[mdewfr]

I am unable to select auto zoom in P-TTL on my AF360 FGZ flash.

I am using a Pentax Km with a DAL 18mm-55mm lens.

Having just purchased the flash, I hope it's more down to user ignorance rather than product default.

Any help would be much appreciated

regards

mdewfr

[JeffJS]

Are you saying that the head will not change zoom when you zoom the lens from say 18mm to 55mm? Do you hear any noises other than the flash charging when you first turn it on?

I don't know if this is going to help you much but..

1. Make sure that the flash is completely mounted on the camera. You should be able to turn the shoe lock completely to the right so the lock pin drops into the the flash shoe.

2. Make sure it's set right..



Make sure the MCS switch is at M and make sure the switch on the right side of the flash (on top as shown in the photo) is in the UP position.

3. It's never changed anything for me but make sure your contacts are clean on both the flash, the camera, And the lens contacts are clean. I say it's never changed anything for me because, especially with the flash, the contacts are so positively connected, a little dirt isn't going to change anything. That said, PTTL only works with certain lenses so the lens mount could also be at issue.

Good luck..

[Ash]

Importantly also, make sure that the flash is mounted firmly into the camera's hotshoe. Even slightly off the contacts, the flash will not communicate with the camera and not function as expected.

Auto zoom should happen automatically when you switch on the flash. Once it is switched on, you should hear it churn away for a second - this is the adjustment of the zoom flash head. Once you start zooming the lens, the flash head should zoom correspondingly and show you the 35mm equivalent focal length on its LCD screen.

[mdewfr]

Thanks JeffJS for coming back.
I've cleaned the contacts & setup the way you mentioned.

However I have noticed that when I turn the camera off, a "35mm" appears in the top left corner,P-TTL & M. Zoom still shows with 20mm as the zoom.

Then when I turn the camera on, the 35mm disapears, P-TTL & M. Zoom remain, however the Zoom now appears as 13mm.
The flash coverage diodes at the bottom, do change as I manually adjust the Zoom.

If I press the Zoom button with the camera on, the 35mm appears in the top left corner.

I believe the DA 18-55mm lens I am using has the required Pentax KAF mounting, that should allow to set the P-TTL mode to auto zoom.

I am fortunate in that Pentax's offices here in France are only 5 miles from where I live, however I'll give it a few more days, to see if anyone else can shed some light on my frustration

Best regards

---

Last edited by mdewfr; 01-24-2010 at 12:38 PM. Reason: spelling error

[JeffJS]

Then your flash doesn't know it's attached to a Pentax DSLR. I'd have both looked at if reasonable for you to do (including the lens). You are correct, the kit lens should auto operate the zoom head of the flash. Perhaps your service center can ferret out the problem by doing some A-B-A testing (different flash on your camera, your flash on different camera)..

Good luck.

[mdewfr]

Once again thanks for your input.

I live in France & bought the flash online from Henry's in Toronto, who assured me that it was sold with a worldwide guaratnee.

So I've decided to pass the issue onto Pentax France, unfortunately they have sub-contracted their service repair centre out & therefore don't carry out any work at their French HQ, 5 miles from where I live.

So when I contacted them, I was told to take it to a Pentax reseller store who would send it back to be checked.
When I went to a large reseller of Pentax gear in France, Darty.
I was informed that I had to pay a 36 euros charge to find out what the problem was, as I didn't purchase the flash from them.

I informed Pentax France of this, who said they weren't able to intervene with Darty's internal company policies, & suggested that I should either return it to Canada or find another reseller who "may or may not" charge a handling fee.

I'm in the process of writting to Pentax France.

[mdewfr]

solution found from a previous post on here:

I just realized one scenario where the 360 can appear to be stuck in manual zoom.
If you enter manual zoom mode, and then pull out the front diffuser panel, then it will be locked to 20mm and pressing the manual zoom button will do nothing. Simply pushing the front diffusion panel back in will make the zoom button work again. Just mentioning in case it could be this.

Which means I can't use the flash with a diffuser in P-TTL auto-zoom mode

[JeffJS]

solution found from a previous post on here:



Which means I can't use the flash with a diffuser in P-TTL auto-zoom mode

When you pull the diffuser out, the flash assumes you are using a wide angle lens and disables Autozoom because the assumption is that it is not a zoom lens. I do not think the diffuser is your problem because when it's out one cannot even step through the manual zoom (on my 360).

If the flash is connected to the camera and the camera is not turned on, it defaults to 24mm (35mm mode) and can be manually zoomed. The flash behaves exactly the same way when not connected to the camera. When the camera is turned on and the shutter button is half pressed for AF, the flash goes to Auto Zoom and adjusts to whatever the lens is set at (digital mode) and should move when the lens is zoomed. This is true with both the kit lens as well as my DA*16-50mm (Yes, SDM still works fine ). With a regular fixed lens on the camera DA15mm, I can still step through the manual zoom and it will return to Auto Zoom as one of the zoom steps.

Given your description and what I've seen with my 360/K7 (camera shouldn't matter) the camera and flash are not communicating. Before sending the flash anywhere, I would suggest that you try the flash with another camera and/or try another flash with Your camera. Also, a different DA type zoom lens (because we haven't ruled that out yet).

The cost of possible double and triple duties does make it a possible expensive goose chase. I'm in the USA so I don't know the pains of the Import duties and VAT being tacked on to every purchase. If you can at the very least isolate your problem before paying money for service, you'll have a better way of deciding.

Beyond that, I'm afraid short of suggesting removal of the flash shoe (4 screws on the bottom, do it at your own risk) and checking for a broken wire, I'm out of ideas.

[mattdm]

Which means I can't use the flash with a diffuser in P-TTL auto-zoom mode

That's because that would be counter-productive. The whole point of the wide-angle diffuser is to make the light cover more area; it's nonsensical to use it with a focused flash beam.

[Andrew Lang]

i've had the same problems with my kx i solved it by pressing the zoom button alot... then it worked again, it will cycle through a bunch of manual zoom ranges and then pop back into auto.... try cleaning the contacts on your lens too... that may help.

hope that works