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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-09-2014, 04:20 PM
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The noise reduction for multiple exposures goes by the square root.
For a picture of stars, you would need to stack (average) 100 pictures to reduce noise by a factor of 10.
With my old Pentax Film camera, I used to make multiple exposures, to have two images of of the same person facing each other (Use dark background, Cover left side of lens and take picture of person on right side, then cover right side of lens and take picture of person on left side, using a clear filter that was darkened with one side blacked out).
Another interesting effect, is to take a picture that appears as if no one is on the trail/road. (Long exposure with dark ND filter, or average many normal exposures). The occasional person walking by disappears, and it looks like the place is empty.
Russ G.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
01-24-2012, 07:32 PM
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If you are using the flash in manual mode, the owners-manual is fairly good (I had to read it 3 times). For more automated modes the owners-manual is very hard to understand. You should also read the flash section of your Pentax camera body owners-manual, it gives additional information (I read that 3 times also). I found the Magic Lantern books on the Pentax cameras to be helpful (easier to understand, explains a few things Pentax left out), read that twice.
In general, the flash has a lot of ways to use it, some wireless modes are especially complicated if you use 2 flashes. (I recommend manual mode and radio triggers if you use 3 or more flashes). You will probably learn how to use a few modes, and forget the rest.
Note that Pentax has two wireless modes, a Smart mode (PTTL), and a stupid mode (just a sensor that fires if any other flash fires). The stupid wireless mode is nice for manual flash.
The wired PTTL mode requires about $200 worth of cables and adapters if you want to use 2 or 3 flashes.
The Stroboframe shoemount listed in a comment above is great, I purchased several of them, they go on any 1/4 inch thread.
The AF540FGZ is really a very nice flash, once you spend a lot of time learning to use it.
Russ G.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
02-15-2011, 10:17 AM
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1 of 4 units has an tiny delay between orange and green, 2 have a very noticeable delay, and the 4th has a huge delay (If one unit of pressure turns on the orange light, 2 units turn it off, and green doesn't turn on till about 5 units of pressure are applied). If you your switches don't show this "feature", you won't have to remember to push hard. Enjoy your Cactus 5's; they are quite nice, and a real bargain.
P.S. Ebay has several 3.5 male to 2.5mm male connectors cables for the Pentax shutter Trigger ($1.50 to $2.95 including shipping).
Russ
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
02-14-2011, 11:07 PM
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"If you can reproduce the problem at all, maybe try to move the switch a tad slower and see whether that makes a difference"
I tried to reproduce this, the trouble seemed to be a coincidence, and not real issue. I had assumed the three position switch was like the Pentax Camera (3 states: off, focus, fire), The switch on the Cactus actually goes through 4 states (off, focus, off, fire). If I push the switch fast to trigger the flash it fires the flash consistently; but if I push slowly to cycle through the orange and green lights, I can go from orange to off, or orange to green, or orange to off to green, depending on how hard or fast I push the switch. Now knowing this, I can push hard, and always get the flash to fire, even after swapping which unit is transmit or receive.
Russ G.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
02-14-2011, 11:03 AM
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I received 4 Cactus 5 Transceivers this weekend. They exceed expectations and marketing hype. I'm very happy with these
They work perfectly over 100 yards (300 ft). Work great at 200 yards line of sight (occasional misfire if a car is between them. And work most of the time at 330 yards (about a 1,000 ft, which exceeds any application I have). This was tested near my home in the suburbs (houses with small yards around them), at 40F temp, and fresh Batteries (the ones included free in the package). I couldn't say if it would be as good below freezing in a large city (with tall apartments and more radio noise from wireless phones and internet), but neither I wouldn't walk that far from my equipment in a city.
Works nicely at 1/180 shutter speed (but not higher, for K20)
The stands are functional. The controls (switch, dial, button) feel sturdy, and are easy to use (even when not looking at them, after you practice with them a bit). The box was sturdy/padded and arrived in good condition.
Room for improvement on the next Cactus6: Blue numbers 1-5 on dial could be lighter colored to be easier to see in dark rooms. Seems like there is room to use longer lasting AA batteries instead of the smaller included AAA.
note on a workaround: When I swapped functions (switched the transmitter to a receiver, and the receiver into the transmitter), The green light didn't come on for the receiver, until I pulled out the batteries to reset the circuits. I don't think I'd do this in normal use, I was just checking that all combinations of functions were working.
