actually see the difference between -2 and + 2 values for the pop up flash. My sis has Olympus DSLR, then I tried on my friend's Canon 60D, the difference between power levels are also visible. However when it comes to my K-30, regardless of what power level I have for it, it just shoots flash at max value. There is no difference ranging from -2 to +2. is that an issue with my K-30 or is this normal behavior and I am supposed to use special technique because on Pentax pop up flashes always shoot at all they have got?

Sometimes I need to use the pop up flash and would like it to not make my pictures be burnt white. On some occasions I want to do some slight fill light thingy but even bounced flash light from the sealing or somewhere else is just too active, not to mention that it drains the battery really much.

I am very grateful for every advice.

As someone has already suggested could be you are using a manual lens or could be the mode you use. I find that flash performance can be unpredictable in any other mode then P mode although I am most often now using an external flash but seems to me had same issue with the onboard flash. I would get unusually high ISO with shots using other modes resulting in overexposed shots. Try P mode when using flash.

[Danas_Anis]

Hello everyone!

Thank you very much for your replies.
It looks like I got my question answered, most of the time I use old manual lens which has aperture ring and actually doens;t have anything electronic, and indeed built in flash simply fires at its max with this lens.
With the kit lens however in P mode the lens power settings seems to do some effect, as well as in manual mode it does some adjustments too, yet the pop up flash on my K-30 is quite strong even at its minimal setting.

Thank you very much for your help.

[SteveB]

IMHO it's best to use fixed ISO 400 or less for consistent flash results. Flashes can only be turned down to a certain minimum brightness, so if the ISO is too high there's more risk of hitting the end stops resulting in overexposure.

[ScooterMaxi Jim]

Danas, pick up a cheap non-dedicated manual flash, preferably the kind that bounce and have an eye for using auto settings. It will work just fine with every lens you can mount, and even outperform pTTL at times because it won't get tricked or encounter the famed firmware bug.

Something like this will work just fine: Dot Line RPS Automatic Thyrister Bounce Flash DL-82ABSZ B&H

[Danas_Anis]

SteveB, yea, I noticed that Pentax when on higher iso numbers tends to burn images with pop up flash,
ScooterMaxi Jim, thank you very much for your recommendation, does this flash comes with manual controls too? I couldn't find a clear picture of the back side of it, and in the description it talks much about automatic features, however with Pentax DSLRs for some reason I never felt this good on fully manual mode and last time I worked with an attachable flash it was real fun to experiment with my own combinations of settings.

Thank you very much for your time and advice!

[JimJohnson]

Danas, pick up a cheap non-dedicated manual flash, preferably the kind that bounce and have an eye for using auto settings. It will work just fine with every lens you can mount, and even outperform pTTL at times because it won't get tricked or encounter the famed firmware bug.

Something like this will work just fine: Dot Line RPS Automatic Thyrister Bounce Flash DL-82ABSZ B&H

When I sold my film gear to buy AF lenses for my new K-r, I kept my Vivitar 550FD TTL/thyristor/manual flash. While I also have a full featured Sigma wireless P-TTL EF610 DG Super, the old Vivitar is still a nice simple automatic flash when shooting manual.

Oh, and I can fake wireless P-TTL with the addition of a Seagull SYK-5 optical slave .... just do a search on SYK-5 in the Forum.

[ScooterMaxi Jim]

SteveB, yea, I noticed that Pentax when on higher iso numbers tends to burn images with pop up flash,
ScooterMaxi Jim, thank you very much for your recommendation, does this flash comes with manual controls too? I couldn't find a clear picture of the back side of it, and in the description it talks much about automatic features, however with Pentax DSLRs for some reason I never felt this good on fully manual mode and last time I worked with an attachable flash it was real fun to experiment with my own combinations of settings.

Thank you very much for your time and advice!

Hi Danas,

Yes, that flash has a setting for full manual (but not flash ratios), and two auto settings - likely at 15 feet and 30 feet (less if bounced).

I did a quick check over at Adorama and found better deals over there. In particular, I think this unit is laid out better with controls on the back and a graphic to assist in dialing in proper exposure.
Bower SFD290 Flash, Fully Automatic Zoom Swivel Bounce, Standard Hot Shoe SFD290

Personally, I much prefer auto to stepped manual because you can move around, change bounce angles and diffusion, and still get consistent exposure without trial and error. The old flashes I depend on most actually have at least three auto settings and they perform much more consistently than the pTTL units.

[Danas_Anis]

thank you very much for your advice!