Originally posted by revdr My K3 worked just fine until I really wanted it to work. I was checking all my photo equipment prior to a trip to Yellowstone NP. Batteries were fully charged in both the grip and body. Camera would not turn on like those of you above. Wrote Pentax and was told to send it to Arizona Warranty facility. Will send it in next week. Has anyone found a solution to the problem?
Sorry to hear of another person with this issue. I wish I had sent mine in earlier. While I'm still not convinced it can't be solved with a work-around in firmware, if Pentax never hears about it from customers, and since their QC measures can't seem to sniff it out, nothing would ever be done by them to address this on their own so I'm glad to hear you sent it in for warranty repair.
I'm sure Pentax will stand behind their warranty. However, I'm not so sure they will 'fess up to an inherent design flaw, systemic production fault, or known common problem and issue a recall or warranty extension like you sometimes see with cars and motorcycles.
Obviously everyone who never uses the battery grip will never experience this even if their K-3 is affected. So it's therefore automatically not a common issue. Even if you had no intention of buying a grip, but had heard about this potential problem and wanted to test for it while still in the store, it's a bit of finicky thing to reproduce (2 batteries, 20 min wait, etc.) so many possibly faulty cameras will be out there that Pentax will never need to deal with. So don't hold your breath while waiting for a full disclosure from them.
I've never had to make a warranty claim with Pentax and I've got lots of their gear, including 3 SDM lenses. But I hope this experience turns out well. I've learned a lesson, too: if you discover a problem, don't wait around for a f/w solution! One may never come if everyone does this and Pentax doesn't learn of the problem and feel a need to address it with returns flooding in. Also, if I had done this within the 28-day return period, I would not have had to wait for the fix, either.
While I rarely fall victim to this, I also see the wisdom in waiting a while before buying something newly introduced. Sometimes it's better to wait a year and get it cheaper and thoroughly debugged. However, I waited too long to get a K-01 and then missed out on the discontinuation fire sale, too.
Anyways, my K-3 will come back eventually. Hopefully fixed. Ideally with a detailed explanation of what was wrong. As I said before, I will report back here.
Good luck with yours...