[Gooshin]

after assisting at a number of weddings and having the opportunity to shoot various nikons, canons, and fujifilms, i have to say that Pentax gives me the biggest headache to "get the right shot"

once you dial in all the right settings and take plenty of test shots, work around focus issues and what not, Pentax is pretty good and delivers excellent results, but god damn it why must i fiddle so much to get the results i want?

i have started to get more and more work through a company that just calls me up to assist their main photographer.

sometimes they just hand me their secondary cameras and tell me to go shoot candids.

i have shot fujifilm s5 pro, a d200, a canon 5d, a d700 and just recently toyed with my friends 7D

its just EASIER, and the flash systems on those rigs just WORK. I cannot use my PTTL AF540, it just out right fails at doing what its supposed to do, "automatically provide the light i need"

i'm not even going to talk about focus issues.... which i can manage on my own out in a park or out with friends, or even in a studio setting. But a fast paced wedding its just too much trouble.

again i want to state that it still WORKS, but i most definetly cannot "trust" it. I use select point and try to focus on a well lit area, the camera focuses and gives me confirmation, i even linger for a bit and depress the shutter once more just so that it can confirm a second time, then i fire the shot and bang its OOF... like, wtf?

also, i understand you can draw out highlight headroom in RAW, but its a pain in the ass to see such horrible jpeg previews on my screen that make me second-guess my own work. I dont want to "hope" that when i get home my pictures will "get better" after i spend some time tweaking with them.

again, not when i have 500++ of them to go through.

i have been considering switching for quite some time. The K20D was an awesome camera for the year or so that i had it, but it seems higher end competition is becoming more affordable, i'm guessing around Christmas time i would be able to pick up either a 7D or D700 for good money.

i know lenses are an issue, and i love my FA31 and FA43 dearly, but this last wedding a dinky 200 dollar 24-60 F2.8 sigma and 10-20 sigma were my workhorse lenses.

anyway

its one thing to be good at photography

its another thing when you can seriously be better simply from having a different set of equipment.

i fully realize that Pentax, perhaps, was never marketed as a fast action wedding/sports camera but that is not what got me into photography in the first place.

and if i'm going to explore greater avenues of this hobby, i dont want to be held back by the constant thought that "could have that been better?"

end rant..

[k100d]

i'd be interested in hearing the take of other pentax wedding photogs on the site

but i think it's time for you to switch. if you can't trust the output of your camera (and if it's not you) then it's time to go. especially as a wedding photographer, you can't tell people to repeat certain moments because your camera focused on the wrong spot or it flashed the wrong amount.

[Eruditass]

Agreed, the most important part is what you feel comfortable with. Here is a thread on DPR where some pentax wedding photogs give their 2 cents:

Any Wedding Pros or semi-pros using Pentax? [Page 1]: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

[Gooshin]

again i would just like to point out that if the flash system did what it did, or at the very least compared to Canon and Nikon i wouldnt be so pissy about this

[Eruditass]

I've only heard good things about other brand's flash systems. As I am on a budget, I can only hope that Pentax improves theirs whenever I decide to get a better flash (currently have a AF280T)

I did some casual wedding shots at my co-worker's wedding with a borrowed Sigma 530 Super (on camera only) - it worked out well for me, but it was an outside wedding under a tent thingy and I did not do anything fancy.

I also do some casual sports photography but never had any problems with that, and only expect to have it easier when the K-x gets here - can't imagine ever needing more than 4.7 fps, and AF has been fine on my K2000.

[Ash]

So P-TTL leaves a little to be desired, but once understood and used with those nuances in mind can actually give reasonably consistent results.

I use my 540 all the time in doing weddings and it hasn't been overly off exposing the scenes for me. I guess I'm accustomed to the system and don't know any better. If I had a D300 or 500D/50D/7D to compare with, I might be more impressed...

[Gooshin]

So P-TTL leaves a little to be desired, but once understood and used with those nuances in mind can actually give reasonably consistent results.

I use my 540 all the time in doing weddings and it hasn't been overly off exposing the scenes for me. I guess I'm accustomed to the system and don't know any better. If I had a D300 or 500D/50D/7D to compare with, I might be more impressed...

thats the thing, when i got my pentax and came to this site i must admit that i was a bit of a fanboi at first

then i was reading more, and over time started getting access to using these other systems first hand in the line of fire (so to speak). And the more different equipment i used the more my fanboism died off. Reading online-line charts started making much more sense combined with real life experience.

======

the way my friend uses his Canon Speedlight is as follows

put camera in M mode

select aperture, shutter, and ISO.

flash is left in auto without pressing or touching anything.

take a shot, the flash provides the light needed to properly expose a scene (assuming your camera settings and the scene are not outside of the flashes output capability)

BRILLIANT!


with the K20 and 540 the only way i could get consistant results was to set the camera in A mode and mimic the iso/fstop that i manually set in the camera.

but then what happens when i want to quickly stop down to F2.0? The 540 wont even GIVE me an ISO 400 - F2 combination!!, i have to start doing math in my head to fool the god damn thing.

also PTTL works a bit better when its actually pointed at the subject, my attempts to bounce off the ceiling with PTTL on have always led to complete ruin.

