I Think Izzy Just Blew A Gasket....

magkelly · 05-05-2011, 09:16 AM

My *ist is acting funky.

Took it out this morning and suddenly I'm getting nothing but all white pics. This happened with my 75-300MM lens in SF while I was there. I thought there was something going on with the lens, but apparently not because now it's doing it with any lens I put on it, old, new, manual, AF.

I checked the set up to see if anything has reset itself. Not. It's still set up properly for using older lenses and the newer ones too. Nothing has changed at all from what I can tell. Sensor is clean, that got done while I was in SF, but I can't get anything but a white blur now.

Should I try a factory reset? Or am I beating a dead horse here? I'm just wondering if this means something in my camera's electronics just finally went? It is a pretty old DSLR after all.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

normhead · 05-05-2011, 09:30 AM

My *ist failed under extended warranty. The people who held the warranty told me it cost them $750 to repair, ( a K100D at the time was only $550.) they also said there are more moving parts in a camera than there are in a car. Try a reset for sure.. but you're probably going to need a new camera.

magkelly · 05-05-2011, 09:35 AM

Yeah I'm thinking so. I can't complain too much. It was a $50 camera. It lasted me for a few months and a couple thousand pics anyhow, lol. I'm still hoping the factory reset revives it but I may be back to just using my film SLR's for a bit until I can afford to buy another DSLR. ($750? Ouch! That's a brand new K-r!) Not a good sign though I don't think, the white blur bit.

magkelly · 05-05-2011, 07:47 PM

Guess I should start making some funeral arrangements. It's now totally dead and I don't think it's planning on doing a resurrection scene anytime soon. I'm very tempted to bling it up and put it on my desk, use it as a big old Pentax paperweight. Guess I might as well. It would save it from the landfill at least, right?

I don't think Izzy was a traditional kind of camera though so I'm not cuing taps anytime soon here. I'm thinking maybe I'll just load up the 5th Dimension and play "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In" over it's cute little carcass instead....

SOldBear · 05-05-2011, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by magkelly

...I'm getting nothing but all white pics.

Are those pics really "all white" or are they just overexposed? Does this happen at all aperture settings?

Can you please try taking a photo with the aperture set at max and post the result.

Thanks.

magkelly · 05-05-2011, 11:00 PM

I can't take a pic at all now unfortunately. (See mournful post above.) The camera is completely DEAD, alas. I'm guessing what happened in SF briefly and what happened this morning was a sign of the main board going or something like that. I'm a bit upset with the timing, I'm at the tail end of an internship thing here at home, and using film for it is a bit of a pain, but what can you do?

I literally paid like $50 for the body and it had flash issues when I bought it. I didn't really think it would last forever, shrug. There's a good chance I'll actually have a K-x in my hands a month or two down the road, but until then it's back to using the vintage gear and being a lot more conservative about how much shooting I do.

I was rather hoping the *ist would make it through the rest of the year, but I guess that just wasn't meant to be...

wombat2go · 05-06-2011, 06:38 AM

MagKelly, I hope you do OK with going back to the old way for a time.

Same here, ist DL is u/s , i yanked the usb cable and that failed the camera upload.
Now the often reported low battery problem seems to have drifted worse on this camera and it is not reliable to take out even for a few shots away from the charger.
Anyway I got it el cheapo with a shop scratch and it did a good job for 4 years and went to many countries.

Is there any member who is collecting old dslr for parts/repair?

Rather than the thought of trash it, I would send the body free to any member who is interested in repair /reuse of old dslr.

gp1806 · 05-06-2011, 09:37 AM

Originally posted by wombat2go

MagKelly, I hope you do OK with going back to the old way for a time.

Same here, ist DL is u/s , i yanked the usb cable and that failed the camera upload.
Now the often reported low battery problem seems to have drifted worse on this camera and it is not reliable to take out even for a few shots away from the charger.
Anyway I got it el cheapo with a shop scratch and it did a good job for 4 years and went to many countries.

Is there any member who is collecting old dslr for parts/repair?

