[chuckp8]

Hey, has anyone noticed this happening on the K3 Silver edition?

[pinbalwyz]

Yes, me! It's pretty bad and happens more often than not on a day's shoot. (#2574437) A firmware fix wouldn't satisfy me. That's because the mirror mechanism has already torn up the baffles to the point of depositing debris on the sensor, affecting the IQ. Additionally, the unit does not write reliably to the SD memory card in slot #1. It's a class 10 Sandisk 32Gb card. They've been flawless and I own about a dozen or more of them.

What I'd really like is a new camera without the defects. I *NEVER* received one. It misbehaved almost immediately upon receiving it last December. But, because B&H "hadn't heard of it" (even now, so they say) it would have simply been returned to me as is if I'd sent it in within the 30-day retailers warranty. I feel Pentax/Ricoh owes me a NEW uncompromised K3. When I called customer service, the guy said he hadn't heard of the problem (I referenced this forum) and seemed indifferent to my feeling of having been ripped off. Furthermore, Pentax/Ricoh is STILL being sketchy by refusing to specify where, exactly, the problem lies. Nor will they admit how common the issue is. They continue to claim it's minuscule. I strongly doubt that.
-amicuscuria.com/wordpress-

[rodeknyt]

Folks I've spoken to lately are:

Dan Savoie - marketing/sales (705) 598-2056, he works from home out of Sudbury, ON.

Dan told me today that Ricoh Japan has identified the problem and has a base firmware up-grade to fix this. Apparently this cannot be user installed and has to be done at a service facility.

Has anyone seen or heard anything more about this anywhere else?

[RyanW]

It would be really nice if the mother ship would release an advisory telling people they are aware of the problem and have identified a solution and what owners with the problem should do.

Nikon suddenly became customer focused when the words class action lawsuit were uttered from the right mouths regarding the D600, maybe the same will happen with Ricoh.

Owning up would go a long way in the eyes of customers if done in the right way and of their own accord.

[DRabbit]

For those of you that don't know, what used to be Pentax Canada has now broken camp and pulled up stakes. The camera division no longer has a service facility or an office location in Canada. All service will now go through Sun Camera in Vaughn. Stephen Ho, who used to be their service director has now transferred over to the medical optics division. The remaining people in the camera division all work from home.

Folks I've spoken to lately are:

Dan Savoie - marketing/sales (705) 598-2056, he works from home out of Sudbury, ON.

Dan told me today that Ricoh Japan has identified the problem and has a base firmware up-grade to fix this. Apparently this cannot be user installed and has to be done at a service facility. He told me to arrange to send it / bring it in to Sun Camera and gave me their phone number.

Sun Camera - new Ricoh service (905) 669-6409. 2150 Steels Av. W., Unit 5, Vaughn, ON L4K 2Y7

Sun camera are not yet set-up to do anything with Ricoh or Pentax cameras. According to them "A bunch of stuff has started arriving this week", but they will not be set up to do any service for another 3 weeks or more. The person that I spoke to knew nothing about the base level firmware update. He suggested I contact them again in 3 weeks to see how far along they were. He seemed indifferent at best.

I have lost all confidence in Ricoh/Penatx over this. I feel that have abandoned the Canadian market and have left us with a huge hole in being able to get any service at all. They obviously don't give a tinker's damn. This K3 is my last Pentax/Ricoh. Time to bite the bullet and begin the change to a going concern.

UPDATE

First, BillO, thanks for the info. I'm going to contact the people I've talked to at Pentax and see if they confirm what you've said. Will be interesting to see what Pentax/Ricoh USA has to say.


I've updated the first post with latest numbers of reports from people. Thanks to those of you who have added your reports. Sorry you've had the problem!


Serial Numbers: It didn't dawn on me prior, but the fact they start with a 4 or a 2 seems to indicate body color, not country. I've corrected the first post on this point.


Unfortunately, I've been in and out of the hospital since Memorial Day weekend and am still trying to recover from surgery and some complications. Hopefully it'll be a smoother road from here on out.

[Twino4u]

..repair documents state that Software update is needed ..camera has been already sent in....

Hi,

my K3 had twice the mirror flopping issue in the last 6 month. Just have been contacted 2 hours ago by my camera dealer, that Ricoh is offering an fix for the mirror flopping at some of their authorized service partners here in Germany. They don't specified whether it will be an software or hardware fix, but they mentioned that it is only offered to users of affected cameras. Need to send in my camera right now.

twino4u

[DaveXT]

I had a K-5 replaced under warranty because of mirror flapping issues and the replacement is still working well.
My K-3 has been working faultlessly until today and it is now unusable. The issue is the mirror is sticking up and the camera does not respond to any of the controls after the shutter is released. The only option is to pull the battery to shut it down.
I will be ringing CR Kennedy in Melbourne on Monday and sending it to them for warranty repair.
Unfortunately after 30 years of shooting Pentax I am loosing faith in their products.
Here's hoping they have a speedy fix for this.