To match the great deal on the transceivers, I'm looking for a lower the price on the optional Pentax shutter cable, and a 1/4 inch threaded extension for the tripod socket.
All in all, If you are trying to decide if you should buy these, I'd recommend them.
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
11-07-2010, 03:36 PM
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I recommend you DON'T buy a fish eye adapter.
I purchased 3 of these, include large expensive ones. They are all blurry around the edges (the place you buy a fish eye to see), and suffer from severe Chromatic aberration. They really only give somewhat sharp pictures at F22.
The Adapters aren't too bad for poor resolution video cameras, and are not bad at turning a normal lens into a wide angle lens. But they are poor at turning a wide angle into an ultra wide fish eye.
If you can't afford a real fish-eye, you might have better results taking several pictures and stitching them together with free software on your computer.
I eventually bought a real 180 degree view lens, and it is a pleasure to work with.
I got the Pro-Optic from Adormama (with "A" setting for Pentax), It is also sold as a Bowers at B&H, and under several other brands, all made by Samyang. It actually has less distortion (better projection in my opinion) than a fish eye (which expands the center, and compresses the edges more).
Ultra wide lenses are great fun, and useful for recording a wide field. I've also used this for 360 panoramas (stitched together on my computer).
It takes a while to get used to envisioning what a scene will look like, before you look through the camera, my brain wasn't used to seeing my feet at the same time as the tree branches overhead.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
06-18-2010, 06:55 PM
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I' happy with my Benro C-269M8: folds to 14in, extends to 61in, weighs 3.5lb, supports 26lb. I recently took it to Hawaii for long hikes up waterfalls and volcano rims, it didn't seem too heavy after 2 hour hikes (compared to the rest of the stuff in my camera backpack). Even in a strong wind, with 300mm lens, the pictures were sharp when zoomed in 100% (they were blurry with my old light weight tripod).
I use the K20D&grip with flash and heavy lens. If you are using the K100D with kit lens, I think you should be fine with the lighter 168/9m8. The Carbon legs are lighter and offer better shock absorption. Getting the 5 section legs instead of the 4 section legs cost about 1.5sec extra time to setup and breakdown, but makes it easier (shorter) to carry.
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
05-18-2010, 06:43 PM
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If the end of the screw is flat, it will move the head when you tighten it; on the other hand, if the end of the screw is pointed (like a cone, dull tip is OK), the head shouldn't move when tightened.
Take out the screw, and make the end more cone shaped (not too sharp, or you'll mare the other surface).
Russ G
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
05-18-2010, 06:33 PM
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Since the wires broke off, You have to figure out which wire goes to which contact, and maybe replace the wires (and connectors), if the wires became shorter. You can do this if you are brave, but it is more work than just replacing a cracked hotshoe foot.
You could also send it in to Pentax (Pentax USA will give you an estimate, and charge you something like $15 to ship it back within the US, if you don't want to repair it.)
If you decide to buy a new one, and not fix the old flash, The flash could still be good for an off camera wireless flash. (I used my 2nd AF360 that way for a month before I fixed the broken hotshoe).
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
05-12-2010, 12:30 PM
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Another problem with the sling bag, is that it tends to slide off the shoulder when you move around a lot, unless you hold onto the strap with one hand. When climbing mountains, it is really nice to have both hands free.
I use the Lowepro fastpack 350, which has a sling type feature (side access), and also hip straps (very comfortable to distribute weight on long hikes). I had to modify the shoulder straps to lengthen mine (I'm tall, and the straps were too short to allow the hip pads to rest on my hip). It has plenty of padded room inside, and non-padded area on top.
Russ G.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
04-18-2010, 02:10 PM
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Is there anything covering the lens over the flash? Such as tape, or colored plastic, or rubber band, or velcro.... Any of these things can burn when the AF540 goes off at full power. (If you fire the flash while it touches the back of your arm, you will smell burning hair from your skin).
there are many light modifiers that I put over my flash, such as orange colored gels to balance the flash to incandescent room lights, but even these high temperature materials have a short life when the flash is used at full power.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
04-16-2010, 06:52 PM
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Do you have Red-eye reduction turned on for the in-camera flash?
