K100D making "static" sound

breischl · 11-06-2007, 08:35 PM

Hi all,
I just finished blowing dust off of my K100D with a rocket blower, and now the camera is making an odd sound. It's a sort of low, static-y grumbling sound. It's not very loud, you need to be within maybe 6 inches of the camera to hear it. Honestly, it sounds a bit like a hard disk writing, but I can't imagine there's anything like that going on in there.

The photos from the camera seem to be fine as far as I can tell.

I've tried it with two different lenses and the sound happens in both cases. The lenses themselves seem to be fine with snappy aperture blades, smooth zooming & focusing. I don't get the sound when stopping down with the optical DOF preview.

I hear the sound for the entire length of a long exposure. If noise reduction is on I can hear it for about the same amount of time after the exposure. If noise reduction is off it bursts a bit after the exposure is done and then stops.

I hear the sound for the entire time that the camera is in cleaning mode, which I wouldn't think is processor intensive. But perhaps it's because the camera is displaying instructions on the LCD?

I do not hear the sound when looking through photos in playback mode.

Based on the symptoms I would guess it's processor or image-capture related somehow, but I can't figure it out.

Unfortunately this camera is going on vacation tomorrow morning. I'd really like to have some idea what's going on before then. Can anyone help me shed light on this, please?

Thanks in advance,
BKR

UPDATE: I turned off shake reduction, and then I don't hear the sound during an exposure but I do hear it during the noise reduction period after the exposure. So I guess maybe I managed to screw up something in the shake reduction system. Great.

From an academic standpoint it's interesting because that implies that shake reduction is turned on during the noise reduction period regardless of the camera setting. It also implies that it's on while sensor cleaning is happening, which seems really counterintuitive to me.

I'd still appreciate anyone's thoughts on this.

*pcarfan* · 11-06-2007, 09:08 PM

I know the SR in the K10D makes that 'static' noise, which you really have to put your ear against the back of the camera to hear. It stays on whether SR is ON or OFF as I think the mechanism engages when SR is ON and deengages when OFF but the motors keep running. BUT the intensity of this noise increases if you gradually and gently mimic an increasing shake and the sound wanes as you decrease the shake.

*SuperAkuma* · 11-06-2007, 11:40 PM

That sound is your SR working. When I first got my K100D I thought something was wrong with it too but I found out it was just the SR. I haven't really noticed it with noise reductions though.

*igowerf* · 11-07-2007, 12:16 AM

Yep. It's just the shake reduction. I can hear it if I forget to turn off SR for long exposures and when I do a sensor cleaning. Your camera is fine.

Finn · 11-07-2007, 04:42 AM

Whew, that's good to know. I thought it was just mine!

jnorth · 11-07-2007, 04:03 PM

It's not static it's your camera moonlighting as a microscopic welder. When you're not looking it swallows a couple tiny jobs and welds away, trying to be careful not to cause any damage to its own circuitry, and then again when you turn away your attention it ships out the finished job and if given enough time it takes in another or just waits for the next opportunity. Gross revenue from this venture goes directly to Pentax. They managed to get the transferring of projects to 99.99% effective but they were not able to suppress welding noise, so as a cover to the odd user picking up the sound they came up with a marketing ploy called SR. They in turn payed a few of us to extol the virtues of this mythical feature and the 'noise' it creates, they have most everybody convinced too. It seems that some jobs performed at the out edges of it capability parameters have proven the parameters to be a bit too liberal - users suffering from FF or BF. Cameras in their final check before shipping, or in some cases even after delivery, may have needed there welding abilities fine tuned - those are the ones that got a bit of welding spatter on the sensor resulting in 'hot' pixels.

I only ever received my first payment for my part in this ruse, and after 11 months of fighting for more than my initial deposit fee I've decided to go public. I am currently locked away in a safe house provided by RiceHigh, but don't tell anybody.

I also did not get enough sleep last night, drank too much caffeine today, and have too much boring paperwork ahead of me.

*Mallee Boy* · 11-07-2007, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by jnorth

It's not static it's your camera moonlighting as a microscopic welder. When you're not looking it swallows a couple tiny jobs and welds away, trying to be careful not to cause any damage to its own circuitry, and then again when you turn away your attention it ships out the finished job and if given enough time it takes in another or just waits for the next opportunity. Gross revenue from this venture goes directly to Pentax. They managed to get the transferring of projects to 99.99% effective but they were not able to suppress welding noise, so as a cover to the odd user picking up the sound they came up with a marketing ploy called SR. They in turn payed a few of us to extol the virtues of this mythical feature and the 'noise' it creates, they have most everybody convinced too. It seems that some jobs performed at the out edges of it capability parameters have proven the parameters to be a bit too liberal - users suffering from FF or BF. Cameras in their final check before shipping, or in some cases even after delivery, may have needed there welding abilities fine tuned - those are the ones that got a bit of welding spatter on the sensor resulting in 'hot' pixels.

