[izzyinstl]

Hello Everyone
I am new at this so please keep in mind! Extra explaination may be needed for me.

Here is what I have:

(2) K10D's (2) 540fgz flashes (1) Vivitar 285HV flash (3) Pocket Wizard Plus II
(2) stands for 2 of the flashes.

Here is what I'm trying to do: I would like to have 1 540 mounted on the camera while using the other 2 stand mounted flashes (1- 540FGZ and 1- 285HV) to flash with camera mounted 540. I want to use the stand mounted flashes for background light and fill. Maybe flank the stands or behind subjects for background light on dancefloor. I cannot figure the best way to do this. I can put a wizard on the k10d and fire the two stand mounted flashes but how do I use the 540 on camera with the other 2 stand mounted flashes that are with pocket wizards? Am I making sense or is this the wrong aproach? The othe k10d will be used for just taking candids and not using the stand mounted strobes. so just 1 k10d using three flashes with one of the 3 flashes mounted on the camera.

Thank you in advance

[creampuff]

Hello Everyone
I am new at this so please keep in mind! Extra explaination may be needed for me.

Here is what I have:

(2) K10D's (2) 540fgz flashes (1) Vivitar 285HV flash (3) Pocket Wizard Plus II
(2) stands for 2 of the flashes.

Here is what I'm trying to do: I would like to have 1 540 mounted on the camera while using the other 2 stand mounted flashes (1- 540FGZ and 1- 285HV) to flash with camera mounted 540. I want to use the stand mounted flashes for background light and fill. Maybe flank the stands or behind subjects for background light on dancefloor. I cannot figure the best way to do this. I can put a wizard on the k10d and fire the two stand mounted flashes but how do I use the 540 on camera with the other 2 stand mounted flashes that are with pocket wizards? Am I making sense or is this the wrong aproach? The othe k10d will be used for just taking candids and not using the stand mounted strobes. so just 1 k10d using three flashes with one of the 3 flashes mounted on the camera.

Thank you in advance

Go back and read the camera and flash manual for goodness sake. You can trigger the flash unit via master and slave configuration and use the Pocket Wizard to trigger the Vivitar.

[Entropy]

A Strobist I'm guessing?

Hmm, interesting question. The main questions back are:

1) Why do you want one 540 on-camera?
2) Do you care about P-TTL on that 540? I'm guessing not since mixing P-TTL and non-P-TTL flashes simultaneously will likely result in massive wonkiness.

I don't think there's a clean way to do this without a pile of adapters on top of your camera, making it more likely that the flash might accidentally snap something off. (For example, a male-hotshoe-to-PC adapter with a "cold shoe" on top, a PC-cord splitter going to the Pocket Wizard and a female-hotshoe-to-PC adapter with a "cold shoe" on the bottom mated to the previous adapter's "cold shoe".) You might want to consider a flash bracket and a similar pile of adapters - you can get rather sturdy el cheapo ones that screw into your tripod socket for $20-30. Of course, both solutions will make you lose P-TTL.

Also, keep in mind that the AF-540 can be reconfigured to act as a standard optical slave (as opposed to a P-TTL wireless slave). Hold down the Light button for a few seconds and you should see SL1. Hit the S button to change this to SL2. So you would trigger two flashes with the PWs and the third optically from the other two. (Of course if anyone else is taking flash pictures they'll start popping your strobe...)

[izzyinstl]

Go back and read the camera and flash manual for goodness sake. You can trigger the flash unit via master and slave configuration and use the Pocket Wizard to trigger the Vivitar.

Ok I guess I cant figure out ...when the 540 is on the hot shoe of the k10d (like I said) where will the pw go? I cant put the 540 and the pw on the same hot shoe!

[izzyinstl]

Thanks Entropy ..I was thinking that just using 2 540's on the stands infared would be fine. A guy from midwest sold me this setup. The Idea was to put 1 540 on a stand and 1 285 on the other stand while keeping the other 540 for the other k10d. My error. My fiance wants to buy a bracket and have the 540 and wizard on it ..like you say just getting to many adapters involved. SO if I just use the 2 540s off camera on stands should work fine and also keeping the pttl. Now I got 3 poket wizards and a 285HV extra.

[stewart_photo]

Forget the Vivitar and Pocket Wizards. Mount the two Pentax 540 flash units on stands and trigger them using the camera's built-in flash (requires firmware update 1.10). This setup should provide full P-TTL flash compatibility. The lights on the stands can either be main & fill or background & fill with the camera's flash as main.

See the manuals for how to setup light ratios. See the PDF file included with firmware update 1.10 for info about using the built-in flash to trigger external ones.

For the candids, use the built-in flash on the other camera, diffused (LumiQuest) or not diffused.

You mentioned a dancefloor. If this setup is going to be used for any serious, one-time, event, make sure to test the system well in advance to iron out any problems.

stewart