[rolls]

First post. Been lurking for a while.

I have had the K3 since late December. I haven't had any of the known issues show up so far. I have firmware 1.02, DGB-4 (off my old K5). Two of my three batteries are non-genuine. No flappy mirror (yet?).

Even though I have used it nearly every day I *only* have 1500 shots on the counter, and that's with a wedding in there too. I still think I'm using a 6X7, and only have 10 shots to last for the day. I haven't used it yet for time lapse, and that's what really sent the count up on the K5.

I have been in the industry for over twenty years and have had all sorts of different camera systems, but this is my favorite camera yet. Hands down. Even my longest owned and most loved (2nd most loved now) camera, my Pentax 6X7, doesn't hold a candle to the K3 for versatility or image quality, especially with large print sizes (20"x30"+). Never dreamed I would say that.

The K3 is a knockout.

Rolls.

[PALADIN85020]

Just guessing here, but I think that Pentax is probably not too keen on posting specific problems solved by firmware upgrades. Their "stability" fixes might well include something we mere consumers might consider major, but Pentax may choose not to acknowledge such a problem as the mirror flutter on the grounds that if the problem were more widely known, it would hurt sales. That's fine with me AS LONG AS THEY FIX IT. I'm hoping, but I'm also awaiting with baited breath the first instance to be reported of mirror flutter with firmware v. 1.03. If that happens, well, there's always version 1.04...right?

John
For whom hope springs eternal

[derekkite]

That is interesting. It would be nice to know what proportion of K-3 users on this forum have not seen the fault, but that might be difficult to determine reliably.
I thought that one possibility was that the fault was fairly random and did not depend much on how the camera was used at the time. 26000 shots without a fault would make that unlikely though and points either to a particular set of conditions triggering the fault, or to a hardware problem.

I have two bodies, one did it once and never repeated.

[A.Yzerr]

I had an interesting experience today.

I have not run into the whole shutter lock/runaway mirror thing since I've updated the firmware to 1.03. However, today while I was taking some pictures, at one point, the camera became completely unresponsive. I couldn't fire the shutter, activate the LCD screen, or even turn the camera off using conventional means. The only thing I could do (after about 8 minutes of tinkering around) was pull the battery.

It struck me as somewhat odd in both occurence and situation. No second SD card, no grip, no flash, no live view. Battery was not low at all (I'd approximate about 95% charge).

I'm becoming somewhat unnerved with the amount of issues I've been running into.

[MarkJerling]

I had an interesting experience today.

I have not run into the whole shutter lock/runaway mirror thing since I've updated the firmware to 1.03. However, today while I was taking some pictures, at one point, the camera became completely unresponsive. I couldn't fire the shutter, activate the LCD screen, or even turn the camera off using conventional means. The only thing I could do (after about 8 minutes of tinkering around) was pull the battery.

It struck me as somewhat odd in both occurrence and situation. No second SD card, no grip, no flash, no live view. Battery was not low at all (I'd approximate about 95% charge).

I'm becoming somewhat unnerved with the amount of issues I've been running into.

I had the same thing a few times with my K-5. I narrowed it down to zooming while pushing done the shutter button, using my Sigma 70-300mm, not any other lens. But, firmware update actually fixed that, so it does not happen any more.

[A.Yzerr]

I had the same thing a few times with my K-5. I narrowed it down to zooming while pushing done the shutter button, using my Sigma 70-300mm, not any other lens. But, firmware update actually fixed that, so it does not happen any more.

That is interesting

Unfortunately I was using a 50 f1.8 all day. I was shooting in AF.C, I wonder if there's something bizarre with that.

[Rite]

I have two bodies, one did it once and never repeated.

------------------------------------------------

Of your TWO K-3 bodies, are the serial numbers from the same batch series (e.g., were both cameras built in the same week or month)?

Tnx,

Rite ..

[derekkite]

------------------------------------------------

Of your TWO K-3 bodies, are the serial numbers from the same batch series (e.g., were both cameras built in the same week or month)?

Tnx,

Rite ..

4842192 is fine
4830387 did it once. It was one of the first ones shipped from Canada.

[MarkJerling]

That is interesting

Unfortunately I was using a 50 f1.8 all day. I was shooting in AF.C, I wonder if there's something bizarre with that.

Yes, strange - It's never happened with another lens, and only when I've had it on the 7fps setting.

[Rite]

4842192 is fine
4830387 did it once. It was one of the first ones shipped from Canada.

-------------------------------------------

OK, this one came out of the box last week: 4851755274XXX shipped with firmware 1.0. This appears to be a fresh build within the past sixty days or so?

It went in 'flutter panic' once while using 'AA' batteries in the battery grip FRESH out of the box, within the first ten minutes of use. Also, the focus wasn't quite as detailed using the same lenses on other Pentax cameras.

Still testing, but 1.03 APPEARS to have corrected both of these. The burst rate while shooting in SV is brilliant, and is producing sharp results with multiple lenses. I am a bit disappointed in the sharpness of the K-3 using the Pentax 100m WR macro lens on this body. That specific lens may need to be further tweaked in the focus feature in settings.

So far, so good on the 1.03 update.

Rite ..

[danny09]

So has it fixed the mirror flop and 'can not power on issue'?

[gaweidert]

So has it fixed the mirror flop and 'can not power on issue'?

Sample size of 1 not a strong statement either way. It doesn't mean it didn't fix it. Just means too early to make a definitive statement. Pentax probably knows, but they, and most other companies, would never release test data.

[deaning]

I have not had the machine gun happen to me at all, think I am over 2000 shots now including a couple of test timelapses. 4860619

[danny09]

Neither have I run into the machine gunning or Mirror Overrun issue in the 1700 frames that I captured. The only time I was running low on battery power, K3 complained "Battery Power Depleted" message and turned off

[downunderman]

I did not have any problem with my K3 before loading the update 1.03 now have problems with lock up, unable to access the menu, at times no video, unable to power up. I now wish that I had not installed the upgrade, might have to use K3 as a Paper weight. I am a very disappointed Pentax user, I have owned a IST DS, K10D,K20D and now the K3 and am disappointed with the K3 since the up grade 1.03.