Originally posted by xGene I was breaking-in my new D-FA100 WR on the week-end at the Royal Botanical Garden. Awesome lens! Found-out however that I have a stained sensor, small dot right smack in the center with a very faint string of smaller dots to the left. Made sure it wasn't dust. Oh well... I reported previously I did not had the stain, but I guess it developped with time...
I have to mention here that it is absolutely not visible on anything else than Macro shots taken at F11 and smaller. But there it is in all my shots. Easy to PP out, but still...
Gene
I can't and won't speak on Pentax Canada so I removed it from the quote. As for your camera (or anyone else's) growing the stain however,
That's photo number 3217. It is the first time I ever saw it. It was taken at f22 with a flash using a 28mm f2.0 lens. If it were just a String or a simple spot, I would still be using my k5 today (and waiting to send it in). That however is more than I care to process out. It is larger than shown and due to the black background, the rest simply cannot be seen. New, out of the box, that did not show, in any condition at any aperture.
I would be More concerned about a replacement 'growing' a stain than it being there to begin with. I don't know if it shows up due to Time, or Use. If it is use and if I were just a casual user, taking only a few photos per day (as I am some months), What happens when the warranty is expired (because that's the terms Pentax is handling this under) and the camera 'grows' the stain?
I have Never returned anything to Pentax and never had the need to. I'm the first to look for user error when something goes wrong, even in my own case. This camera was nearly $1600 out of the gate for the body alone. For HoyaTax to offer anything but the fastest possible service on this is on the unacceptable side for me.
As to the SDM thing, I still think they could have very easily offered a Patch at the least to enable the screw drive for those who want to use it. The fact they had to issue a FW release on the K10d just to turn On SDM, tells me it could be done. People with failed lenses still wouldn't have been ecstatic about losing SDM but at least they could still Use the lenses to auto-focus.
I'm with Rupert on this one (and that doesn't always happen). I paid the money, I expect to get what I paid for.