[JeffJS]

Yes, I totally agree. I have no issues with the camera, just the many issues the camera has. So far I haven't been able to reproduce it. Do you think I should upgrade the firmware?

What firmware are you using right now? Mine is running v1.03 and I've never had a second of trouble with it. I haven't updated to v1.1x yet because I don't have the GPS unit (and from the looks of current USA availability, never will) and I don't believe in fixing what ain't broke. Could it be the Card? Format it so it's a clean slate. The only time I've ever had Any issue with the camera was when I was trying to use PK-Tether, a third party program that is still under development by its author.

Yes, the K5 has been through the wringer of QC problems. Most have been addressed and some corrected with firmware. I tend to think they rushed this camera to market too fast and should have spent a little more time with beta testing. It's entirely possible you will never see this camera freeze again. If you do, remove the battery, re-insert, and move on. If it becomes an issue in the next few days, return it for exchange.

[Tony3d]

What firmware are you using right now? Mine is running v1.03 and I've never had a second of trouble with it. I haven't updated to v1.1x yet because I don't have the GPS unit (and from the looks of current USA availability, never will) and I don't believe in fixing what ain't broke. Could it be the Card? Format it so it's a clean slate. The only time I've ever had Any issue with the camera was when I was trying to use PK-Tether, a third party program that is still under development by its author.

Yes, the K5 has been through the wringer of QC problems. Most have been addressed and some corrected with firmware. I tend to think they rushed this camera to market too fast and should have spent a little more time with beta testing. It's entirely possible you will never see this camera freeze again. If you do, remove the battery, re-insert, and move on. If it becomes an issue in the next few days, return it for exchange.

Ok, I have worked the Liveview to death after upgrading the firmware to 1.11 from1.01. Could not duplicate the problem, plus the focusing in liveview improved a whole lot. Maybe there is nothing really wrong. I'll check it out more, but I feel the firmware may have been an issue. I read on Penatx's site that they improved autofocus in low light. Hence the much better focus. I've shot 82 liveview images with no freezing. Tell Otis I'm still in the game.

[Franky2step]

I love my new K5 and the 3 FA ltd primes I bought for it. However, my 21 day old FA 31 Ltd has been returned to B&H as the manual focus ring broke internally. $1000 for this little gem so I expected better. I am waiting for a replacement now, hopefully not too long as I love that 31 fl. To be fair though, I have had Canon 5D MKII and lots of Canon lenses, plus a Nikon D300 and lots of their glass, and occasionally had problems. Hell, my VW Golfwagon has squealing brakes and been in for service twice without resolution. I personally have had to be returned to my hospital of origin to have some QC problems dealt with!!! It's disappointing but that's how it goes, even Leica M9's have issues, and I'm sure Hassies have had their problems too.

[Rupert]

Otis will keep an eye on this ........Squirrels....I mean Pentaxians...they are a different breed. Adversity comes with the territory. Not everyone can handle it, but fortunately, most never have too.
Regards!

Right Otis?
[IMG] [/IMG]

[imtheguy]

Otis will keep an eye on this ........Squirrels....I mean Pentaxians...they are a different breed. Adversity comes with the territory. Not everyone can handle it, but fortunately, most never have too.
Regards!

Right Otis?
[/url] [/IMG]

Is that Otis' "power" photo for his company brocure? Looks very professionally done.

But back to our table pounding issues....On my 3rd K-5 body at the moment and after the latest fw ALL of the lockups went away and I tested hard with the grip/weak battery/burst modes that could lock it up every time. Of course the lens button popped off last week...argggh!

But the REAL problem is the k20d that has never had the first issue in almost 100k shots. I AM SPOILED. Maybe we all are (other than SDM) after years of obedient cameras.

[Rupert]

Is that Otis' "power" photo for his company brocure? Looks very professionally done.

But back to our table pounding issues....On my 3rd K-5 body at the moment and after the latest fw ALL of the lockups went away and I tested hard with the grip/weak battery/burst modes that could lock it up every time. Of course the lens button popped off last week...argggh!

But the REAL problem is the k20d that has never had the first issue in almost 100k shots. I AM SPOILED. Maybe we all are (other than SDM) after years of obedient cameras.

You know, I have been, and am, a strong supporter of the K5. Mine has been perfect and an answer to most all my desires in a DSLR. Fun to use, and capable of most anything I desire to shoot. But......I am not blind and the problems I see, no matter what small overall percentage they may be, are far greater than any with the K20D. What a fine camera my K20D has been, not a single problem or defect and as dependable as any electronic device could ever be. This just can't reasonably be said for the K5, can it? Things should not "fall off" of your camera, that is elementary.

