[el baroda]

Everything that you buy can develop faults - electronic equipment particularly with firmware will fail at some stage either in terms of a firmware lockup issue or hard failure.

Those in the electronics industry will mention the bath tub curve i.e. more potential failures during the early weeks, then a long period of reliability &, as the equipment gets older, less reliable.

I guess the film cameras fared better in this regard (i.e., less or no electronic parts to fail). Thanks for your input.

[TER-OR]

Remember, there's a sampling bias on any forum. People with problems will share them, and those without won't.

Take advantage of their experience, and those in the other sampling bias- the "super-users."

I have noticed no calibration issues, and had just a couple lock-ups when the camera and battery were new. I have noticed it takes a few shots to accurately display battery levels on the meter, which I'm not at all surprised about.

I learn something new here almost every time I visit.

[el baroda]

I learn something new here almost every time I visit.

I do, too. Cheers.

[Bredoteau]

My first K5 in 2010 was $ 1,500. Spotted sensor, strong front-focus, external flash clip, pinched SD slot. I took back, replaced. Second K5: strong front focus, external flash clip, a lot of hot pixels. I took back, sensor replacement and adjusting. "Third" K5: front focus, external flash overdrive, dirty sensor with many fingerprints.. I took back: adjusting, cleaning. "Fourth" K5: front focus, flash clip, ..I gave up.

In room light conditions >F4 = frontfocus. F2, 8 = very visible, F2, F1, 4 = useless.And it is not enough to compensate for menu. I have 6 diffrent lens - 3 Pentax, 2 Tamron, 1 Sigma, not kit objectives. With kit lenses is not visible this problem.

The external flash unit 1 1/3 EV must be down controlled, but only wide angle. If I zoom in, the overexposition is decreases.
I mainly take photos indoors events, I can not use the K5. This $ 1500 machine is a disaster. Pentax K5 (and also Kr), are the Pentax nadir. I hope only up here* leading the way.

[jpzk]

Looks like you had a pretty bad stretch of K5 bodies ... now that you have decided that the K5 is a disaster, time to move on !

JP

[Riv]

I have had my K5 for 6 months now. One thing I can say is to "invest" $20 in a Pentax 2 year extended warranty bringing the overall time frame to 3 years.

• Pentax Two-Year Extended Warranty for the K5 and KR Digital

Wow... thanks for reminding me I totally forgot I had this on my K7, maybe I should send it in for the free check up before I sell it.

Getting my K5 in 3 days, I think I'll go buy this again once delivered.

-Glenn