I saw one of the canon photographers bounce his speedlight on-body off the celing shooting 40ish feet away with a telephoto and the scene was lit up like he had an extra light somewhere in the corner!


==========

i'm going to dedicate my time to figuring pentax out to get some consistancy, it would be a shame to walk away after these years

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Last edited by Gooshin; 10-18-2009 at 06:47 PM.

On a personal level you just have to go with the equipment that meets your needs, especially when there is pressure on you financially and to meet the needs of the person for whom you are taking the photographs.

The idiots will miss you though.

[nostatic]

The idiots will miss you though.

No I won't!

oh, wait...

I've never shot a proper flash shot in my life so I can't share your pain. I will admit that I'm pretty happy with low light performance and AF after switching to the 5D2. Well, except for the 50/1.4 - hunts like a hound in low light. I do miss my 31 and 77ltds though...

[Gooshin]

who said i'm leaving? LOL

b'sides, i'm still gonna keep my MZ-S and 645N

I dont trust that freakin' pentax flash system.

I gave up even using it for family birthdays/events.... I can not even imagine having to trust it in a professional 'shoot from the hip' wedding with varing situations.

My cousins silly D80 and Nikon flash gets it! bounce or direct... It just gets the shots. My pentax does not... And if one of you damn fanboys even suggests user error or "try this" I will just go batty! It has been three years... 2 bodies and 3 flashes! 40 tips, 15 work arounds........ I DONT WANT TO HEAR it! PTTL sucks. It is inconsistant!

There I said it.

[Gooshin]

i'm really itching though to try a K7 just to see if this has been fixed.

the AF540 flash is really good,

tilt/swirl, lots of modes, bright easy to read display, quick to respond.

its just the inbetween, something in the camera and the flash dont want to communicate.

[Ash]

Gee, that's quite sad to hear Gus.
I don't quite have the same experience with P-TTL.
Rarely have I had to adjust my settings away from my usual set of FEC +0.7 and Av mode on camera in P-TTL and cannot recall the last shot I got wrong with the flash (if I pointed it in the right direction - mostly bouncing...). This is with the K20D and 16-50 - brilliant results each time.

If P-TTL's been inconsistent for me, it's been within perhaps half a stop of light either way.
I've not used the flash with many different lenses (tried with the Tamron 70-200 with success) but seem not to be lacking in this department.

Probably what you guys don't want to hear, but perhaps I may not be pushing the equipment to the limit you all may be?

I would also love to hear... NO see, if it is improved in the K7. The one thing I do know is that many pentaxians will claim it is but I want to see proof. I would like to hear from someone with the k7 who uses a lot of flash in bounce mode.

Even better Gooshin, if I hear it from you I will believe it.

Some of the early shots with K7 + flash seemed to have a slight over exposure issue. But that can be delt with if it is consistant.

For me it is about consistancy.

[KungPOW]

Gooshin,

I feel your pain.

I spent a couple of years trying to get the onboard flash of the K10D to expose ANYTHING right.

Last month I bought a D200. The flash just works. You pop the flash, set the shutter, ISO and aperture you want, and BAM. A photo that is corectly exposed. It even works for fill flash. I used to avoid any flash usage with the K10D. The D200 is another story. It is a joy to use.

And then there is focus. I seriously thought i was messing up somehow with my K10D and autofocus. I would get focus confirmation, take the shot, and often find the focus point well behind the subject. It drove me nuts. After one weekend shooting my family, sister's kids etc with the D200, I now know I am not the problem with the autofocus. The D200 hit everything in focus. The shots I took over Thanksgiving are the first portraights I have taken where I needed to REDUCE the sharpening. K10D with its focus always slightly off gave nice soft images. The D200 nailed the focus every time. Some shots were just too sharp.

Then there is the metering of the K10D vs the D200. With teh K10D, I had to constantly watch the histogram, and make adjustments with the exposure comp. With the D200, I left the camera on Matrix Metering and ALL my shots were bag on. It got to the point where I stopped waching the histogram, and I just took shots. Kind of like shooting with a film camera. I tried shooting into the sun, I tried back lite shots, I tried hard to mess with the exposure system of the D200. I could not fool it. I had three shots over exposed at the end of the day. All three were because I had the exposure comp at +1. My fault.

So, to me and what I do, the D200 clearly beats my K10D. The autofocus, flash, and metering are far better then the K10D's.

So, I used to REALLY like the K10D. I really enjoy my Pentax mechanical bodies. But the experiance with teh D200 has me ready to make a change over to Nikon. My D200 with my F100 make a killer film/digital system. Sure I'll keep my Pentax mechanical bodies. But I don't see myself going forward with Pentax digital.