Ricoh will have to do much better, and I think they will. They have goals, hopes and dreams, Hoya had none with Pentax cameras. They rushed the K5, and then dumped Pentax with a truckload of problems that should have never been. We can't ignore the facts, but the K5 is still a magnificent camera.....if you have one that is trouble free.
Regards!

[psychdoc]

Look, the damn thing froze, and the only way out was to remove the battery.

QC on the K5 seems pretty iffy to me.

Freezing on the K5 has been present on my first and second [replacement for stained sensor] k5 cameras. The second one did not freeze as regularly. But it was very frustrating to take out the battery in the middle of a sports shoot. Reminded me of my old Windows 95 computer...My old K2000 has never ever frozen. I still use it, but it is no good for low light and sports shooting.

In any case, my K5 is still at CRIS camera repair because it developed a second type of freezing that did not respond to pulling the battery and putting it back in. Nothing would happen when the shutter button was pressed. Someone suggested to hit the camera hard and that it would wake up. That worked once but I did not want to try that again when it happened the second time. The second time it stayed dead for a day and then woke up without anything being done. The third time I had to send it in. I will be out of a camera for a month at least

I guess there are people who have had no problems with their K5. If yours has had a freeze. Return it. Try another one. And get an extended warranty.

[henriqueperon]

QC on the K5 seems pretty iffy to me.

Freezing on the K5 has been present on my first and second [replacement for stained sensor] k5 cameras. The second one did not freeze as regularly. But it was very frustrating to take out the battery in the middle of a sports shoot. Reminded me of my old Windows 95 computer...My old K2000 has never ever frozen. I still use it, but it is no good for low light and sports shooting.

In any case, my K5 is still at CRIS camera repair because it developed a second type of freezing that did not respond to pulling the battery and putting it back in. Nothing would happen when the shutter button was pressed. Someone suggested to hit the camera hard and that it would wake up. That worked once but I did not want to try that again when it happened the second time. The second time it stayed dead for a day and then woke up without anything being done. The third time I had to send it in. I will be out of a camera for a month at least

I guess there are people who have had no problems with their K5. If yours has had a freeze. Return it. Try another one. And get an extended warranty.

I Live in Brazil, same problem have to hit to came back to work, and still new, just 30K shots, now im trouble to get back my camera from waranty, have to pay U$ 800 in tax.
Better to buy a new one.

[interested_observer]

I have been designing software and systems now for nearly 40 years. A lot of has been for embedded systems. In some ways it does not surprise me that live view was involved as that mode I would guess is the least used mode, and probably is the least instrumented in the EXIF meta data associated with the images. Essentially. in order to capture the data you need to take the picture, so the event needs to be occurring in order to record data about it.

These new cameras are more computer and less camera each generation. The software in these cameras, and there are multiple logic devices residing inside - processors, ASICS, FPGAs, etc. probably represents around at least a million or so lines of source code. Its also real time software which is even more difficult to design, and implement. This is also lot of code to integrate, even if its being reused from previous bodies, there are always complexities (and real time irregularities) that are not foreseen. So these events really do not surprise me. After all is just an optical, electro-mechanical, real time, magnetic suspended, battery powered, hand held portable consumer device.

It is impossible for any company to test each path through their "system" at consumer prices, unless the code is really quite small - or human life is at stake - aka FAA certification. To do an exhaustive "formal methods" testing to an EAL7 level on even a small software base, takes the better part of a year and starts at $10+ million and goes up very rapidly - and the FAA has not gone down that path - yet. And the K5 software base is substantially larger that a "small software base", by several orders of magnitude.

Do a search of any of the other cameras that you are considering and you will find problems also. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

• nikon d7000 problems - Google Search
• canon 60d problems - Google Search

Its unfortunate that Pentax has had problems with the K5 - the stains, the flops, and the tungsten lighting auto focusing. I do think that perhaps better QC/beta testing might have caught some of these, and it would always be nice for the company to acknowledge them. But it is what it is - and the market is very competitive.

I use my K20 mainly in the evening with ambient low light, that just exacerbates the noise even at low ISO, so the K5 would be a very good step up for me, especially in the dynamic range department. The price is also coming into my range of pain tolerance. Do these problems concern me - of course. What am I going to do - I have too much glass to go somewhere else, and I know that I'll just find yet another set of problems, and I am not one to jump across brands. There is an old saying - better the devil you know than the one you don't. I have not purchased any SDM lenses, my tripod and head, with the old screw driven glass does very nicely at f5.6 to f8 even in the "dark". And I have just changed mounts on a couple extremely nice 25 year old f2.8 manual Zeiss lenses. I also like Pentax's ergonomics. Not changing....