Rather than the thought of trash it, I would send the body free to any member who is interested in repair /reuse of old dslr.

People do want broken DSLR cameras for parts. Are you sure you want to give it away. I'm sure it would sell on ebay as a broken camera, not as much as a working camera, but something anyway. I'll take it if you are sure.

magkelly · 05-06-2011, 09:58 AM

I'm keeping the corpse of mine for sentimental reasons. Izzy was my very first DSLR, and I do want to actually make a paperweight out of it. ;P

**Clinton** · 05-06-2011, 11:12 PM

You might make sure the battery contacts, both on the battery and inside the camera are clean, and try cleaning them with triple distilled vodka, or rubbing alcohol (although I'm told rubbing alcohol leaves residue)

gp1806 · 05-07-2011, 08:53 AM

Originally posted by Clinton

You might make sure the battery contacts, both on the battery and inside the camera are clean, and try cleaning them with triple distilled vodka, or rubbing alcohol (although I'm told rubbing alcohol leaves residue)

Back in the 70's when I first started in photography, The Pro that I was working for told me to use vodka for cleaning. Brings back memories.

jolepp · 05-07-2011, 09:31 AM

Sometimes a gadget mystically dies but might work again after a while. If this is a bad solder joint or somesuch which might depend on a minute contraction/expansion for contact a change in temperature could do it. Long-shot, but maybe worth a try putting the body in a ziplock bag (battery removed!), seal it, put it in the freezer for a couple of hours, take it out and let it warm back to room temperature before opening the bag. This bagging business is to avoid condensation which might wreak further havoc. Ìf this worked it would (probably

) mean that the trouble is a bad contact which would most likely come back to haunt you eventually. The changes of this actually working even temporarily are slim, but then it is not an expensive thing to try either.

Another thing, if you think it is a loss anyway (and it would seem to), would be seeing if you could open it up a bit and manipulate any connectors you can access to maybe remedy a bad connection (applying some electronic contact cleaner would to the connectors would increase the odds of this working).

wombat2go · 05-07-2011, 11:39 AM

Thanks for the thoughts, Jolep and clinton.
Ist ds is on way to another member, who can maybe get something out of it.
You see I have 2 more ist ds to wear out before I upgrade.
One is still brand new in box.
So I will be last one in the ist club, I'm sure.
As far as opening it up, i am real busy and on the list is an old tube shortwave receiver to fix up.
The screws and contacts in it are better sized for my vintage.
What does the wife say when you bring home triple vodka saying its for contact cleaning?

magkelly · 05-07-2011, 12:55 PM

We tried to clean the contacts. Nothing. Izzy is still with my teacher here at the moment actually. He's a lot less afraid to open a DSLR than I am. Plus he has the right tools. He's going to take a look at it this weekend. If he can't resurrect Izzy than I guess I could try the freezer idea. Seems brutal but at this point it's looking like a paperweight anyway so I guess I might as well...

Something was definitely going on in SF. I didn't realize it till now because being sick I haven't really had the time or the energy to look closely at the pics I took out at the zoo on a bigger monitor, but every shot, no matter what lens, what aperture etc I used was looking very grainy after the camera did that white blur thing.

I swapped lenses at least twice and I was using all kinds of different settings because I was taking shots outdoors and in. Auto, programmed settings, me doing it all, no major difference and I'd not had a real problem with excessive noise before that day. All round the content was good, and it seemed to focus okay, mostly, but the overall quality of the photos I took that day was pretty darned bad. That's not normal for Izzy. Usually I never even noticed hardly any noise at all.

panoguy · 05-07-2011, 01:37 PM

Originally posted by gp1806

Back in the 70's when I first started in photography, The Pro that I was working for told me to use vodka for cleaning. Brings back memories.

Funny, but vodka tends to erase memories for me.

