I have just acquired the Sigma EF-500 DG Super flash for use with my *ist D. My first external flash. I have to say that it is superb. The manual make specific reference to the *ist D in several places and the gun is very much designed to work closely with the camera.
The wireless mode is amazing. I have seen so many reports of the joys of wireless and I confess to being bowled over by this approach. There is a small pull out wide-angle "lens" on the flash and the flash unit senses you have pulled this out and changes the internal "zoom" setting accordingly (17mm). The flash does of course alter itself to match with the focal length of the camera. There is a distance meter shown on the LCD panel telling you (with a bar against a scale) both in metres and feet the range within which you should have your subject. (This may be standard on flash units, but it is all new to me and helps me a lot.) This works with post-A lenses. You can take around 15 full-power flash photos in a row (no recharge time) but then need to allow the unit to rest for a while. We have high ceilings but the flash is powerful and I had no trouble bouncing off of the ceiling. I paid 149 sterling for the flash from Bristol Cameras. (I originally ordered from London Camera Exhange but they sent me the none-DG version despite the invoice/receipt clearly stating that it was supposed to be the DG version. When I phoned them they initially claimed that it was the same model and that there was no DG version for the Pentax. I spoke to Sigma in the UK to confirm my facts. LCE were unable to source a flash from their distributors. They refunded my money. BC had to order the flash from Sigma which they seemed to do direct rather than through a distributor.) When I have had a decent play, I shall make a few examples available. -- Stuart mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
