Tiny Cracks on K10D Body

[Fireball]

At its current retail price the K10D is so cheap its almost disposable and this destroys the second hand market anyway.

To you, maybe!!!

[*isteve]

To you, maybe!!!

You buy your K10D for retail at £600, and its now £100 cheaper meaning you cannot sell it second hand for more than £400. As soon as the K10D super is released, you could knock anothe £100 off. So now you are down to £300. Pentax have devalued the camera far more than a small (invisible) crack ever would simply by making progress.

[RiceHigh]

The chips and cracks will possibly become a loophole for moisture and water to come into the bodies of the K10Ds and virtually defeat the weather sealing feature of the affected K10D bodies.

More importantly, as those users who have newly found the problem and said that they will call for Pentax's service within warranty, I really doubt what Pentax will do for them. I think for this common case and fault found, a product recall is indeed necessary, for any responsible camera maker.

However, the possibility of typical reaction of Pentax and their way of tackling these manufacturing and design problems will be very likely the same as what they "did" in the past, as well observed by this K10D user who has an eagle eye:-

Show Message

Of course, I do hope Pentax can follow-up the case in a new way, though.

[RiceHigh]

The reason why I'm wondering if it was Rice that started it is because of this thread on DP
Shiny Black Buttons of 5D (or other Canon DSLRs?): Canon EOS-1D/1Ds/5D Forum: Digital Photography Review
It sounds like the same sort of thing

Thanks for reading my posts over the Canon forum and over the DPR. I must admit that current Pentax DSLRs do not have this problem now. But in the past the *ist D did have this problem with soft and easily scratchable shutter button which is an annoyance despite it affects no camera function and performance.

I did report the same problem for the *ist D and I don't know if Pentax had listened or not - but coincidently they improved the design by making the button with matte texture and harden the silver coating of the shutter release button. So, my K100D is still like new for those buttons after one year's use where as my 5D's buttons are terribly scratches after weeks of use.

I use my 5D much more frequently than my K100D though (but it is obviously the K100D buttons are not prone to *any* scratches whilst 5D's ones are) as it is so accurate and I feel so free to use - and there is no need to shoot RAW and I have saved a lot of time for this.

[Fireball]

You buy your K10D for retail at £600, and its now £100 cheaper meaning you cannot sell it second hand for more than £400. As soon as the K10D super is released, you could knock anothe £100 off. So now you are down to £300. Pentax have devalued the camera far more than a small (invisible) crack ever would simply by making progress.

I meant the disposable part :P

[little laker]

Thanks for reading my posts over the Canon forum and over the DPR. I must admit that current Pentax DSLRs do not have this problem now. But in the past the *ist D did have this problem with soft and easily scratchable shutter button which is an annoyance despite it affects no camera function and performance.

I did report the same problem for the *ist D and I don't know if Pentax had listened or not - but coincidently they improved the design by making the button with matte texture and harden the silver coating of the shutter release button. So, my K100D is still like new for those buttons after one year's use where as my 5D's buttons are terribly scratches after weeks of use.

I use my 5D much more frequently than my K100D though (but it is obviously the K100D buttons are not prone to *any* scratches whilst 5D's ones are) as it is so accurate and I feel so free to use - and there is no need to shoot RAW and I have saved a lot of time for this.

Good to ear Rice, I must admit that my K100D is full of scratches but the buttons still look good.

I can't blame Pentax for the scratches though, my camera probably sees way more hard use than most peoples.

I'm actually wondering if the scratches on the buttons on your Canon were there right from the factory. It wouldn't take much to put them in... just a convater belt getting jammed in the wrong place could have pushed it against a hard rough surface.

[Donald]

Wow! Pentax has a problem. Folks, I design products and molded plastics parts like this, I've probably seen every possible mistake and problem.

I looked at those pictures for a while, and I've seen similar problems before, although the cause can be numerous things.

From the pictures it appears some instance of small bulge instead of crack; 2 things can cause this. One is a manufacturing process issue, i.e. gas bubble trapped in that area as the tool is filled. Second is an assembly interference: certainly Pentax uses some jig or fixture, manual or automated, to assemble these parts and occasionally in process something is happening in a jig in this corner area of the base part.

Other manufacturing process issue possibilities: bad gate location (where the molten plastic is injected into the tool), wrong process parameters (tool or plastic too hot, wrong machine cycle time, bad degating (cutting gate sprue off the part), part ejection lands on that corner.

It could be a combination of above, manifesting in an instance of wrong manufacturing machinery process setup ended up producing X parts, and the people who ended up buying them are experiencing failure. It very well could be a non-issue at Pentax manufacturing facilities when proper process is followed.

Having seen issues like this on molded plastic parts, it is not fault of the user of those parts.