[marinhaker]

Hello friends!
Recommend me flash?
pentax K-1
pentax 24-70/2.8

I settled on:

Metz Mecablitz 52 AF-1 DIGITAL
Pentax AF540FGZ II

or other?

[UncleVanya]

Yongnuo yn585ex is PTTL as I understand it. Cheap and pretty powerful.

[amoringello]

Pentax AF540FGZ II, it is weather resistant.... worked great in an eight hour event in the rain. But expensive.

Cactus also makes a nice set of flashes with built-in wireless to work with their transceivers.
I believe the latest versions handle PTTL and HighSpeedSync quite well.
There are not as cheap as Yongnuo, but are a lot less than Pentax's models.

[djam]

Hey UncleVanya I saw that little edit of yours! I could be wrong but from all my research when looking for cheap Pentax flash options the Yongnuo YN568EXll does NOT do P-TTL.
For $78 I purchased the Yongnuo YN585EX which does do P-TTL has works very well, but there are a few things to know about this flash. The P-TTL only works when on the camera body, it does not work off camera. The flash is of course still usable off camera, but only in manual. The other thing is that it does not have a built in receiver so you will need to purchase flash triggers for it unlike say the Yongnuo YN560lll and YN560lV. This isn't a huge deal, however if you are trying to use 3 yongnuo flashes with the built in receivers such as I just mentioned and you want to control the power level of each flash from your camera with the Yongnuo YN560TX flash controller without having to walk to each flash to make adjustments, then unfortunately the YN585EX is not adjustable from the YN560TX controller which is a bummer.

Also the YN585EX doesn't do High speed sync

So, in conclusion if you only want a flash that does on camera P-TTL only, with no HSS capability then this is a great cheap option for you.

Hope that helps!

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Last edited by djam; 02-11-2017 at 01:21 PM.

[Pentax Syntax]

I would second the choice of the AF540FGZ II. Great flash and will be fully supported by future firmware upgrades. While its not cheap, my experience with non-Pentax flashes (particularly for P-TTL) has not been positive. If you like to tinker, you can, of course, make anything work.

[UncleVanya]

Whoops! I meant 585 not 568 in my post. I have corrected it.

[Eagle94VT]

I went with the cactus setup and it works great with the k3 and k1. I'm a novice when it comes to flash and it has been easy to work with. And yes, it handles hss.

[UncleVanya]

I went with the cactus setup and it works great with the k3 and k1. I'm a novice when it comes to flash and it has been easy to work with. And yes, it handles hss.

With v6ii triggers I assume? Which flashes?

[Eagle94VT]

Correct - I have a V6 and V6ii trigger. I have 2 RF60's - the software upgrade from their website was quick and easy to get the HSS working with the RF60s. The V6 trigger won't do HSS.

[Paul the Sunman]

From my reading, the Yongnuo 858ex can act as a P-TTL slave, but not a master. For the K-1, with no pop-up flash, that is a major disadvantage.

"A YN585EX supports receiving wireless signal from the master unit of AF-360FGZ, AF540FGZ II and other Pentax cameras. It also supports 4 channels, off-camera TTL and manual flash."

Depending on how much power you need, the Pentax AF360FGZ II has the same functionality as its big brother, but with lower power, and at a much lower price. I like it a lot. The Metz 52 AF-1 is also well-featured and reliable.

[mcgregni]

And just for further clarity, the Cactus system, both V6 & V6II transceivers as well as the RF60 Flash, supports Manual flash exposure control ....no automatic flash exposure control. Of course this is often exactly what is needed.

However I got the impression that the OP here was thinking about a single on-camera flash only at this stage ...? If so then one of the P-TTL models on the table here is most suited I believe.

[Alex645]

Hello friends!
Recommend me flash?

Metz Mecablitz 52 AF-1 DIGITAL
Pentax AF540FGZ II

or other?

I donʻt use flash often, but when I do, the only thing I care about is that it works! If there has been one piece of gear that over my lifetime of using that is the most likely to fail, itʻs the flash unit. In terms of reliability, durability, trust based on my experience, Iʻd say Pentax, Metz, then Yongnuo.

Go with Pentax AF540FGZ II if weather-sealing (durability, ruggedness) is important.
Go with Metz 52 AF-1 if faster flash recycle times (weddings, events, journalism, action) is important.
Go with Yongnuo 858EX if price/cost (so cheap, you could buy a back up unit and still save money) is important.

[Bengan]

Go with Metz or Yongnuo if you want to be able to update firmware for future compatibility/functionality. As far as I know, Pentax hasn't implemented that functionality yet.

[RJH]

Some very good advice already but here is my two cents worth. I've got a 58 AF-1 and a 58 AF-2, both good flashes - and both with very cumbersome menu systems. At least, as has been mentioned, they are both firmware upgradeable. Not so my two Cactus AF50's. I wasn't surprised when the cactus flashes didn't work in p-ttl on the K-1, but I was surprised to find that they would not work in off camera p-ttl slave mode. Lesson learned.

As others have mentioned, the Godox V850's are a really great manual alternative. Super long lasting batteries for events and easy setup with the remote triggers. To be honest, I've never been impressed with P-TTL, yes, including genuine pentax units. Careful manual setup is almost always better. Of course a TTL system may well suit the work the OP is doing better than a manual or auto non TTL system.

Can anyone give a definitive answer as to the exact capability of the new Yn585ex?

[mcgregni]

I'm not sure if firmware upgradability is really a significant point of comparison between the Pentax and Metz models? From what I read here the Metz firmware is often playing catchup, and then it's very late sometimes. Metz have to make their flashes compatible with number of camera systems. Pentax have always built in compatibility with their modern flashes and every new camera they release.