[audiobomber]

Just had my first occurrence of this today. Shooting indoors, Live View, TAV with both a Pentax and non-OEM battery. Batter indicators showed full charge. Screen went black during live view. Only removing the battery fixed it. When I put the battery back one showed full charge the other had "one bar" remaining. Just installed firmware 1.02. Don't recall having the problem with the K-5. This NOT a nice feature! I did get my K3 as a pre-order so I guess that would make it one of the earliest. Like others I am unable to reproduce this at will.

That seems a different issue than I had, where the mirror was cycling at super speed and wouldn't stop. According to the Pentax tech I spoke with, both issues are likely due to the camera's CPU. He said that when weird things happen, the camera freezes or acts up, treat it like a computer and reboot the CPU (pull the battery for 20 seconds).

If his simple solution works and I had thought to try it on the day my K-3 went wacky, I would have been able to keep shooting instead of carrying a useless camera for the rest of the day. I don't have much confidence in this solution though, because I did pull the battery the first time it happened, and it went right back to mirror flopping when I put it back. Next time I'll change to battery.

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Last edited by audiobomber; 02-08-2014 at 06:23 AM.

[RickC]

I believe the difference was that I was in Live View. It still did that "machine gun" thing as previously mentioned. All controls froze up. Turning camera off did not stop it. Only removing the battery. Wouldn't the mirror being up result in the Live View going black?

[mille19]

I've updated to firmware 1.02 and just had my first 'machine gun' experience.
It's a bit un-nerving when it happens, I just turned the camera off and then back on and all seems OK, there was 1 image on the memory card that showed an error.

[audiobomber]

I believe the difference was that I was in Live View. It still did that "machine gun" thing as previously mentioned. All controls froze up. Turning camera off did not stop it. Only removing the battery. Wouldn't the mirror being up result in the Live View going black?

Sorry, I misunderstood your symptoms. Mine went into machine gun mode in Hi-Continuous when it happened, did the same in single shot and movie mode. I didn't notice what Live View was doing.

I've updated to firmware 1.02 and just had my first 'machine gun' experience.
It's a bit un-nerving when it happens, I just turned the camera off and then back on and all seems OK, there was 1 image on the memory card that showed an error.

Too bad, now we know 1.02 is not the fix.

[DRabbit]

I can confirm 1.02 didn't fix it. I'm having the same problem, but it's happening to me A LOT when I'm shooting time-lapse. You can see my thread about it here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/250865-k3-locking-up-while...ime-lapse.html

I updated to firmware 1.02 two days ago, and yesterday had the same machine-gun lockup again, with the new firmware... Not to mention, the camera also decided to make the SD card I previously had no problems with completely unreadable. Fun.

Pentax has actually been working with me on the issue, so hopefully I've provided them some feedback that's useful, and will continue to...

[PALADIN85020]

I can confirm 1.02 didn't fix it. I'm having the same problem, but it's happening to me A LOT when I'm shooting time-lapse. You can see my thread about it here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/250865-k3-locking-up-while...ime-lapse.html

I updated to firmware 1.02 two days ago, and yesterday had the same machine-gun lockup again, with the new firmware... Not to mention, the camera also decided to make the SD card I previously had no problems with completely unreadable. Fun.

Pentax has actually been working with me on the issue, so hopefully I've provided them some feedback that's useful, and will continue to...

It's hard for me to believe that Pentax is just now becoming aware of the mirror flutter problem. It's been posted on this forum for some time, and I think Pentax/Ricoh would be remiss if they didn't check here for problems frequently. I've had the flutter problem just once, a couple of months ago after I first got the K-3; turning the camera off cured it; the mirror was locked up; turning the camera on again released the mirror and no further problems to date. I probably take about 20 shots a week. Let's hope firmware version 1.03 will finally address this nagging issue!!!

John

[Erd§]

It's hard for me to believe that Pentax is just now becoming aware of the mirror flutter problem.

I, too, have had this issue. Ricoh may well have been aware of anecdotal evidence of this problem for some time, but there's every possibility that they've been unable to replicate it until recently.
I got my K-3 in mid December, and after taking my first 10 or so photos with it, it then machine-gunned on me...freaked me right out since I never heard about the mirror flop problem with the k-5. Turning the power off did nothing, but strangely, it stopped when I hit the menu button. I have since updated to firmware 1.01 and 1.02 as each were released, but have not had the issue since. So, at this stage, for me, it was a one-off incident. I've probably taken about 5000 shots with my K-3.

