[ASheffield]

It sure is hard to wait though.

Especially when you're taking pictures for the Sheriff's Office. I've been using my X-5 since.

[Pande]

I had a fire i my house, and there was flames, smoke and a lot of water. As you see i have a K200D, MX and K30. I also have some lenses who where packed down with the MX. I cleaned the cameras/lenses, and took them to my Pentax dealer (JapanPhoto, Kristiansand Norway) for a check. They worked very well. The only thing that was negative, was the smell of smoke, most on the plastic parts. I got some stuff from a firerescue company, who clean the smell, so things went out very well! I think the weather sealing helped to rescue the K30/K200D, and it shows the quality of the sealing (and Pentax brand!!!)
Hope yours will work.

[amoringello]

Pentax probably won't cover the repair if the damage was caused by water under high pressure, though I'd still recommend sending it in to them to see what they say. Hopefully it's not a big repair!

FYI, Pentax won't cover water damage done by any form of moisture.
Even if the weather seals were faulty, if they "feel" the damage was excessive (which it would be when the weather seals are faulty), they will not cover water damage. Their claims are a sham are damned near fraudulent. (but read your warranty... something to the effect; ...against mist and mild rain.
Well no camera made, weather resistant or not, is going to be damaged under those conditions.)
Pentax will go so far as to refuse to acknowledge that their own people advertise the camera by pouring water on or splashing it with water. Even after showing them the videos and magazine ads, they simply become very silent.

[JohnnyXD]

FYI, Pentax won't cover water damage done by any form of moisture.
Even if the weather seals were faulty, if they "feel" the damage was excessive (which it would be when the weather seals are faulty), they will not cover water damage. Their claims are a sham are damned near fraudulent. (but read your warranty... something to the effect; ...against mist and mild rain.
Well no camera made, weather resistant or not, is going to be damaged under those conditions.)
Pentax will go so far as to refuse to acknowledge that their own people advertise the camera by pouring water on or splashing it with water. Even after showing them the videos and magazine ads, they simply become very silent.

But no company will cover that, if they did, they would sell the camera for $2000 at least to cover this. If the camera is weather sealed there is no way to know if it was caused due to a faulty Weather Sealing system or simply because it was not a WR lens on the camera or simply because it fell in the toilet.

But, pentax does inform about this in the warranty documents.

[amoringello]

Sorry should have been more clear... K5 with 16-50 DA* weather sealed lens.
Regardless, they do not take responsibility to warranty their product as advertised and to not take responsibility for the service centers that ruin your product.

Pentax says the weather seals on both camera and lens were just fine (backing the service center), but if the camera was working properly there is no way in Hell that any damaging amount of water could have got in from the conditions it was subjected to on the day in question. (been in some heavy, heavy rains over the past years without trouble.)

The bigger question becomes; if the weather seals were fine, how did that much water get in from a light-moderate rain? In this case there was not forceful water, no severe winds, no torrential downpour.

Someone, either service center or Pentax, is lying. In the end it doesn't matter, I still had to pay for a repair that would not have been necessary if everything was working as it had been in the prior months.

The point being you cannot trust Pentax's advertising whether you have a completely WR system or not.

Or at least, the moral of the story might be; if you need to service your Pentax camera -- if only for annual cleaning, DO NOT DO IT. Just buy a new camera because it may come back faulty and Pentax will simply tell you to Suck-It.

An interesting piece, this. And I tend to agree that most big companies can be cynical at times. Pentax, I must point out, are nowhere as bad as many other camera manufacturers, whose names I shall not mention.

Regarding the weather sealing: it is not just a gimmick. In Europe at least, there are definite criteria that must be met before a manufacturer can classify a given product as weather-sealed. Pentax K30/50's weather-sealing is classified as IPX2: "Vertically dripping water shall have no harmful effect when the enclosure is tilted at an angle up to 15° from its normal position [test-duration: 10 minutes]."

Now, if your camera were to be damaged by water, you are the one who will have to prove that the pressure and quantity of water to which your camera was subjected were not in excess of what is outlined in IPX2. Your skills of persuasion will be of consequence in this regard. A friend of mine worked as a customer service representative for a major camera manufacturer, and they were instructed to argue their case in such way that the customer came to realise that he himself was responsible for any malfunctions to the product. So, think long and hard about what you say and how you say it.

Regarding sending your camera to service, I fully agree. It's a bit like going to the dentist for a check-up. Once you are done, your teeth hurt like never before. I am almost certain that these goons poke some additional holes in your teeth on purpose.

Sorry should have been more clear... K5 with 16-50 DA* weather sealed lens.
Regardless, they do not take responsibility to warranty their product as advertised and to not take responsibility for the service centers that ruin your product.

Pentax says the weather seals on both camera and lens were just fine (backing the service center), but if the camera was working properly there is no way in Hell that any damaging amount of water could have got in from the conditions it was subjected to on the day in question. (been in some heavy, heavy rains over the past years without trouble.)

The bigger question becomes; if the weather seals were fine, how did that much water get in from a light-moderate rain? In this case there was not forceful water, no severe winds, no torrential downpour.

Someone, either service center or Pentax, is lying. In the end it doesn't matter, I still had to pay for a repair that would not have been necessary if everything was working as it had been in the prior months.

The point being you cannot trust Pentax's advertising whether you have a completely WR system or not.

Or at least, the moral of the story might be; if you need to service your Pentax camera -- if only for annual cleaning, DO NOT DO IT. Just buy a new camera because it may come back faulty and Pentax will simply tell you to Suck-It.

[formercanuck]

I had my K-x out in the rain (Alaska cruise) the lens (Sigma 18-200) fogged up, as did the LCD, viewfinder, etc.
The fog cleared out of the lens/view finder in relatively short time (couple of hours), however, it took more like a week to dry out the LCD.