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07-27-2013, 12:47 PM   #1
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K5 light meter malfunctioning

For the second time in a year, my K5 has become only able to meter on automatic "M". Other settings end up overexposed. Last year i sent the thing to Pentax for repair, and now it happened again, which given that I don't see anything similar in these posts, may be some sort of %^&% camera defect.

Pentax 'repaired' this with a software reinstallation.Now I'm about to go on vacation and it is messed up again.. Can I do this installation myself? Is anyone out there familiar with this problem?

al

07-27-2013, 12:51 PM   #2
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Factory reset? Or firmware install?
07-27-2013, 01:41 PM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by allart Quote
For the second time in a year, my K5 has become only able to meter on automatic "M". Other settings end up overexposed. Last year i sent the thing to Pentax for repair, and now it happened again, which given that I don't see anything similar in these posts, may be some sort of %^&% camera defect.

Pentax 'repaired' this with a software reinstallation.Now I'm about to go on vacation and it is messed up again.. Can I do this installation myself? Is anyone out there familiar with this problem?

al
Have you tried other lenses?

Have you cleaned the contacts between the camera and the lens?

Take the camera off auto sensitivity.

If you photograph a particular scene in all exposure modes, what results and what are the exposure settings, aperture, sensitivity and shutter speed? Check the values shown in the viewfinder before taking the photo and in the photos data after taking the photo.

Check that exposure compensation is set to 0.

Post us some pictures.

Regards

Chris
07-27-2013, 04:49 PM   #4
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Sounds like you may have a camera menu setting wrong. Like exposure compensation or a custom image adjustment. Does the problem show up when shooting in Green mode?

it would be useful to post a picture with full EXIF, or a full dump of the EXIF output for a sample image from EXIFTool.

07-27-2013, 07:10 PM   #5
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Thank you everyone, for your replies,

Last year I described the problem to them and they told me to send it in. What bugs me is that its happened again. I do know that the things has always had a bad (a capacitor, I think it was) that has always prevented the camera from registering the proper year. The Pentax repair guy on the phone assured me that only the date would be affected by that defect. The lenses are all current digital Pentax, Inc. and the problem is not lens dependent. I recall the fix to be software only, not sure if firmware was replaced. I did install Vers. 1.14 with the defective camera, in the hopes of fixing the problem..

Automatic mode remains unaffected. AV, TV, images are severely overexposed, as if the thing was shooting in the dark. Manual still works (I recall it not to work last year) - crossing my fingers....

Example 1: decent exposure at F20, shot at F9 (shutter speed and ASA constant).
Second example is at F20, 1600 - meter opens for 5s. decent manual exposure is 0.3s

viewfinder settings before imaging are same as those taken in the image
cleaned the contacts
changed lenses
reset all menus to default
exposure comps are at '0'
...still bad

are EXIF data/ pictures still useful? There is likely something technically wrong here. Must have a freak camera. am wondering what could cause the metering to fly off the handle like that within the context of using proper Pentax equipment (nothing else). There must be something in this camera that is causing this defect to reappear.

al
07-27-2013, 07:35 PM - 1 Like   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by allart Quote
Automatic mode remains unaffected.
Which suggests it is a camera setting you may have changed. That's why a full EXIF dump of a problem image may be useful since they will show all the settings in detail for a problem image. That's what the EXIF is there for, and why the camera records hundreds of items of info in there. EXIF may not reveal everything that is the problem, but at least it is good hard data to investigate.
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