[Rite]

For those of you that don't know, what used to be Pentax Canada has now broken camp and pulled up stakes. The camera division no longer has a service facility or an office location in Canada. All service will now go through Sun Camera in Vaughn. Stephen Ho, who used to be their service director has now transferred over to the medical optics division. The remaining people in the camera division all work from home.

Sun camera are not yet set-up to do anything with Ricoh or Pentax cameras. According to them "A bunch of stuff has started arriving this week", but they will not be set up to do any service for another 3 weeks or more. The person that I spoke to knew nothing about the base level firmware update. He suggested I contact them again in 3 weeks to see how far along they were. He seemed indifferent at best.

I have lost all confidence in Ricoh/Penatx over this. I feel that have abandoned the Canadian market and have left us with a huge hole in being able to get any service at all. They obviously don't give a tinker's damn. This K3 is my last Pentax/Ricoh. Time to bite the bullet and begin the change to a going concern.

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

The obvious conclusions with Ricoh closing down Canada and beginning to shift employees out of the camera division to other company divisions are that Ricoh's North American camera sales are not projected to sustain their business.

That would also explain their continued delay in responding to a solution for K-3 owners in the US.

Is it doubtful we will ever see a K-4? Minolta Deja Vu.

Rite ..

[WaveDancer]

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

The obvious conclusions with Ricoh closing down Canada and beginning to shift employees out of the camera division to other company divisions are that Ricoh's North American camera sales are not projected to sustain their business.

That would also explain their continued delay in responding to a solution for K-3 owners in the US.

Is it doubtful we will ever see a K-4? Minolta Deja Vu.

Rite ..

... same thinking here...

[monochrome]

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

The obvious conclusions with Ricoh closing down Canada and beginning to shift employees out of the camera division to other company divisions are that Ricoh's North American camera sales are not projected to sustain their business.

That would also explain their continued delay in responding to a solution for K-3 owners in the US.

Is it doubtful we will ever see a K-4? Minolta Deja Vu.

Rite ..

... same thinking here...

Ricoh Imaging is sound and Pentax is their committed brand. Neither Pentax, nor the K-mount is going away. The only reason Sony didn't keep the Minolta brand is Konica Minolta didn't sell it. They kept it for copiers. Clearly, that isn't the case here.

It is much more likely we will see a more integrated, better marketing and support arrangement for all of North America than duplicated arrangements for USA and Canada. They're probably outsourcing the areas where they can get better end-user experience at current sales volumes while they bridge to a larger global market share.

Nothing is permanent. Ricoh's goals are intermediate-term and long term in nature. These are short-term, tactical moves.

[karro]

PentaxIsDoomed!

[audiobomber]

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

The obvious conclusions with Ricoh closing down Canada and beginning to shift employees out of the camera division to other company divisions are that Ricoh's North American camera sales are not projected to sustain their business.

.

The obvious conclusion is that you're being paranoid.

Ricoh is not "closing down Canada". Where did you get this idea? They're closing the in-house repair facility. Does Pentax do in-house repairs in the US? I don't believe they do, and I don't think the competition does either. Outsourcing is a VERY popular business strategy these days. Hospitals, banks, retail, government, everyone is outsourcing and concentrating on core business.

Shutting down the camera repair facility is a business strategy. Ricoh has added sales staff in Canada that were laid off by Hoya. That sounds like good strategy to me.

[vrolok]

My K-3 too suffers of the crazy mirror illness. Bought my K-3 brand new about 3 weeks ago. Been using it over the weekends only. This morning, I was doing nothing special: Av priority, iso 100, 18-135 kit, battery roughly 80%, latest firmware... as I said, everything normal. And... wtf! Had to remove the battery, and everything back to operative since then. Only thing to mention is that it is/was a very warm day - 30+ degrees. No idea whether such hot temperatures might play a role in here.

[Michael Piziak]

My K-3 too suffers of the crazy mirror illness. Bought my K-3 brand new about 3 weeks ago. Been using it over the weekends only. This morning, I was doing nothing special: Av priority, iso 100, 18-135 kit, battery roughly 80%, latest firmware... as I said, everything normal. And... wtf! Had to remove the battery, and everything back to operative since then. Only thing to mention is that it is/was a very warm day - 30+ degrees. No idea whether such hot temperatures might play a role in here.

I hope Pentax is able to release a firmware that fixes this problem. And by the way, it's not just the K-3 that experiences this. My K-R does it on occassion.

[ofer4]

I hope Pentax is able to release a firmware that fixes this problem. And by the way, it's not just the K-3 that experiences this. My K-R does it on occassion.

Agreed. I've been following this thread closely, even though I do not own a K-3. This problem has plagued the original K-5, the K-r, and now the K-3. I'm glad to see that the reports for the K-3, at least, are being documented carefully.