[John A.]

Several times in the past month I have been "locked out "of the camera. First several times were when I changed an SD card. Could do nothing at all with the camera. No functions responded and yet there was a reading on the top LCD. I could turn it off and on and still no response,
Then I took the battery out and re installed. Than all okay. Subsequently installed same SD card in my KR and no problems.

Same problem happened yesterday, when I was "playing around"with some settings. Took the battery out re installed all okay. Battery is fully charged. Getting to wonder. I am on my third KR due to e wheel problems now this. Anyone else had this issue ? Should I be taking it back ? It is almost one month old.

Really like Pentax and especially the K5. Thinking of buying more lenes, BUT also thinking or CANIKON.

Every time I go to the camera shop is several hundred kilometrers. Need some advise. ( wifey thought I was nuts buying the K5 after the probs with KR, she wanted a mount change ) I haven't told her the K5 problems. Always dislike telling her that she is right.

Thanks

John

[civiletti]

John, I've had no lock-up problems with my K-5 and consider it a very fine camera. Several times in in one month seems serious enough to me to ask for a replacement, but I would not give up on Pentax over it.

[SpecialK]

"Freezing" is a known issue, posted about several times down the forum. Mine went away on its own some months ago...

[rawr]

Pentax battery or 3rd party?

Sometimes there are also issues when inserting freshly charged batteries. Does the problem occur only when the battery is newly charged? It may be best to let newly charged batteries 'rest' a bit before using them.

And in the Setup menu is 'Select Battery' set to Auto Select, or something else.

[John A.]

In both cases the battery was newly charged. It is the original Pentax battery. I do have a cheap China import for it and have not used it so far.

Thanks

John

[Adam]

Have you upgraded the firmware to the latest version?

[John A.]

Adam

No I have not. Not to sure on how to do it.

john

[Adam]

See the link above They fixed a lot of bugs in the latest firmware even though they claim the only change was one affecting GPS functionality.

[John A.]

Adam
Thanks I will try that. ( it does mention freezing. ) This forum is so helpful.

Appreciate all the advise.

Regards
john

[BETLOG]

I have this freezing issue too. I am using firmware v1.13 but this is not a solution.
IIRC it happens only when the grip is on, and it happens in both an old, and a brand new K5.

It doesn't happen in any predictable way that I am able to discern. Except that it's getting more regular, and with ~4Kg of camera, grip, lens, and batteries to juggle it's always VERY annoying: To get the camera working again I have to remove the whole battery grip, and also remove the camera battery.
I think the trick then is to turn the camera on while there is no battery in it, maybe also press the shutter button, and then turn it off and reinsert the battery and grip.

[John A.]

Since I did the upgrade there have been no lock outs. Just did two thousands pics during a recent kayak trip in Newfoundland.

Mine only seemed to do it after a battery charge, but since the upgrade no problems. A great camera. If still on warranty take it back.

Best of luck.

ja

[panoguy]

Wow, seems like today is the day for "K-5 lock ups!" (Oh wait, that's all just a single person bumping multiple threads to the top...)

Coincidentally, my K-5 locked up during a job today, but in my case the back LCD just went black while it otherwise kept working (felt like using film since the top LCD still showed info)! This was after about 3 hours of constant use (18GB of photos!), and it was 34C outside (that's 94F for you 'mericans!) and I was shooting inside an un-airconditioned warehouse being converted to a film studio. Definitely not "cooler in the shade" in this case... I think it was closer to 44C with all the machinery and lights in there! Oh, and pulling the battery fixed it... didn't even have to break out the backup body!

[i_trax]

I use KX,K5,K7 and the Q and took thousands photos.
the Q locked up ones while taking prolonged video in hot and humid environment,
K5 locked up ones during my initial trials with prolonged burst shooting, so in both cases it was my doing causing the lock-up , can not blame Pentax for it.
KX and K7 never experienced lock-up.
all modern DSLR'a are like mini computers and can freeze like all other microprocessor based devices and only re-power ( battery out , wait 30seconds - discharging leftovers in capacitors) and reboot can rectify it.