[pathdoc]

My professional needs aren't sufficiently critical that I must always have a backup camera (the department has one, though it's nowhere near as good IMO), so if it ever died I'd be able to do without while I waited for its replacement to arrive.

As far as flashes are concerned, I considered a ring flash for the macro work I do, but it's not needed often enough and the onboard works well enough with the short 35mm DA macro. I've got an older Pentax flash (AF200Sa if I remember correctly), and this is both safe for my camera (I've had the trigger voltage checked) and powerful enough for my purposes if the onboard doesn't cut it. For the time being, I'm set. When I eventually upgrade/replace it, I'll probably look for some sort of body-plus-flash combo deal depending on what I upgrade to.

Hopefully the K-5 will see me through to a second-generation full-frame pitched at the enthusiast/prosumer market with lower cost, pop-up flash, and all the important stuff (P, Tv, Av, M, selectable crop mode) but none of the fancy gimmicks (GPS, pixel shift, whatever else they introduce*).

* = if the "whatever else" is an uncrippled K mount, though, that might change things.

[jpzk]

So, I've had mine since 2012 and the shutter's closing in on 10,000 clicks this week (probably passed it already, actually, because there were plenty of shots I've deleted in-camera for complete and utter fail, so IMGP9981 doesn't tell the full story). And so I got to thinking, how high can a well-cared-for K-5 go before it dies through over-use?

I might add that I started the year with about three and a half thousand of those shots, and have piled on the other six thousand since. Sure, I have LBA, but you can't say they're not getting used!

Mine is rocking at around 90,000 clicks (possibly much more with all of the deleted in-camera wasted shots, such as you did).
Also, this: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/6-pentax-dslr-discussion/288803-life-expectancy-k5.html

Cheers!

[jddwoods]

I started with a K10D in 2006, upgraded to K-5 in 2011 and K-3 in 2014. All three cameras still going strong but the K10D gets very limited use these days. If you take care of it I would think these modern cameras could go 10 years or more. I had a SF10 film body that lasted 20 years before it stopped working and was not worth repairing. The build quality of the SF10 was nowhere as good as the current digitals, especially the K-5 and K-3 so I would think they should be good for a long time.

[ckr]

I got my K5 for a decade now and close to 40'000 shutter releases without failing me once. Frankly its a bomb proof body, even though I use my kit often in rain, snow and nasty conditions of all sorts, primarily with the equally solid 300 f4, really a perfect kit for outdoor stuff. Only gripe is the AF performance for BIF, recently tried a EM 1 mark 3 with the oly 300f4 and will go down that route because its in a different league really... But for slow stuff Pentax is still good and will last you a lifetime

[Brathahn]

Mine got 80k+ and still going strong only issue is the shutter release is kinda mushy and the on/off switch needs way more force then it should. I still pick it over my K3 when possible since the metering is much better. If I had this thing 10 years ago i would have feeled like the king of the world! Would love to get my hands on a K-5iis.

[lesmore49]

I've had my K5 since 2011 and my K10D since 2007. Both are used and still clicking away (touch wood).

[Nayu]

K-5 bought a few months after release and still going strong, it gets about 3,000 shutter actuations a year so it should last a while if the rated actuations is 100,000. It's just missing some features such as the GPS, big viewfinder, and slightly better AF in my K-1ii.

[SimplyCreativePhotography]

I checked mine yesterday. It's at just over 65,000 after nine years. Never had any shutter issues but that hasn't stopped me from pre-ordering its replacement K-3iii. (shhhh)

[jct us101]

My first one had over 100K on the shutter when I sold it, not sure how long it lasted after that though.

[lmd91343]

My K10D has been in continuous use since October 2007. That is just about 14 years. I converted it to IR shortly after getting my getting my K20D. It has not given me a minute of trouble. I am only retiring it now to upgrade to the feature set of the K3 II.

The Pentax top of the line DSLRs have been perfect for me, without any problems. I used my K5 for over three years. It to has been perfect.

[Eric Auer]

Bought my K-5 IIs when it launched, 72K trouble free actuations. I expect it to last a lot longer.
It has a good amount of external wear and tear, I don't baby my gear.

I also have a Voigtlander Bessa 46 from 1938 that sees about a roll a week worth of use. /shrug

[photogem]

No one knows. DSLRs are getting more and more complex, thus they do not have the life expectancy that old SLR cameras used to have.

I don't think that's how it is:
With a DSLR you can shoot and shoot and not worry that you fill a film with bad photos
During SLR times one had lets say a roll for 24 pictures which with cheap printing and processing was at least $ 10, if better quality quite more expensive.
So you made an effort not to mess up photos.


If I look at my K5 which now has a shuttercount of 34100 (I hardly use it anymore)
and I would calculate that it would come down to 34100 divided through 24 = 1420 rolls of film = 14200$
But I never used up such quantities of film rolls.


So I think my SLR had a much lower shuttercount.

Also: Right now I have several Pentax DSLR + one Sigma.
In SLR days I usually had 1 or 2 SLR bodies.


If I'd add the shuttercount of my other DSLR bodies it would be many more rolls!

Ah... my K10D has a shuttercount of about 20.000 as well.
But today I purchased an almost brandnew K10D for $ 90!
Shuttercount 200!

I couldn't resist.

[PixL8]

Mine is quite old now and had some good use... still clicking along just fine.... Curious about this now.