[schaste]

Hello,

I just purchased a (very) used Pentax K-5 Mark II body from a local, reputable camera store. As it came without a lens, I didn't bother to check whether AF worked; in retrospect I should've done that. Salesman showed me that it had a frame count of just about 39,000 but hey, for 99 bucks it seemed like a nice cheap deal!

I got home and mounted one of my AF lenses (28=70mm FA) - and it didn't focus on AF-S or AF-C through the viewfinder. I tried focusing with Live View, and it focused perfectly fine. I also tried with another AF lens (40mm DA Limited), with the same results.

Also, in the viewfinder, along with the AF not working, all numeric and other LEDs across the bottom blinked continuously as long as I held the shutter button down, and the shutter didn't fire, although the shutter worked in MF. No red AF points lit up in either AF or MF mode.

So, I took it back to the camera store the next day, intending to return it. I brought along my 40mm - and guess what happened when the salesman attached it and turned it on? AF worked when he shot through the viewfinder! I said, well... OK I will try it for a few more days, as they have a 90 day return policy on used equipment. I get home, and surprise surprise - no AF through the viewfinder!

I have updated the firmware, used a soft cloth to gently clean the AF sensor with the mirror locked up, and tried several different batteries, all to no avail.

Yesterday, I tried it again and the viewfinder AF worked for a brief time. Today... no luck.

This seems to indicate that the PDAF sensor may be nearly dead, as the CDAF seems to work in Live View - but why would I carry around a 700 gram point-and-shoot?

So I will return it, but I wonder if anyone has experienced before. My current K5, which I've had since 2012, has never had this problem. Is it possible that the AF sensor got knocked out of alignment, or dirty in the past, or even that a circuit has partly died?

[MarkJerling]

Have you tried it with a different fully charged battery?

[clackers]

Yeah, just return it, get your money back.

That's the secondhand market for ya!

There's not much motivation for disinterested employees to properly test something. They leave that up to the customer.

Plenty of people have reported buying lenses where someone copied and pasted the ad text ('excellent conditon, no fungus') without even looking inside the box.

[photogem]

I would always first try a factory reset!

[schaste]

Thanks for the replies. I returned the camera and got my money back, no questions asked.