[Paleo Pete]

K30 with almost 70,000 shutter clicks. Been working fine since the day I got it, minor problem with 135mm Makinon lens but I know what that is, old and well used, aperture slow now and then. Not worried about that...take a couple of shots and it works fine

Camera just started acting up recently though. I checked EXIF to be sure what lens I was using, it says 0.00 focal length. Swapped to kit lens a few days ago, it picks up all lens info, put the manual 50mm f1.7 on, exif says focal length 0.00. Ditto for Makinon 135mm. No manual lens I have will show the focal length, even though I set it to the proper focal length in the menu every time.

I've tried cleaning contacts, no go, same thing. Would it help if I do a full reset, back to factory settings? Sounds like a PITA, I'd have to go through and reset all my custom settings, but if it will get things back to normal I'll try it...

Any other ideas?

[Adam]

Is this in-camera or on your computer? 70k sounds like great mileage for the K-30, though!

[stillshot2]

I'd try a factory reset. It's worth the small hassle if it fixes the problem. You could also try updating to the latest firmware if you don't already have it installed.

K30 with almost 70,000 shutter clicks

Mind sharing your serial number? If mine was from the same batch I would be pleased to get 70k out of my K30!

[stevebrot]

I checked EXIF to be sure what lens I was using, it says 0.00 focal length.

SR on? There was a discussion on another thread regarding the focal length settings for non-AF lenses and how/when they are recorded to the EXIF. IIRC, there was some interaction based on SR settings with the K-30/K-50 with the focal length not being recorded under some conditions.


Steve

[stevebrot]

IIRC, there was some interaction based on SR settings with the K-30/K-50 with the focal length not being recorded under some conditions.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/58-troubleshooting-beginner-help/293175-k...al-lenses.html

Sagitta was used to his K-30 where focal length was not retained if SR is turned off using the camera setting, not the self-timer. The K-3 is different in that regard.


Steve

[Paleo Pete]

I don't have the camera with me at the moment but I'll check, I think SR is turned on.

Adam - EXIF on the computer does not show focal length, I'll have to check in the camera, haven't looked at that. Just checked my upload folder, 68259 plus probably 30 on the camera now. Still going strong, this is the only real problem I've had. Now and then the thumbwheels decide not to work, turn it off and back on and it's back to normal, that's the only other problem I've ever had. Minor irritation is all...

I've never tried to upgrade firmware, never saw any need to. It does what I want...so it's running whatever it had out of the box.

4376640 is the serial number. (I have pictures of all serial numbers...camera, guitars etc)

I'm thinking about trying a reset, wanted to get some opinions and input first. I'll have to check the camera to see if SR is on, I usually keep it on, don't think I've used the self timer in 6 months or more, probably longer, to get some band pictures. OK wrong, Feb 23, 2014. Just went through the current upload folder, this started march 6 at about 8:45 AM...20 minutes after the last shot with the focal length saved in EXIF, that's on the computer. I've slept since then so I don't know if I made any changes, I might have swapped to the 50mm and not taken any shots, the one with focal length and the next one without were both taken with the Makinon 135mm manual lens. I'll check to see what in camera EXIF says, didn't think of that.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Spodeworld]

Why not first try reloading the current firmware and see if that help?

[Paleo Pete]

I think I just got it sorted out. Band played last night, I've been a zombie all day but grabbed up the camera earlier and looked, SR was turned off. Turned it on, rebooted camera and it had me input focal length, first time since this started. So I've been shooting without SR for almost 2 months, wondering what was going on, and I think I just found out. Never would have known to look though if you guys hadn't clued me in.

I still haven't transferred pictures to computer, probably won't till tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure I'll start seeing focal length show up in EXIF again. I'll drop back in and let you know.

I think what happened is I set up to use a tripod for a bit, never thought to turn SR back on.

[Paleo Pete]

Looks like that did it, SR was turned off. TRansferred a bunch of shots to computer today, everything taken today with SR turned on has focal length listed in EXIF. I never thought about it, but focal length doesn't really matter to the camera, except when it needs to make SR work right. I didn't know that if you turned it off the focal length set in camera would not show up n EXIF. But soon as I turned the camera back on first thing it did was go to the input focal length screen, EXIF says I was using a 135mm lens today so it looks like that did the trick.

[stevebrot]

I didn't know that if you turned it off the focal length set in camera would not show up n EXIF

The behavior is somewhat inconsistent between Pentax models. On the flagship models, it is always there.


Steve