Originally posted by drabina Matjazz: Camera does trigger the flash (I can see it going off) but I think there is a problem with synchronization. So like I said, it will work just fine film cameras and probably with the wireless triggers.
Well, I see there's a PM on the flash, so it probably doesn't matter, but for people's edification since the question has been raised:
Cameras through the *istDS2 functioned with old TTL (a few cameras including digitals D through DS2, as well as the last-generation film cameras, had old TTL
as well as new P-TTL systems). Old TTL used "off the film" (or digital sensor) during-exposure metering, telling the flash to stop once enough light had hit. New P-TTL has a pre-exposure flash to determine amount of exposure in advance.
I believe all cameras since K10/100 on have
only new P-TTL. There is no physical meter to read off sensor itself during exposure for old-style TTL to work. With these cameras, old flashes (at *least* when set to TTL--not sure what happens if set to manual) will have their flash triggered in the pre-exposure phase (the flash mistakes the pre-exposure cue as the cue to flash, or something like that), and thus will have already fired before the actual exposure.
For wireless trigger, I'd suspect the same issue would arise but I don't know this. Seems to me last time I tried my Bronica studio flashes, they were being triggered by the pre-exposure P-TTL flash and failing to synch too, but maybe a smarter slave trigger would somehow "understand" & communicate between the P-TTL-based camera and an old-style flash to get them to synch.
Search threads on the forum for more, but in a nutshell, that's my understanding of the compatibility or lack thereof.
Just remembered I still have one of these, with an Olympus adapter. Out of blind curiosity (and with reckless abandon), I threw it on my K10 to see what would happen. It synchs! It's own "auto" mode exposes...well, pretty consistently, though it seems to vary by subject (dark subject consistently underexposed by the same amount, as if it were reading ambient light rather than reflected, magically). To be really crazy, I set it to "Manual/TTL" mode and had the switch on the Olympus adapter set to "TTL". It still synched. Probably because the Olympus TTL connections are different from the Pentax ones, so the flash isn't triggered by the Pentax P-TTL signal. Likewise, set to TTL it fires fully, again since it wouldn't receive a signal to stop firing. Okay, I'm taking it off my camera now before I burn out the K10's flash circuitry with the mis-matched electronics (what a stupid gamble I just took!). But this is a neat flash with the two flash heads, and option to mix direct & bounce flash in one. Maybe I should figure out whether this OM mount is actually safe to use on a K10D... This could be fun--if it's not wrecking my camera!