So no matter what you do or whose camera equipment you wind up with, there are going to be problems - especially with complex systems that consist of consumer electronics that are purchased at an affordable price.

A $20 2 year extended warranty will keep Pentax on the hook to fix and repair the problems. Unfortunately, you are out the use of the camera. My K20 had the guts changed out - and that took 3 weeks for parts to arrive.

I am not making excuses at all for Pentax. We all want the latest and greatest, at the absolute lowest prices, with superb customer service, right this instant - with out any errors.

I'll probably be in the same position as you later this year. Do I know what to do. I haven't figured that out as of yet....

I figure that in a few months after getting a K5 and having problems - someone will be spoon feeding this back to me - word by word. Hopefully not - knock on wood...

[rawr]

Tony3d, why do you post duplicate threads here and at dpreview, and probably elsewhere, for every minor issue? You need to chill out. No need to be so anxious about everything.

I shudder to think how you relate to other technology in your life, like your car or PC.

[lmd91343]

I had the freeze issue too on my brand new K5. It happened immediately after the initial 6 hour charge and about 20 shots. I was running firmware 1.01. I had to remove the battery, then replace it.

I've upgraded to version 1.11 firmware and taken 250 more shots without a problem.

I've probably written more than 2 million lines of code much accessing hardware at low level directly. A modern DSLR must be a nightmare at times to design, build, and test. Maybe my experience makes me too accepting of the little glitches like a fresh battery freezing the system on an early version of the firmware.

-Lance

[adr1an]

and still new, just 30K shots,

Just an observation - but nearly a 1/3rd of the way into its rated shutter life is not really 'still new'.... 1/10th (i.e, 10k) someone could argue its 'still new' - but 30k shots - thats really getting into the 'well run in and approaching its half-life...'

Other than that - pretty much what Interested Observer said...

[StepOne]

Enjoy your Nikon.
Boris is right, you will never be happy with your Pentax. You will always be trying to find problems with it, and will probably break it in the process.

Heh, this is a sample of Mastercard moment: fanboy priceless advice! If the thing does not work, it's because your negative thinking, or most likely because you had the nerve to switch it on! You should build a shrine and pray in front of it every day! It's a darn tool, you pay the price and expect it to work! I find the fault with lack of communication between Pentax and retailers. If you fix something by firmware why not sent a note to resellers so they can update in front of the customer? Why does the customer had to go home, have some problems, spend few hours on the internet to find out that they need to update firmware? For me at least, i enjoy my K-x, but soon is my intention to enjoy a Nikon also.

[adr1an]

Why does the customer had to go home, have some problems, spend few hours on the internet to find out that they need to update firmware?

Because thats the point of firmware updates loadable by a customer.... and the onus is on the customer - not the dealer....
And its also how every other 'firmware' based device I've ever owned has pretty much worked... Dealers don't advise when a new firmware is out - The Manufacturer does...

As for the assumption that Staff at the store would know what Firmware was, let alone what issues it addressed, regardless of if Pentax Had or Had Not sent an Advisory - then I'd love to shop where you do because I'm yet to find that retail experience.... for any product.... 'round here, 99% of "Floor Staff" are there to collect your cash and upsell a warranty... Product Advice, well.. Thats what the internet is for isn't it ?

The statement Wheatfield made is very specific to the OP - its about the 300th thread on K-5 panic merchanting across about 5 sites ... 295 of them before he'd even bought the camera....
It certainly wasn't 'priceless fanboy advice' - it was practical advice directed specifically at the OP...

[Rondec]

Heh, this is a sample of Mastercard moment: fanboy priceless advice! If the thing does not work, it's because your negative thinking, or most likely because you had the nerve to switch it on! You should build a shrine and pray in front of it every day! It's a darn tool, you pay the price and expect it to work! I find the fault with lack of communication between Pentax and retailers. If you fix something by firmware why not sent a note to resellers so they can update in front of the customer? Why does the customer had to go home, have some problems, spend few hours on the internet to find out that they need to update firmware? For me at least, i enjoy my K-x, but soon is my intention to enjoy a Nikon also.

Nothing fan boy about it. The OP posted multiple threads prior to buying a K5 expecting trouble and then the first hiccup his camera had, before even updating the firmware, he posts a thread saying Pentax QC sucks. Of course, Pentax QC should be better, but I think this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those who look for trouble often find it. Those who don't often live happier existences, even if they experience the same type of circumstances. Life is good, anyway you slice it, even when you are dealing with electronics.