Pentax AF360FGZ - A valuable lighting tool

It doesn't take long to discover that the built-in flash on most SLR's and DSLR's is sadly inadequate for anything more than quick snapshots at fairly close range. Built-in flashes are notoriously low powered, prone to red-eye, and lacking in features. If you're serious about photography you're not getting the best possible results in the widest range of lighting conditions if you don't have a good external flash. The Pentax AF360FGZ is a great place to start.

The Pentax AF360FGZ is a P-TTL (prefire ttl) metering compatible flash, also with standard auto and manual modes. The flash features a built-in zoom mechanism to maximize the flash's reach with longer lenses, and maximize its field of view with wider angled lenses. The zooming is automatic with most modern lenses.

The flash supports regular flash mode, and also artistic modes such as trailing curtain sync, contrast control flash, and slow speed leading curtain sync.

Of course it has a bounce head, which can be tilted upward to a maximum of 90 degrees, or downward minus 15 degrees. Bounce flash is helpful indoors as a way of achieving more diffused lighting on your subjects; you bounce the light off the ceiling rather than shooting it straight at the subject, and the light gains a more natural look. You can also use bounce flash with attachments such as a StoFen diffuser. Bounce mode is vital in any decent flash.

The range on this flash is excellent; 119 feet at ISO100. The item's name, "AF360FGZ" roughly corresponds to the guide number in meters: 36m at ISO100. That's enough punch for most direct and many bounce applications.

The flash also has a "modeling flash", which flickers the flash for a second or so; long enough for you, the photographer, to identify where it is likely to cast shadows, so that you can set your lighting more accurately. That's a nice touch.

Have you ever been in a low light situation where you do NOT want flash, but where your camera's autofocus is having a difficult time attaining an accurate focus? The AF360FGZ can be set to a mode where it casts a red patterned beam on the subject to illuminate it enough for the camera's AF to work. This can be done with the flash deactivated, or active; in other words you get the AF assist beam with or without the flash firing. Of course the beam shuts off before the shot is fired; you wouldn't want your model to have a red face.

Have you ever needed a fill flash, but found that the back-lighting is so bright it exceeds the maximum shutter sync speed? No problem: This flash supports high speed sync. Now you can take flash shots at up to the maximum shutter speed of your camera. This is really valuable in situations where the background is way too bright, and the foreground way too dark; you can bring the foreground up to snuff without blowing out the background by using the flash in high speed sync mode.

Now for what I find to be one of the best features of this flash: Wireless mode. Some SLR and DSLR bodies (such as the MZ-S and the K10D) will wirelessly control this flash. Or you can use a second Pentax "FGZ" (AF360FGZ or AF540FGZ) to wirelessly trigger a second flash. In wireless mode, you can set your lighting to come from just about anywhere, rather than straight head on. You can even trigger multiple flashes, for several lighting angles at once. My K10D camera's built-in flash will trigger the wireless flash, and I can set the built-in flash to either contribute or not contribute to the actual exposure. Wireless flash opens up a whole world of possibilities not available in direct-flash photography. It's the next best thing to studio lighting.

The AF360FGZ uses four AA batteries. I use NiMH rechargeable batteries, and never use up a full set in a day. It mounts on the camera's hot-shoe, or can be mounted on an optional tripod adapter hot shoe for wireless shooting.

A few final features: Flash exposure compensation is on a dial on the back. It can also be used to set the wireless flash ratio. Flash range is displayed on the back panel. There is a pull out bounce card; perfect for putting a little sparkle in the subject's eye when the flash is in bounce mode. Traditionally photographers simply taped a 3x5 card onto the top of their flash for this purpose. There is also a flip-out wide angle adapter to adjust for lenses wider than 24mm (film) or 16mm (digital). With the flip-out adapter in position it will accommodate lenses down to 20mm (film) or 14mm (digital).

The build quality is very good, with one caveat. I'm a little dissatisfied with the latch on the battery cover. It can be disengaged a little too easily. Others have mentioned this too, though I have to admit I've never had it come open accidentally. But what review would be complete without a look an objective look at the negatives too? If there were any other complaint it would probably be the manual. Though it's fairly complete, it's difficult for even an expert to wade through, and while the flash's operation isn't terribly difficult, the manual doesn't really help as much as it should. One problem is that the manual hasn't been updated to reflect the flash's operation with a newer body such as the K10D. Enough about the manual. Also, if you need more punch or power, particularly for bounce shots, consider the more expensive AF540FGZ. That flash supports swivel mode in addition to bounce mode.

For the money this is an excellent flash. I would rather spend $229 for this flash than the same amount for a higher powered non-Pentax flash, because of the better compatibility of this flash, its wireless mode, high speed shutter sync... things like that. I consider a decent flash as important as having yet another lens. In fact, when I head out for the day I always leave a lens or two behind, but never leave without the flash.