I keep the camera in the standard multi-segmented mode. I just
double-checked, and verified that it's still in that (correct) mode.
The camera does have a problem with its internal flash; it always fires
at full throttle. I keep meaning to send it in to Pentax for service,
and will definately do so before the warranty is up. But I needed it
for the trip first. But my AF330FTZ problem isn't as severe as the
camera's internal flash problem. The AF330FTZ overexposes shots. The
camera's internal flash completely burns out the shot from such strong
overexposure. I'm sure that's a different issue.
John Coyle wrote:
Dave, do you think the problem might be your metering mode? I would
expect the use of averaged metering to cause this type of problem, and
have been successful with the same sort of set-up (*ist-D and AF330FTZ)
using spot metering.
John Coyle
Praxis Data Solutions (www.epraxisdata.com)
Brisbane, Australia
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Oswald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: Back from vacation: Lessons learned
Kostas Kavoussanakis wrote:
Are these with pre-flash, Dave?
Well, here's the problem I'm having with the AF330FTZ.
If I shoot at night with the AF330FTZ, with no intervention via the
flash EV menu, any shot in flash range will be highly overexposed.
This is particularly a problem if the background is out of flash
range; in other words, the subject is close but the background is
distant. But regardless, there is an overexposure issue when shooting
with the flash at night.
If I shoot with the flash in twilight conditions (ie, dusk) the
problem remains, but isn't as significant.
If I shoot in daylight conditions using the flash as a fill flash, the
problem is pretty much gone, which is to be expected, I suppose.
Though sometimes I think the flash punches the foreground up just a
little too much even in daylight conditions.
I can back the flash off a bit using the flash EV menu in the *ist-DS.
Usually I need to back off at least -1ev, but sometimes even -2ev
isn't enough. Particularly at night, -2ev in the flash EV menu isn't
enough to balance things out. In this case, I have to switch the
camera over to manual mode and manipulate the flash's effectiveness
via f-stop settings for the lens.
What is a real challenge with the AF330FTZ is shooting a night shot of
a cityscape while using the flash to illuminate the subject in the
foreground. I attempted such a shot in Hong Kong (for those of you
familiar with Hong Kong, we were at the mountain peak via the
cable-car tram). There, I wanted to take a shot of my wife with the
city lights in the background and her properly exposed in the
foreground. I've taken this sort of shot with my ZX-5n and the
AF330FTZ. But I just absoutely couldn't get it right with the *ist-DS
and AF330FTZ.
It shouldn't have been that difficult of a shot; use a tripod, meter
for the city lights in the background, and allow the flash's TTL to
cut the flash short when the foreground reached proper exposure.
Heck, the camera's "night shot" mode is pretty much MADE to do this.
But even without night-shot mode, I should be able to switch to Tv
mode and set the shutter speed relatively slow. The rest should be
handled by the camera and flash.
The fact is that I never got what I thought was a decent result until
I switched the flash to ML mode (low power manual mode) and the camera
to Manual mode so that I could take care of the shutter and aperture
myself. By then my wife was pretty much tired of the whole situation
and the shot was ruined by her boredom. ;)
The AF330FTZ doesn't have a prefire mode, only TTL (not P-TTL).
<SNIP>
