Originally posted by yucatanPentax Some time ago, PF did a survey and an analysis to determine how many / what percentage were actually failing.
.... Those with a failure are much more likely to publicly post.
I don't think so but actually the opposite:
There have been a few people who registered to this forum because they had the "dark picture syndrome" (ABF)
but most who posted were already members
I believe that most normal users just think their camera is dead, warranty is gone and then they either chuck it or sell it broken.
My observation with over 120 repairs by now is that about 25% of them had been repaired on warranty but during early days got the same earliest China-Solenoid built in, some the 2-nd generation with a smaller magnet.
This view is approved by many members of the German Pentaxians forum: Quite a few had their Pentax (mainly K30/50) repaired and after the 1 yr. warranty failed again.
Originally posted by yucatanPentax Those without a failure are very likely shooting photos obliviously, enjoying their cameras and not posting either way.
For those not registered in a forum (vast majority) I'd say yes, but not so for those here in this forum or other forums:
At the beginning when ABF showed up more often there was almost a stampede by some doing everything to play down the fault!
I remember very well.
One thread was
THIS ONE
One member even asked a Pentax expert:
Originally posted by psoo Today (10/26/18) I returned from the Photoplus International Conference in Manhattan. I asked two of them what Pentax was doing to address the "aperture block" problem for the K50 camera. I was astounded when they said that they had never heard of it. After I described the symptoms, which consist of major underexposures of photos due to a malfunctioning electromagnet, I was met with blank stares.
I was told to return when the technical expert would be back. When I finally met him and asked about the problem he said he knew of it but that it was a very rare. I'm not sure if he really knew about it or not. Maybe he was just trying to slough me off because he didn't discuss it from a technical standpoint.
I responded that if this rep was
really an expert, he didn't tell the truth!
Because in 2018 the problem was very well know, in Germany for example "it hailed K30's and K50's" to be repaired, same in Switzerland and France. I have a personal mail from
"THE" Paris Pentax/Ricoh Representative who acknowledged the problem!
In 2016 a member of the German Pentaxians forum started a similar survey. In 2018 the result was:
62% of K30 users had failed solenoids
43% of K50 users had failed solenoids
And just a little bit later on it was even worse (end of 2018, after that until 2022 only 5 members more actually voted)
Final result:
219 K-30 owning Pentaxian-forum-members (hardly any new registered!) voted:
150 of them had ABF, that means 68%
151 K-50 owning Pentaxian-forum-members (again most long-time members) voted:
77 had ABF = 51%
All this became better but actually 60% of my repairs in the past 2 years were K-S1's (and quite a few K-S2's),
but very important: 99% of them manufactured before Dec.2022, so with the earlies China-Solenoid.
I also observed offers on ebay and a German only market for 2-nd hand:
About 80% of all damaged K30/50/500/K-S1/K-S2 offered were described with "suddenly my Pentax produces just dark (or black) photos".
Their owners didn't know about ABF but had it of of course!
The other about 20% did
"guess that it would be ABF" and mentioned that one can google about the problem.
It were a lot offered there and at a time there was a run to buy these cheap, repair them (often by just filing or insert the wrong SLR solenoid, some later arrived on my workbench because they failed again) and offer them on ebay with the notion: ABF repaired.
To me it was particular interesting that so many K-S1's failed (but never turned up in any valuable survey).
Because I like the K-S1, it is a really little handy camera and with the DA50 light and cheap enough.
Many students I know bought those as well and repaired them because I gave them a few times lessons how to do it.
Originally posted by yucatanPentax I think the "best guess" that came out of the K30, K50, KS1, etc reporting and analysis was that maybe about 25% had the failure. My memory may fail me here, so I welcome correction by the powers that be.
I think
"Pre-December 2015 Solenoid-driven Pentax DSLRs" (first generation China-solenoid) we have more than 50% failure!
I am quite certain about this but I can't prove it of course. There are no official numbers.
But I know from one of the best German shops who love and stand by Pentax that "it really hailed K30's and K50's" for repair during the German 2 years warranty-period and later on as well! Particular the K30 which was a hit, it sold like hot-cakes.
They couldn't believe it and they publicly said so in the German Pentaxians forum!