Greetings and Merry X'mas/Happy New Year all...........

I hope someone can help me.

I have a Pentax ZX/MZ-10 35mm SLR and I'm finding the built-in flash a tad too limited in ability at times. For example, when I took some indoor portraits recently, the background came out ok the way I wanted (well, maybe a little brighter would be nice) but the subject in the foreground was overexposed. I was trying to strike a balance between the subject and the background lighting. I used my consumer zoom set at 80mm and exposed for Aperture-priority mode at f/4.0. I was thinking perhaps the results could have improved significantly if I had an external TTL flash set at -ve 2f-stops. Am I right here or could I have improved the shots by using different internal built-in settings in the camera?

Anyway, I'm seriously thinking of investing in a Sunpak MZ440AF flash unit soon. Anyone out there with experience in using the above flash with a Pentax SLR? Or has anyone heard any negative feedbacks on the flash?

Thank you in advance for those who respond. Antz

-- Antz (antwong@nospam.earthling.net), December 26, 1998

Answers

If you were using print film, get the pictures reprinted and tell them to expose for the subject. To balance the brightness level between subject and background set the shutter speed to 1/30 sec. Shutter speed is used to control the amount of ambient light level recorded with flash photography. With my ZX-5 this works fine. Even with using an external flash you can't do flash exposure compensation, because it's a body function and the ZX series doesn't have it.

An external flash is useful for other reasons: longer camera battery life, greater light output, bounce capability, AF assist light, less tendency to get red eye and 2nd curtain sync. In addition to the above features, Pentax flashes (AF330FTZ, AF400FTZ & AF500FTZ) also have settings to turn on the AF assist light without the flash going off, in low light levels. The Sunpack MZ440AF & Vivitar 840AF/Sigma 430EF (same units) do not support 2nd curtain sync. There are Metz flashes that do support this feature, but in the US Metz flashes are expensive. If I haden't been able to find a used AF400FTZ, at a reasonable price, I would have bought the Sunpack.

-- Bruce Rubenstein (brubenstein@lucent.com), December 30, 1998.