[UncleVanya]

This weekend my K50 give me a bit of trouble. I mounted my DA* 200 on my HD 1.4 TC and turned the camera on - bang - no time and date. No other settings seemed lost. After a couple of times during the day I turned off the camera and back on and again lost time/date. Later I mounted my F 50 and put the camera to bed - after that no problems. The battery in use was genuine Pentax and the gauge read full.

EDIT: Also the SDM was very slow to start working with this combination. Lens alone was fast and normal, on the TC it was sluggish at first but then fine. I'm guessing here but I wonder if there was a minor misalignment that caused the current being sent to the lens to be poorly transmitted/high electrical resistance? This could have dipped the battery voltage briefly which could explain the loss of time/date.

Thoughts and ideas? Things to try or look for? Pictures and exposures were not impacted, card did not lose data, etc. All in all a very minor glitch.

[Na Horuk]

This could have dipped the battery voltage briefly which could explain the loss of time/date.

This. Make sure your battery isn't faulty and that it is charged. Charge it, leave it outside camera for a night. Or try another battery.
Also, I think these cameras have a secondary inside battery for timekeeping? Maybe that one went bad.

What else to check? Make sure the lens mount and TC mount and camera mount are clean, that contacts aren't getting shorted in odd ways. And make sure the battery contacts inside the camera are clean and in working order.

[ramseybuckeye]

You've probably done this, but if not clean all of the contacts on the mount and lens.

[Not a Number]

When you say no time and date is the data blank in the EXIF? What does the setup menu say for the time and date? Or is it just resetting to default values?

If it is resetting every time you power off for some time then most likely the backup battery/accumulator is bad. The battery in some of the earlier bodies had a very limited full discharge / recharge life - something like on the order of 50-100 times. Lifetime of the battery was on the order of 100x or more for partially discharged/recharged. The online files for some of the cameras said it was like 48-72 hours to fully discharge the backup battery (main battery removed) and 12-24 hours to fully charge a fully discharged backup from a fully charged main battery (camera off).

So I would fully charge the main battery, put it in the camera and let it sit turned off for at least 12 hours. If the time and date won't hold after turning off the camera overnight then the backup battery probably needs to be replaced.

[Adam]

This weekend my K50 give me a bit of trouble. I mounted my DA* 200 on my HD 1.4 TC and turned the camera on - bang - no time and date. No other settings seemed lost. After a couple of times during the day I turned off the camera and back on and again lost time/date. Later I mounted my F 50 and put the camera to bed - after that no problems. The battery in use was genuine Pentax and the gauge read full.

EDIT: Also the SDM was very slow to start working with this combination. Lens alone was fast and normal, on the TC it was sluggish at first but then fine. I'm guessing here but I wonder if there was a minor misalignment that caused the current being sent to the lens to be poorly transmitted/high electrical resistance? This could have dipped the battery voltage briefly which could explain the loss of time/date.

Thoughts and ideas? Things to try or look for? Pictures and exposures were not impacted, card did not lose data, etc. All in all a very minor glitch.

If you leave the camera sitting without a battery for a while, the internal backup battery can run dry.

[UncleVanya]

OK - clarifications. First the camera had a full charged battery (which to me is 8-10 hours plus (overnight charge from mid afternoon). It had been used for a few shots before this happened.
Next the EXIF data was never allowed to be used when the date/time was blank. The camera powered on and prompted me to enter date and time - they were blank (default setting).
Next no other customized setting I have was lost. Notably the use aperture ring setting is/was intact.
Cleaning contacts is something I didn't do but after dismounting the lens combination and mounting another lens the problem went away and did not come back even when using the same combo.

[Eponsart]

This weekend my K50 give me a bit of trouble. I mounted my DA* 200 on my HD 1.4 TC and turned the camera on - bang - no time and date. No other settings seemed lost. After a couple of times during the day I turned off the camera and back on and again lost time/date. Later I mounted my F 50 and put the camera to bed - after that no problems. The battery in use was genuine Pentax and the gauge read full.

EDIT: Also the SDM was very slow to start working with this combination. Lens alone was fast and normal, on the TC it was sluggish at first but then fine. I'm guessing here but I wonder if there was a minor misalignment that caused the current being sent to the lens to be poorly transmitted/high electrical resistance? This could have dipped the battery voltage briefly which could explain the loss of time/date.

Thoughts and ideas? Things to try or look for? Pictures and exposures were not impacted, card did not lose data, etc. All in all a very minor glitch.

II had the same problem, and each time i set on/off the cam, each time the dateinfo was reset...
I replace my sandisk extreme pro with a monster digital, and so the problem went away...

[Velobear]

I have exactly the same issue. On a fully charged battery, or even when using AA's and adapter I will frequently be prompted to enter time and date information (as if for the first time)... BUT all other settings including things like copyright info are unchanged and preserved. It used to be an occasional annoyance and now it's almost constant with every power-off.

Ideas?

VB