Pentax K100D Flash

Coverage and Range
Good flash performance, with good coverage and intensity. Much less positive exposure compensation required than average.

Flash coverage was slightly uneven at wide angle, with falloff in the corners of the frame. However, at telephoto, coverage is much more even. Indoors, under incandescent background lighting, the Pentax K100D's flash performed quite well at its default exposure. There's a slight orange color cast to the background from the incandescent light source, but overall color is pretty good. With the camera's Night Scene Portrait mode, results are also quite bright at the default exposure, though the longer shutter time results in a much stronger orange cast.

The Pentax K100D's flash was bright and powerful, with excellent intensity all the way to 16 feet at wide-angle, and to 9 feet at telephoto, both at ISO 200.

Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. The Pentax K100D's ISO starts at ISO 200, but they claim that a guide number of 15.6 meters at ISO 200. That translates to about 9 feet at f/5.6. In the shot above, the K100D seems to perform exactly as Pentax says it will, producing good exposures at the rated distances with its ISO set to 200.