[DRabbit]

It's hard for me to believe that Pentax is just now becoming aware of the mirror flutter problem. It's been posted on this forum for some time, and I think Pentax/Ricoh would be remiss if they didn't check here for problems frequently. I've had the flutter problem just once, a couple of months ago after I first got the K-3; turning the camera off cured it; the mirror was locked up; turning the camera on again released the mirror and no further problems to date. I probably take about 20 shots a week. Let's hope firmware version 1.03 will finally address this nagging issue!!!

John

They may well be aware of it, but have no idea what's causing it. The tech I have been in contact with at Pentax has told me repeatedly he cannot replicate the issue. I'm kinda wondering if he's tried hard enough. LOL. I am hoping that since they authorized me to exchange my first body with a new one, they've requested the local retailer send the original body back to them, because I promise he'll be able to replicate it then.

I've updated my original thread with this info, but I'll restate it here. I did get the new K3 body on Saturday, and yesterday (Monday) had runaway-mirror-lockup with it. So it absolutely confirmed that my first body wasn't suffering some sort of extreme anomalous version of this problem. First shoot with the new body and the problem happened. Frustrating to say the least.

[PALADIN85020]

They may well be aware of it, but have no idea what's causing it. The tech I have been in contact with at Pentax has told me repeatedly he cannot replicate the issue. I'm kinda wondering if he's tried hard enough. LOL. I am hoping that since they authorized me to exchange my first body with a new one, they've requested the local retailer send the original body back to them, because I promise he'll be able to replicate it then.

I've updated my original thread with this info, but I'll restate it here. I did get the new K3 body on Saturday, and yesterday (Monday) had runaway-mirror-lockup with it. So it absolutely confirmed that my first body wasn't suffering some sort of extreme anomalous version of this problem. First shoot with the new body and the problem happened. Frustrating to say the least.

Looks like what we have here is is a GENERIC problem with the K-3. It's not earth-shattering, but damn annoying and can happen at the worst possible moment, spoiling what could be an irreplaceable photograph. This DEMANDS that Pentax/Ricoh acknowledge the problem and DO something about it. I don't know what it will take to do these two things, but we Pentaxians who have paid hard-earned money for a "top of the line" Pentax camera deserve better!

John

[audiobomber]

Hopefully others will report a problem. According to the Ricoh Canada tech that worked on mine, Pentax Japan is not aware of the issue.

[Chris Mak]

Hopefully others will report a problem. According to the Ricoh Canada tech that worked on mine, Pentax Japan is not aware of the issue.

I have not had this issue with either the K5, K5IIs or the K3 myself, but what I cannot grasp, is that Pentax japan could possibly be unaware of this problem, when it is an issue that was widely posted about on the fora when quite a few K5 owners experienced mirror flopping. How can it be that this issue is still around years later? I do not recall ever hearing about it with Canon or Nikon Dslr bodies?

Chris

[DRabbit]

I have not had this issue with either the K5, K5IIs or the K3 myself, but what I cannot grasp, is that Pentax japan could possibly be unaware of this problem, when it is an issue that was widely posted about on the fora when quite a few K5 owners experienced mirror flopping. How can it be that this issue is still around years later? I do not recall ever hearing about it with Canon or Nikon Dslr bodies?

Chris

The funny thing is, I never had it happen with my K5, but I never shot a lot of time-lapse with it, and I wasn't shooting professionally then, so it honestly didn't get heavy use. In the last few months, using the K5-II side-by-side with the K3, it has not had the issue at all. Since I've come to rely more on the K5-II because of the unreliability of the K3, I've probably shot MORE time-lapse with it, and have not had one problem at all.

[derekkite]

It seems to be profoundly intermittent. I'm sure they are aware of it in Japan, just not certain of the cause or fix. It happened once with mine, a couple months ago and not since. If there is a use case that produces the problem reliably it may help them determine the problem and fix.

[Essdubbya]

Well we all seem to be perplexed including Ricoh/ Pentax from all accounts.
How do we get their attention?
Perhaps our esteemed moderator can suggest a way.
Poll? Suggestions? Bueller?

[audiobomber]

I mentioned threads discussing this problem in the Forums to the tech who was working on my camera. He said not to pay attention to forums because the information is unreliable.