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
04-15-2010, 09:29 PM
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The dis-assembly instructions in the links above also work for the Pentax K20D, which had a broken Exposure lock button (tiniest movement caused to button to make contact, and protect pictures, or lock exposure). I unsoldered the tiny switch under the button and replaced it with a new switch. Took about 2 hours work total, (after finding and studying the Pentax K10 service manual instructions in links above).
I got the switch from Digi-Key in the USA for 20 cents, ($0.2 plus $2 shipping). Sold by several distributors on the web. Switch TL3315NF250Q, Surface mount low profile tactile 250Gram force. The same switch is also used on other Pentax buttons, such as the Green button.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
04-14-2010, 02:57 PM
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The AF540 is specified at double the power of the AF360. So if you put the 360 at full power, and the 540 is the same distance and 1/2 power, the flashes would be roughly balanced. Or, Set them both at full power, and move the AF540 40% further away.
I used my nice flash meter to measure full power of my AF540 and my two AF360s, (Along with 4 other older Pentax flashes). They all put out about half their specified power (Marketing spec gimick, since they are all accurate on Auto sensor mode). Also one of the AF360s (the newer one) puts out 50% less power than my older AF360. So, If you use guide numbers, you will not have an accurate exposure; if you adjust your F Stop to compensate for the flashes putting out half what they claim, you'll probably be closer to correct exposure.
I wouldn't recommend setting two flashes in Auto mode, Since they can confuse each other, The first one might give almost all the light, and the second one seeing the first go off, will give very little light.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
04-14-2010, 02:46 PM
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I've used three P-TTL cables (and adapters) in series with success. There might be a length limit (Nikon lists one in their specs), But I don't think you'll run into it with just 2 Pentax cables. The official Pentax adapters are expensive, but allow you to run them serially (daisy chained), or to have a hub (Octopus) configuration, if you buy enough of the pieces.
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
04-04-2010, 06:00 PM
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I bought a cheap one on Ebay, and I thought it was worth the money. However, it wasn't as good as the Pentax grip that cost triple the price. It didn't have matching finish, the grip was more slippery, the bottons weren't as precise (didn't have tactile click).
I found several versions of the grip, some with more buttons, or weather seal, or better built. So it could be worth checking around to be sure you get what you want.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
04-04-2010, 05:55 PM
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I had this happened to me only once, (have two AF360 flashes, been using them for 6 years). I also had to remove the batteries to get anything to work again. I was trying to setup lighting ratios for contrast control, and I thought it may have been the sequence of operations that got the computer chip into a buggy part of the program. You might find that it only happens when you do things in a certain order, and you can avoid that sequence.
Russ G.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
03-14-2010, 10:13 PM
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Last month I bought the base assembly for the AF360 from uscamera.com for $42, was very easy to replace (need fine phillips screwdriver blade; and be careful the wires aren't routed on top of the spring for the locking lever pin).
I also bought parts from Pentax USA (you can contact them from their web page), cost less money but more work. Or, you can send the flash into Pentax for repair (Quick and efficient).
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
02-16-2010, 04:36 PM
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I opened my AF360 and 540 flashes. I think that if the wires to the hot shoe are not carefully routed away from the locking pin, the wires can keep the locking pin from popping back up. The wires have some springiness in them, which could be stronger than the spring that pushes up the locking pin.
If you have the bottom of your flash open, route the wires away from the locking pin before closing it up.
Russ G.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-19-2008, 04:20 PM
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Mine also got stuck when zooming. It was worse if fighting gravity, (Smooth zooming in when pointed down, hard to zoom out pointed down; but hard to zoom out when pointed up, and easy to zoom out when pointed up). I'm a strong guy, and I didn't have enough strength to stop at the focal length I wanted, I'd have to get a running start, overshoot it, and come back. I feel Pentax did a very poor job on this,https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/images/smilies/green.gif
:fedup: none of the dozen other lenses I use have this problem. On the bright side, it does seem to be a bit smoother after a half year of using it. Other posts say the stiffness might be in part from the weather seals.
Russ
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