Well, I was trying everywhere, including this site, to find some review or info on this new Digital Concepts flash, no luck. So I figured that the only way to learn more about this flash is to buy one. I am no pro and I do not need all the special features, but my old relic Pentax 200s that I was so far using with my K100D just did not have enough reach and working in the Av or manual modes only was not just very convenient. So here it goes:
I bought the flash off ebay for $79 US, $95 including shipping to Canada. The flash itself has the Digital Concepts logo on the front and the model inscription “918AF/PEN SPEEDLITE” on the back. There is NO ‘made by’ or even ‘made in’ inscription anywhere on the flash. However, if you look at the bottom of the packaging box, there is Sakar International Inc. and Made in China printed there. Similarly, at the bottom of the one page (11” x 17”) manual, there is a reference for the technical support to be found at Sakar – unfortunately, no such flash model there.
As pointed out by ‘mattdm’ when I inquired about this flash few weeks ago, the DC 918AF looks nearly identical to the Tumax DSL 880AFZ. In fact the looks, the controls and the manual (all the wording, pictures and specs) are identical except two things, 1) the 918AF has GN of 38 m vs. GN of 32 on 880AFZ and 2) the 918AF has both bounce AND swivel, the 880AFZ has bounce only. So if you want a full description and specs of the 918AF, look at this link with the above mentioned corrections http://www.icorpandtumax.com/uploadfiles/file_470c455cb34aa.pdf .
I think that with today’s global/integrated economy you never know who’s product you are buying, there might be one obscure manufacturer who makes the product, and then half a dozen companies put their brand name logo on it …
Now the facts and observations:
The DC 918AF seems to be built reasonably sturdy, the zoom head clicks nicely into the four zoom positions and the bounce and swivel positions are solid as well without any free play. The 28-35-50-85 zoom positions refer to a full frame camera, so with the Pentax D series 1.5 factor sensors it means actually 18.7-23.3-33.3-56.7 mm lens coverage. The flash comes with an optional diffuser lens that is supposed to widen the coverage to 24 mm or 16 mm on the DSLR Pentax. BTW the diffuser lens cuts the flash power by almost two stops, no effect on correct exposure of thou. I have experimented with the flash coverage at different camera lens focal length and flash zoom head settings and the flash coverage was as expected. If you set the zoom head at 85 (56.7) and the camera lens around 50 mm or less, you start seeing some darkening at the top of the frame. The GN of 38 m @100 ISO puts the 918AF slightly above the Pentax own AF360FGZ. To put it into a perspective, the 918AF will give you a respectable reach up to 27 m at 800 ISO setting and 4.0 aperture lens.
Now the most important thing – how the flash works and communicates with camera? I think very well. Generally, the 918AF gives you the same features including the P-TTL as the built in flash, plus couple more. The 918AF has an on the flash switch for the rear curtain sync and the camera correctly sets itself to a maximum 1/90 sync speed or less (with the front curtain sync setting the camera goes automatically to 1/180 speed or less). The second extra feature is the low light infrared beam (AF illumination) – great thing. Basically when you push the shutter release half way, the IR beam lights up until camera locks its focus, then it goes automatically off. You can shoot/focus with it in a complete darkness and I tried a distance up to 9 meters. In a low light the camera can focus much faster that it would without the AF illumination.
You can set the four flash modes (auto normal, auto red eye reduction, manual normal and manual red eye reduction) in full auto mode camera setting, but it looks like the flash fires some fill in light in auto mode even if there is a sufficient ambient light present. In every other than auto camera mode you have just the manual normal and manual red eye reduction settings available, same as with the built in flash. Note that the built in flash never pops up in auto mode by itself if the 918AF is attached. The flash exposure compensation works as well, but I found that the P-TTL exposure control works so good that I most probably will never need it.
As mentioned, the exposure control with this flash is just amazing. I have tried every possible camera mode, Auto, Program, Av, Tv, all combinations of apperture setting and shutter speed, low ambient light, lots of ambient light, no light, and the exposures were CONSISTENTLY perfect or near perfect. The only time I noticed about 0.5 stop underexposure was with the standard Pentax 18-55 DA lens at the maximum 55 focal length setting. However, when using my favorite Pentax FA 28-80 lens, the exposure was correct at any focal length. I tried as well my Tamron LD 70-300 and exposures were great at any focal length.
One thing that impressed me was the accuracy of a short distance (near macro) flash and the daylight fill in flash. I usually get an overexposure with the built in flash or with my old Pentax 200s in these situations, not so with this baby. I never tried things like slave or wireless flash so I cannot comment on that. Not sure if this flash would go to a high speed sync in a bright daylight, probably not. Forgot to mention that this flash comes with a nicely fitting protective pouch and a reflective plate accessory that would be probably good for a macro photography.
So, to summarize, on a scale 1 to 10, I would give the 918AF flash a 9. If you have to have all the bells and whistles and this nice LCD of the AF360/540FGZ’s plus the Pentax brand name, go for it. If you just need a reasonably powerful flash that you can attach to your camera, forget about any settings AND have always a correct exposure, then get the DC 918AF for a fraction of the price.
Lumir
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