Flash on ist DL

Try a different battery. It's not unheard of for a rechargeable battery -- even a new one -- to fail. All it takes is one defective cell (there are many in each battery) and you're dead in the water.

Read the manual to find out what the battery symbol actually means.

1. Clean the contacts on the camera body and lens where they meet with a cotton swab lightly dampened with rubbing alcohol. 2. Go into the menu and find "reset" to go back to the original factory default settings. 3. If you have a second lens, does the same problem occur?

It looks like your question was cut short... all I see is "Battery indicator reads empty when batteries are..."

With my experience with the Pentax *ist DL, I think the problem is probably that brand new batteries still show "empty" on the indicator.

Chances are that you are not using the CR-V3 camera batteries in your *ist DL. I have tried 2400mAh NiMH rechargable batteries and brand new alkaline batteries in an attempt to save money.

Neither lasted anywhere near as long as the CR-V3 batteries! While you may be paying $15-$20 for two CR-V3 batteries, they last a LONG time!

One of the advantages of DSLRs (and digital cameras in general) is that you save money by no longer buying film and paying for developing/prints. But, even at $20 for two CR-V3 batteries, I save money! I am able to take several hundred photos on a pair of batteries (I think the manual says 500+) instead of $10-$15 ($2-$7 for film + $8 dev/print) for every 24-36 photos!

What distance are the subjects when using the built-in flash?

The built-in flash is optimized for use between 0.7m (2.3ft) and 4m (13ft).

You could also try adjusting the ISO setting (higher ISO requires less light) or adjusting the EV value to a positive number to increase the exposure.

Flash tube is probably burned out.

First make sure the camera is not set to No Flash on the shooting mode dial.Also, in P, Tv, Av or M modes the flash reverts to manual and must be raised manually by pressing the button next to the viewfinder.

Try in custom menu I think. Switch shutter release whilst charging firmware switch whilst flash charging a couple of times. Had sinilar thing with ist DS after firmware update.

According to the manual (page 153), the DL DOES support P-TTL flash, with the built-in or external flash, but only supports high-speed flash with an external flash. What I'm wondering is, what is high-speed sync flash useful for? The only thing I can think of is fill-flash outdoors.

Interesting... I've heard that (for the DS at least) the camera isn't capable of using more than about 60X, but of course your downloads can be faster if you use a reader. At 2gb, this might give you some benefit, but a full transfer of 1gb on a garden variety sandisk only takes a few minutes.

I don't know how to answer your question, since I haven't yet experienced that phenomenon. It sounds like it's just caused by the nature of the lenses used. Since you are new to the camera, I'll just warn you that it is not perfect in any way, but every function of it is very good, so the end result is amazing, and I might even say perfect. This is just the nature of the Pentax dSLR for now, and it seems that it's a Pentax thing in general. You'll find lots of dSLRs that can outperform the Pentax in one or two feature comparison tests, but if you lign up all the features of one camera and compare them with the Pentax you'll find the Pentax will beat any camera out there. It is just so well balanced, and each feature really is good enough, which adds up to a LOT. I'm sure somebody here will explain the problem you're having, and if you're like me you'll just make a few adjustments and be satisfied with the results. Post some shots too, that's an excellent way of getting feedback that will help you make the most of your Pentax. I wouldn't trade my Ds for any other camera out there even costing 10 times more.