[dadipentak]

I think I may have had a brief episode yesterday--turned it off and back on and was able to proceed as if nothing had happened.

Serial Number: 4842361

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Last edited by dadipentak; 04-27-2014 at 02:41 PM.

[bass3587]

Add me to the list also. Happened yesterday at the Fort Worth air show. Shooting some shots and pow mirror went crazy and wouldn't stop. Had to take out the battery as powering off didn't do anything. Is it time to send it back?
Shooting jpeg
Continuous shooting mode: High
AV mode
AWB
No grip
Bought from B&H 12/2/2013
SN/4834201

[ric83]

Put me on the list, too. 2 times - normal use - nr 027075274198 - purchase the 30/10/2013
(I do not write English, translation google))

[DRabbit]

Ric83, Bass3587, Dadipentak and LimitedFan... sorry to hear you ran into the issue.

If you don't mind, could you edit your post to include the serial number of your camera? Would be great information for us to keep tracking...

Thanks!

[bkpix]

Here's an off-the-wall idea: You can't buy a new D-L190 battery (as used by the K-3, K-5 and K-7) anywhere. Even at the Pentax Webstore it's listed as "available for back order." Wonder if they're re-engineering the battery to solve the mirror flop problem? (Yeah, I know, a long shot.)

In any case, kudos to Amy for bringing this issue into focus and for not allowing the negative attitudes of some people to make her give up. One of the best parts of owning Pentax is the supportive atmosphere on the forums.

Bob

[DRabbit]

Here's an off-the-wall idea: You can't buy a new D-L190 battery (as used by the K-3, K-5 and K-7) anywhere. Even at the Pentax Webstore it's listed as "available for back order." Wonder if they're re-engineering the battery to solve the mirror flop problem? (Yeah, I know, a long shot.)

It certainly is possible, but of course, without knowing for sure we're all just left to guess... You'd hope (or would like to assume) that if they determined the battery was causing the problem they would stop telling people to send the camera in for repair and just send them a new battery. Time will tell, if Pentax itself doesn't.

I'm also not sure it answers why someone using the AC Adaptor could run into the problem...

In any case, kudos to Amy for bringing this issue into focus and for not allowing the negative attitudes of some people to make her give up. One of the best parts of owning Pentax is the supportive atmosphere on the forums.

Thanks Bob. I can't say I'm confident that Pentax will ever answer the issue in any official capacity unfortunately, but I do hope the crazy mirror-flapping issue will truly become an issue of the past that we'll stop hearing about, in the K3 and in the next K-whatever body.

[John4287]

what's causing it, and what makes it happen on the K3 vs. the K5-II/s?

There are two differences (major in my mind) between the K3 and the K5 series and these are: 1) the K3 uses two separate motors to operate the mirror and the shutter and 2) they added a damper to the mirror to reduce vibrations from the mirror going up. The K5 series uses only one motor and it is unclear to me if they had any type of damping on the mirror. Thus comparing the 2 cameras is apples and oranges. Using two separate motors I would think that a sensor of some sort is required to determine that the mirror is in it's fully up position before the shutter is allowed to operate. Otherwise you could be taking pictures with the mirror partially up. So with a low battery, the mirror motor might not have enough power to raise mirror (overcoming the additional effects of the damper as well), causing the mirror to return to the down position without triggering the shutter since the camera didn't sense the mirror fully up. Since the shutter wasn't triggered the camera could then cause the mirror to go up again, repeating the same scenario over and over. But other scenarios could be failure of sensor to detect fully up position or effects of continuous shooting causing the damping to increase beyond motor capability. I have yet to experience this issue but has anyone removed the lens to see what the mirror is actually doing? Is it going fully up and fully back down or is it oscillating somewhere in between the two positions?

[DRabbit]

There are two differences (major in my mind) between the K3 and the K5 series and these are: 1) the K3 uses two separate motors to operate the mirror and the shutter and 2) they added a damper to the mirror to reduce vibrations from the mirror going up. The K5 series uses only one motor and it is unclear to me if they had any type of damping on the mirror. Thus comparing the 2 cameras is apples and oranges. Using two separate motors I would think that a sensor of some sort is required to determine that the mirror is in it's fully up position before the shutter is allowed to operate. Otherwise you could be taking pictures with the mirror partially up. So with a low battery, the mirror motor might not have enough power to raise mirror (overcoming the additional effects of the damper as well), causing the mirror to return to the down position without triggering the shutter since the camera didn't sense the mirror fully up. Since the shutter wasn't triggered the camera could then cause the mirror to go up again, repeating the same scenario over and over. But other scenarios could be failure of sensor to detect fully up position or effects of continuous shooting causing the damping to increase beyond motor capability. I have yet to experience this issue but has anyone removed the lens to see what the mirror is actually doing? Is it going fully up and fully back down or is it oscillating somewhere in between the two positions?

That's a good question John. I never took the lens off to look at it. It sounded like it was going completely up and down, but that's only going by sound, which can be quite deceiving.

