K10 Flash Cables

[Steve Cz]

Does anyone know where I could get an off camera flash cable for the K10? Pentax seem to only do a mishmash of cable and adaptors. (Damned expensive too)
Ta
Steve Cz

[Saphire]

Just type in slave trigger on ebay, I bought one to use with my canon 580 and it works great they are only £2.99 buy it now.

[yelvertoft]

Steve,

I agree wholeheartedly that the Pentax cables are extortionately expensive. Good advice on all things Pentax can be had from speaking to Chris at SRS Watford. http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/

It would help if could say which flash unit you are using, and what do you want to do with it. I have a generic non-dedicated single contact hotshoe to PC (as in flashgun PC contact, not Personal Computer) adaptor, a long PC cable, and a similar, but opposite polarity, PC to flash shoe adaptor on my gun. This is cheap, and basic, though it does limit you to using manual mode on both camera and flash.

Depending on the capabilities of your flash, this may well be good enough; the same applies to Christine's suggestion of a slave trigger - though depending on the flashgun you are using, the optical slaves may not trigger your gun if it has a low trigger voltage. The radio operated wireless ones will trigger any gun. I know my optical "peanut" (as they are known) will not trigger my modern low-voltage Sigma EF-500 ST unless it is VERY close to the pop-up; it happily triggers my vintage gun with 300V trigger at any range I can put it. If you are intending to use the flash in a controlled environment then fully manual mode on the camera/flash is a good way to go.

If your flash has a wide range of manual power outputs this would be enough. If your gun has only got a limited range of settings it may well still be enough, but you'll have to work at it a bit more with position/distance of gun. It was precisely because my Sigma had only got limited manual settings of full power - too high, or 1/16th power - too low, that I bought the Metz (58AF-1), it wasn't that much more than splashing out for the full set of Pentax cables to work with the Sigma, and gave a lot more flexibility with it.

If you want a full range of auto flash modes then I'm afraid it's cough up for the Pentax cables, which can be found here:
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/ind...essories&set=4
If you want to avoid this then it's cough up for a flash with a wide range of manual settings (and use a cheap non-dedicated method of remote triggering), or cough up for a flash with wireless cababilities, which is what I did in the end. The Metz 48AF-1 isn't a bad price for what you get, it wasn't available when I was looking, otherwise I'd have bought one.
http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/ind...lashguns&set=4

It all depends on what you've already got, and what you want to do with it. A cheap, non-dedicated single contact setup can get you a long way if you're prepared to work at it. You'll also learn an awful lot in the process, I know I did.

Duncan