Stan, sounds like your project includes using two or more flashes at once. It should simplify your decision process a bit to know that P-TTL is essentially useless with more than a single flash; or at least I've never gotten it to work in 5 years of AF540 ownership (I have two of them).
It's great to have at least one P-TTL capable flash in your kit, and in my experience the Pentax flashes are solid bricks. You cannot overheat them, they don't misfire, they run for hours on a set of batteries; so for event shooting with flash on camera in P-TTL they rock. And if you have a Pentax P-TTL flash it is pretty-much guaranteed to work with all Pentax bodies. I also find them pretty easy to configure. You need the manual at first, but they are no worse than most other complex electronics and simpler than most cheap digital watches, for instance. But as soon as you are trying to get sophisticated and use them for portraiture, real estate interiors, studio work, etc., you are going into a galaxy of grief if you try to use P-TTL and wireless with them. That probably includes the Sigmas, Metz's and Promasters too. (I think that only Nikon has multiflash x-TTL worked out.) For studio-like shooting, especially multi-flash, I employ fully manual flash using a light meter for setup. So I now use my AF540's on manual, with the power-saver mode disabled so they stay alive and retain their settings. I use cheap radio triggers rather then the Pentax optical wireless for more flexibility and reliability. But for the price of a single AF540 you could buy a Sekonic lightmeter and a couple of Yongnuo flashes. The Yongnuo's are being recommended by the Strobist crowd. I don't own one yet so I can't say for sure that they're good, but were I adding more flashes to my kit I'd try one right away. On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 10:40 AM, Stan Halpin <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't use flash often, have never taken time to master the process. But I > have an upcoming project that provides the incentive to revisit this aspect > of my photography. > > I have the Pentax AF360 FGZ that I bought long ago to pair with my MZ-S and > which I have used occasionally. > > I am considering adding the AF540 FGZ. Two things holding me back at this > point: > a. IIRC Pentax is coming out sometime soon with a replacement for the > AF540. > b. I have noted discussions here about Metz and other alternatives. > > So, my questions: > a. Has anybody heard anything more about if/when and for how much > we'll have an AF540 replacement? > b1. If I go with Metz or other system, do I lose functionality on my > K-5ii? i.e., will I still have the same capability for wireless triggering, > the use of two-flash setups, etc? > b2. Other than cost, are there any advantages to the Metz or other > systems? > b3. Other than Pentax and Metz, which other alternative brands should > I look at for good, fully capable, reliable flash in the AF540 range? > > Thanks! > > stan > -- > 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. -- -bmw -- 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.
