Charles, You remember a few years ago when a "V chip" to filter out violence and sex in video and web content was being touted?
Well, it never came to pass. What =did= come to pass, without the press taking any notice, is the "S chip". The S chip has the User Stress Detector (USD). When the USD detects user stress (a wedding shoot, for example) it uses top-secret algorithms to increase the chances of a device failure. In effect, it applies Gumperson's Corollary to Murphy's Law, to wit, "The probability of a given event is inversely proportional to its desirability". Pentax is a sophisticated, though conservative, company; so I am sure that there is S chip technology in the 540 flash. The Smegma flash, being much less sophisticated, just has a high rate of random failures, independent of user stress. I can testify to this. Rick http://photo.net/photos/RickW --- On Mon, 8/18/08, Charles Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Charles Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: From now on I shall call myself "The Great Destroyer"... > To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> > Date: Monday, August 18, 2008, 4:41 PM > I've had no end of weird problems. > > Two months ago, my AF540FGZ decided that it didn't want > to work in P- > TTL mode. The preflash (if there is any at all) is so weak > that the > K10D sees the room as DARK DARK DARK and thus cranks the > flash output > up to about 100%. Sadness. Still works great in the > "A" mode, > though, so I haven't sent it in yet. > > A couple days ago I figured out that the problems I've > been having > with the 16-50 not getting a focus lock at infinity when at > 16mm is > directly related to the Anti-Shake - if I turn of > Anti-Shake it locks > focus at infinity every time. Any other distance (or zoom > setting) > and it's a non-problem. I don't know yet if this > is something related > to the lens, the camera, or a magic combination. This > problem, > though, seems to have shown up since having the 16-50 > serviced for a > broken screw somewhere in the barrel which was causing the > lens to be > wobbly. Oy Vey! > > Lastly, I'm shooting an event a few nights ago and I > decide to use the > EF 500 DG Super, so I can have my P-TTL goodness. Halfway > through, I > decided I want to use trailing-curtain flash. With the 540 > you can > set all of this from the camera body, but the Sigma > won't do it unless > you select that mode directly from the back of the flash. > However... > NONE of the buttons on the rear of the flash work anymore, > so it's > stuck in the default P-TTL mode and that's that. I > wonder if sending > it in to get the "re-chip" required for K10D > wireless compatibility > would magically fix this problem too? > > (sigh) > > This kind of thing makes me weary. Nothing any of you can > do about > it, I know, but I just wanted to vent. Does anybody else > here ever > feel like they're the only one who manages to have > things break on > them all the time? > > -Charles > > -- > Charles Robinson - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Minneapolis, MN > http://charles.robinsontwins.org > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link > directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
