[Bulldogface]

Today, I've stumbled upon a little strange thing. I have both of those flashes wirelessly paired with my K-3, Metz set as Slave, Pentax in M wireless, and while being used both on their own, they work as expected. But the moment I am trying to trigger both of them in the same time, only Metz would fire. I tried Servo mode on Metz as well, not to prevail, so now I am not entirely sure what am I doing wrong. Any ideas?

[Sliver-Surfer]

Today, I've stumbled upon a little strange thing. I have both of those flashes wirelessly paired with my K-3, Metz set as Slave, Pentax in M wireless, and while being used both on their own, they work as expected. But the moment I am trying to trigger both of them in the same time, only Metz would fire. I tried Servo mode on Metz as well, not to prevail, so now I am not entirely sure what am I doing wrong. Any ideas?

try setting Flash in wireless mode to 1?

[Bulldogface]

I am afraid u'll have to elaborate on that one...

[GeneV]

Make sure they are all on the same wireless channel. I had the same thing happen today with my Metz 64 AF and the Pentax AF540FGZ. The Metz defaulted to Channel 1 and the Pentax was on Channel 2.

[Bulldogface]

They're both on channel one, that's the weird thing. I mean, when I am trying to fire only Pentax, with Metz switched off, it works flawlessly. The moment I switch Metz on, Pentax won't fire. I am quite confident it's just some setting glitch in one of the flashes

[Bulldogface]

One more detail: Today, I made both flashes to fire in the same time. In order to do that, Pentax had to be set to P-TTL. The moment I switched back to M, it gave up on me again and would fire only on it's own, but not in tandem with Metz. Any ideas?

[Bulldogface]

Oh, for crying out loud! Really no one uses this combo wireless?

[RGlasel]

Really no one uses this combo wireless

Don't cry, but no one probably does. I suspect that people who want full manual control for a twin external flash setup, will probably use non P-TTL triggering. Just to check the basics, the Pentax flash is on camera? If you set the Pentax flash to M mode, then it probably won't send out the P-TTL pre-flashes, which is how it communicates wirelessly with the Metz flash. To get the Metz to fire in Servo mode, you might have to not select wireless in the camera. Or go back to P-TTL, although I think the camera will get 2/3 of the exposure from the master flash and 1/3 from the slave when an external flash is mounted on the camera, which is why I asked where your Pentax flash was mounted. If you use the pop up flash as a master controller with 2 external flashes mounted off-camera, you will get a different proportioning of the flash power.

[Bulldogface]

Thanks for your answer. Well, to cove the basics, no, neither of those flashes is mounted on camera, they're both triggered with built-in flash. And here is the thing: placed both of them side by side, metz turned off, pentax turned on, pentax would fire as expected. In manual mode, with selected power output, etc. Than when I as little as flick the switch on Metz to turn it on (wireless set, either slave or servo mode), only Metz would be triggered. Pentax settings untouched. And built in flash is set to control, just to add to it.

[RGlasel]

wireless set

I don't have a Pentax P-TTL flash to test this with, but the camera will detect the Metz flash when you turn it on, and in the camera manual, it says P-TTL is used with multiple flashes in all situations, even when you use extension cords. Whether the camera decides to switch off the Pentax flash, or if differences in the programming of the two different flashes is the reason why your Pentax flash doesn't fire with the settings you have, I don't know. It could even be that the camera is using only the built-in flash, but the Metz is triggered by the light flashes, not because the camera is communicating with it.

[Bulldogface]

and in the camera manual, it says P-TTL is used with multiple flashes in all situations, even when you use extension cords.

I guess this is the reason, I must have missed this while reading manual. so yes, stuck only with P-TTL...kinda limiting, isn't it? Thanks a lot for your input

[Oldbayrunner]

Somewhere in the recess of my mind with this combo I believe I read that the Af 540fgz needed to be on camera and the Metz as slave. That may have been for Hss though. I believe I also read the firmware on the 58 needed to be updated. I can't say for sure as I don't own a Metz.

[Bulldogface]

I have Metz on newest firmware, so that would't be a problem..And anyway, it is Pentax which misbehaves and won't let me go full manual.

[Oldbayrunner]

I have Metz on newest firmware, so that would't be a problem..And anyway, it is Pentax which misbehaves and won't let me go full manual.

Are you setting the the on/off switch to wireless and the M/C/S switch to slave, if it isn't being used as a controller, then selecting your Mode switch to Manual?

[Bulldogface]

yes. and unless I cave in and switch pentax to pttl, it won't fire.