I only ever received my first payment for my part in this ruse, and after 11 months of fighting for more than my initial deposit fee I've decided to go public. I am currently locked away in a safe house provided by RiceHigh, but don't tell anybody.

I also did not get enough sleep last night, drank too much caffeine today, and have too much boring paperwork ahead of me.

A couple of errant spot welds here & there would explain some slow AF issues on the new DA* lenses too...

......more coffee.??

breischl · 11-10-2007, 03:41 PM

JNorth, I think you need to adjust your tinfoil beanie, it seems to be slipping.

Thanks for the replies all, glad to know I'm just being a photo-hypo-chondriac.

cznut · 11-11-2007, 03:24 PM

mine doesn't make any noise on or off.

little laker · 11-11-2007, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by jnorth

It's not static it's your camera moonlighting as a microscopic welder. When you're not looking it swallows a couple tiny jobs and welds away, trying to be careful not to cause any damage to its own circuitry, and then again when you turn away your attention it ships out the finished job and if given enough time it takes in another or just waits for the next opportunity. Gross revenue from this venture goes directly to Pentax. They managed to get the transferring of projects to 99.99% effective but they were not able to suppress welding noise, so as a cover to the odd user picking up the sound they came up with a marketing ploy called SR. They in turn payed a few of us to extol the virtues of this mythical feature and the 'noise' it creates, they have most everybody convinced too. It seems that some jobs performed at the out edges of it capability parameters have proven the parameters to be a bit too liberal - users suffering from FF or BF. Cameras in their final check before shipping, or in some cases even after delivery, may have needed there welding abilities fine tuned - those are the ones that got a bit of welding spatter on the sensor resulting in 'hot' pixels.

I only ever received my first payment for my part in this ruse, and after 11 months of fighting for more than my initial deposit fee I've decided to go public. I am currently locked away in a safe house provided by RiceHigh, but don't tell anybody.

I also did not get enough sleep last night, drank too much caffeine today, and have too much boring paperwork ahead of me.

How can I hire my camera, I have a couple of welding jobs that need doing

jnorth · 11-12-2007, 08:50 PM

Cameras not seeming to make any noise are those that are in one of two camps. They left factory with a beta of a new stealth cloaking device to further hide the existence of such a technology. Or they have since, and there are a few, joined the labour movement and are holding out for a new improved collective bargaining agreement. Of course there is also a scenario 1A - the user just hasn't detected any activity yet. I sorry for the delay in posting but I have had to since relocated twice to new safehouses. I'm afraid this update may again force me to continue seeking a safer climate, but in the intersts of solidarity amongst Pentax users, or usees I have taken my own safety in my hands thrown caution out the window and the baby, bathwater, and tub into the wind or some other such garbled cliche.

This thread derailment brought to you by Pentax, the mircoweld people, and viewers like you.

Jimsi777 · 11-16-2007, 01:56 PM

Mine just chirps like a bird

cznut · 11-16-2007, 03:20 PM

this makes me wonder if mine is working. How would I know?

Jimsi777 · 11-16-2007, 03:25 PM

The longer the exposure the more noise it makes, Try a time lapse night shot at 30 seconds, youll hear it big time after the shutter curtain closes, youll hear the noise as the picture is processing...

richard64 · 11-17-2007, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by breischl

I just finished blowing dust off of my K100D with a rocket blower, and now the camera is making an odd sound.

Spooky! A couple of days ago I posted a similar thread in another forum. I deduced that it was SR but I was posting about something else...

Originally Posted by breischl

I hear the sound for the entire time that the camera is in cleaning mode

I had noticed a spot on my pictures, I thought there must be dust on the sensor so I put it into cleaning mode just to have a look. I didn't see any dust but, like you, I noticed that the SR noise. OK, so I also noticed that the SR switch was on. So, I switched off the camera, switched off SR, and put it back into cleaning mode. Again, I could hear SR.

Is this a bug? Why is SR on during cleaning? Why is it *always* on during cleaning, even when the SR switch is off?

Incidentally, when I did some test shots the dust particle that was worrying me had gone. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe just exposing the sensor was enough for the dust to fall off. But why is SR on during cleaning mode?

Originally Posted by breischl

It also implies that it's on while sensor cleaning is happening, which seems really counterintuitive to me.

Well not when you consider that the K100D Super cleaning mode purposely shakes the sensor to clean it. But it's odd that sensor shaking occurs on the K100D (ie not Super).

As I said, I mentioned this on another forum, and pointed out that the K100D manual does not mention shaking the sensor in cleaning mode, but I still got a pile of patronising answers telling me just what I had told them: that the K100D manual says that it does not have sensor shake cleaning mode.

Even if the K100D has a sensor shake cleaning mode by accident, it lacks the sticky pad that apparently other cameras have to catch the dust that's shaken off.

Richard