I will say that it was more common for me to run into the issue with a battery closer to fully charged than near the end of its life. I didn't keep a log, but over time I felt like I was running into the issue more often within 30-40 minutes after putting a new battery in the camera. I'm not arguing it's not a power issue, just that I don't think it's related to the battery being low. Of course, the guy that ran into the issue with the AC Adaptor seems to confirm that, but of course, he's only one guy.

I do wonder about the damper, and if it may sometimes just cause the mirror not to complete it's cycle successfully. Other K-cameras, most notable the original K5, seem to have had some variant of the crazy mirror-flapping though, so I don't know how the two might be related. Whats interesting is that the K5-II/s doesn't seem to suffer from it at all.

Good info and points of inquiry!

[lambros]

Took my K3 to my sons Intramural Soccer game. Experienced the crazy mirror lockup for the first time today since owing the camera.

K3 - Serial No - 4834219
Purchased - November 2014
Grip Attached but not turned on
Configured to use Grip first for battery use
Battery life: 2 bars left. (1 bar used)
Images Capture: Raw
Mode: P
Program Line: Sports
Lens: 18-135 WR
WB: Daylight
Half pressed shutter for focus and went crazy at high speed.
Stopped on it's own after 30 sec
Noticed the AF button on back started to become unresponsive after this . Would press it and nothing would happen. Would then half press shutter ...focused....released finger from shutter and tried AF button again ...and it would work. This happened several times before I turned the camera off and back on. AF button on back worked ok after that.

Prior to changing to the settings above, while shooting the game in TV with a shutter speed ranging between 1000 - 1250 sec , K3 worked fine.

Has anyone had a successful repair on this by Ricoh ?

-Lambros

[Edchristenson]

Ok, it happened for the second time to me today. Last time was about 2 months ago. Maybe a couple hundred shots. Serial 4842393 purchased BnH 1/27/14. Was using DA55-300 lens
AV f5.8 ISO100 manual focus, full battery, grip with full battery, 32 g cards one in each slot. Was pointing towards the sky-cloudy day. Had been using it on and off for about a half hour. It lasted less than 30 seconds. I turned the camera off after about 15 sec but didn't remove the grip, I wanted to see how long it would go. Ran fine before and after.

[WaveDancer]

Hmm..... a short circuit caused by condensation???

[PALADIN85020]

There are two differences (major in my mind) between the K3 and the K5 series and these are: 1) the K3 uses two separate motors to operate the mirror and the shutter and 2) they added a damper to the mirror to reduce vibrations from the mirror going up. The K5 series uses only one motor and it is unclear to me if they had any type of damping on the mirror. Thus comparing the 2 cameras is apples and oranges. Using two separate motors I would think that a sensor of some sort is required to determine that the mirror is in it's fully up position before the shutter is allowed to operate. Otherwise you could be taking pictures with the mirror partially up. So with a low battery, the mirror motor might not have enough power to raise mirror (overcoming the additional effects of the damper as well), causing the mirror to return to the down position without triggering the shutter since the camera didn't sense the mirror fully up. Since the shutter wasn't triggered the camera could then cause the mirror to go up again, repeating the same scenario over and over. But other scenarios could be failure of sensor to detect fully up position or effects of continuous shooting causing the damping to increase beyond motor capability. I have yet to experience this issue but has anyone removed the lens to see what the mirror is actually doing? Is it going fully up and fully back down or is it oscillating somewhere in between the two positions?

John, I didn't look through the viewfinder the second time this happened, but after the first incident, I did look through the viewfinder and saw NOTHING, indicating that the mirror was down, not up. Turning the K-3 on again returned things to normal, and I could see through the viewfinder again. I never let the battery deplete much; as soon as I see a less than full indicator, I swap out for a freshly charged battery.

John

[Leooel]

Firmware: 1.03, Serial: 4858423
Flucard + 32 Gb in the slots...
Happened once.

And if someone tells me how to find the number of photos taken, I will submit that info also.
Added:

Number of shots: 2100
Manufacture date: November 18 2013

[John4287]

It appears that there may be two different scenerios with the mirror flop which could indicate two different problems or possibly the same problem but different results. One, the mirror is returning to the down position enough to see light through the viewfinder (check the two different videos on the first couple of pages) and two, where nothing is seen through the viewfinder indicating that the mirror is not returning to the down position. So it might be helpful if those that experience the mirror flap would report what is seen through their viewfinder - do you see flashes of light or is it just dark.
John

[rodeknyt]

I know this is extremely unlikely, but I have now had it happen twice. On both occasions I was shooting jpegs. I have yet to have it happen shooting RAW (I normally shoot to just one card and shoot RAW). I assume this is purely coincidental as there doesn't seem to be any possible connection between file type and mirror flap. But to be sure has anyone had it happen shooting RAW only?

The two instances I reported a few posts up were both with the camera set to RAW (DNG) only. That's all I ever shoot.