05-05-2011, 09:16 AM	#1
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901	I Think Izzy Just Blew A Gasket.... My *ist is acting funky. Took it out this morning and suddenly I'm getting nothing but all white pics. This happened with my 75-300MM lens in SF while I was there. I thought there was something going on with the lens, but apparently not because now it's doing it with any lens I put on it, old, new, manual, AF. I checked the set up to see if anything has reset itself. Not. It's still set up properly for using older lenses and the newer ones too. Nothing has changed at all from what I can tell. Sensor is clean, that got done while I was in SF, but I can't get anything but a white blur now. Should I try a factory reset? Or am I beating a dead horse here? I'm just wondering if this means something in my camera's electronics just finally went? It is a pretty old DSLR after all. Suggestions? Thanks!

05-07-2011, 09:31 AM	#12
jolepp Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Finland Photos: Albums Posts: 3,196	Sometimes a gadget mystically dies but might work again after a while. If this is a bad solder joint or somesuch which might depend on a minute contraction/expansion for contact a change in temperature could do it. Long-shot, but maybe worth a try putting the body in a ziplock bag (battery removed!), seal it, put it in the freezer for a couple of hours, take it out and let it warm back to room temperature before opening the bag. This bagging business is to avoid condensation which might wreak further havoc. Ìf this worked it would (probably ) mean that the trouble is a bad contact which would most likely come back to haunt you eventually. The changes of this actually working even temporarily are slim, but then it is not an expensive thing to try either. Another thing, if you think it is a loss anyway (and it would seem to), would be seeing if you could open it up a bit and manipulate any connectors you can access to maybe remedy a bad connection (applying some electronic contact cleaner would to the connectors would increase the odds of this working). Last edited by jolepp; 05-07-2011 at 01:31 PM. Reason: typo...

05-07-2011, 12:55 PM	#14
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901 Original Poster	We tried to clean the contacts. Nothing. Izzy is still with my teacher here at the moment actually. He's a lot less afraid to open a DSLR than I am. Plus he has the right tools. He's going to take a look at it this weekend. If he can't resurrect Izzy than I guess I could try the freezer idea. Seems brutal but at this point it's looking like a paperweight anyway so I guess I might as well... Something was definitely going on in SF. I didn't realize it till now because being sick I haven't really had the time or the energy to look closely at the pics I took out at the zoo on a bigger monitor, but every shot, no matter what lens, what aperture etc I used was looking very grainy after the camera did that white blur thing. I swapped lenses at least twice and I was using all kinds of different settings because I was taking shots outdoors and in. Auto, programmed settings, me doing it all, no major difference and I'd not had a real problem with excessive noise before that day. All round the content was good, and it seemed to focus okay, mostly, but the overall quality of the photos I took that day was pretty darned bad. That's not normal for Izzy. Usually I never even noticed hardly any noise at all. Last edited by magkelly; 05-07-2011 at 01:06 PM.

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05-05-2011, 09:30 AM	#2
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451	My *ist failed under extended warranty. The people who held the warranty told me it cost them $750 to repair, ( a K100D at the time was only $550.) they also said there are more moving parts in a camera than there are in a car. Try a reset for sure.. but you're probably going to need a new camera.

05-05-2011, 09:35 AM	#3
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901 Original Poster	Yeah I'm thinking so. I can't complain too much. It was a $50 camera. It lasted me for a few months and a couple thousand pics anyhow, lol. I'm still hoping the factory reset revives it but I may be back to just using my film SLR's for a bit until I can afford to buy another DSLR. ($750? Ouch! That's a brand new K-r!) Not a good sign though I don't think, the white blur bit.

05-05-2011, 07:47 PM	#4
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901 Original Poster	Guess I should start making some funeral arrangements. It's now totally dead and I don't think it's planning on doing a resurrection scene anytime soon. I'm very tempted to bling it up and put it on my desk, use it as a big old Pentax paperweight. Guess I might as well. It would save it from the landfill at least, right? I don't think Izzy was a traditional kind of camera though so I'm not cuing taps anytime soon here. I'm thinking maybe I'll just load up the 5th Dimension and play "Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In" over it's cute little carcass instead....

05-05-2011, 07:58 PM	#5
SOldBear Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Alameda, CA Posts: 3,206	Originally posted by magkelly ...I'm getting nothing but all white pics. Are those pics really "all white" or are they just overexposed? Does this happen at all aperture settings? Can you please try taking a photo with the aperture set at max and post the result. Thanks.

05-05-2011, 11:00 PM	#6
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901 Original Poster	I can't take a pic at all now unfortunately. (See mournful post above.) The camera is completely DEAD, alas. I'm guessing what happened in SF briefly and what happened this morning was a sign of the main board going or something like that. I'm a bit upset with the timing, I'm at the tail end of an internship thing here at home, and using film for it is a bit of a pain, but what can you do? I literally paid like $50 for the body and it had flash issues when I bought it. I didn't really think it would last forever, shrug. There's a good chance I'll actually have a K-x in my hands a month or two down the road, but until then it's back to using the vintage gear and being a lot more conservative about how much shooting I do. I was rather hoping the *ist would make it through the rest of the year, but I guess that just wasn't meant to be...

05-06-2011, 06:38 AM	#7
wombat2go Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Michigan Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,207	MagKelly, I hope you do OK with going back to the old way for a time. Same here, ist DL is u/s , i yanked the usb cable and that failed the camera upload. Now the often reported low battery problem seems to have drifted worse on this camera and it is not reliable to take out even for a few shots away from the charger. Anyway I got it el cheapo with a shop scratch and it did a good job for 4 years and went to many countries. Is there any member who is collecting old dslr for parts/repair? Rather than the thought of trash it, I would send the body free to any member who is interested in repair /reuse of old dslr.

05-06-2011, 09:37 AM	#8
gp1806 Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago suburbs Photos: Albums Posts: 848	Originally posted by wombat2go MagKelly, I hope you do OK with going back to the old way for a time. Same here, ist DL is u/s , i yanked the usb cable and that failed the camera upload. Now the often reported low battery problem seems to have drifted worse on this camera and it is not reliable to take out even for a few shots away from the charger. Anyway I got it el cheapo with a shop scratch and it did a good job for 4 years and went to many countries. Is there any member who is collecting old dslr for parts/repair? Rather than the thought of trash it, I would send the body free to any member who is interested in repair /reuse of old dslr. People do want broken DSLR cameras for parts. Are you sure you want to give it away. I'm sure it would sell on ebay as a broken camera, not as much as a working camera, but something anyway. I'll take it if you are sure.

05-06-2011, 09:58 AM	#9
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901 Original Poster	I'm keeping the corpse of mine for sentimental reasons. Izzy was my very first DSLR, and I do want to actually make a paperweight out of it. ;P

05-06-2011, 11:12 PM	#10
Clinton Site Supporter Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,910	You might make sure the battery contacts, both on the battery and inside the camera are clean, and try cleaning them with triple distilled vodka, or rubbing alcohol (although I'm told rubbing alcohol leaves residue)

05-07-2011, 08:53 AM	#11
gp1806 Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago suburbs Photos: Albums Posts: 848	Originally posted by Clinton You might make sure the battery contacts, both on the battery and inside the camera are clean, and try cleaning them with triple distilled vodka, or rubbing alcohol (although I'm told rubbing alcohol leaves residue) Back in the 70's when I first started in photography, The Pro that I was working for told me to use vodka for cleaning. Brings back memories.

05-07-2011, 11:39 AM	#13
wombat2go Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Michigan Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,207	Thanks for the thoughts, Jolep and clinton. Ist ds is on way to another member, who can maybe get something out of it. You see I have 2 more ist ds to wear out before I upgrade. One is still brand new in box. So I will be last one in the ist club, I'm sure. As far as opening it up, i am real busy and on the list is an old tube shortwave receiver to fix up. The screws and contacts in it are better sized for my vintage. What does the wife say when you bring home triple vodka saying its for contact cleaning?

05-07-2011, 01:37 PM	#15
panoguy Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Washington, D.C. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,327	Originally posted by gp1806 Back in the 70's when I first started in photography, The Pro that I was working for told me to use vodka for cleaning. Brings back memories. Funny, but vodka tends to erase memories for me.