Originally posted by WaveDancer Interesting here to note that some of the forum members try to declare this (in my opinion serious) lack of reliability into the corner of "random" issues and triviality. This seems to be a typical trait of Ricoh/Pentax and there hardcore believers. I consider such attitude at least as questionable.
I've had two episodes with one lens on one body, neither were a real problem. There are some shooters who run into the problem regularly, and it seems there is a fix that will be available in a short while. Good.
It is an electronic device with a computer. Every device of all kinds that I've ever used have had some issue of some kind. The K-3 has been one of the more reliable devices that I've used, even with this problem.
If this is the biggest issue with the K-3, and can be sorted out by some software upgrade, I'd say that it is a minor problem. Some people haven't been able to use the body for what they want, but for the majority it either doesn't happen or is a rare event.
I suspect that the investigation to find the cause and the attempts to fix it will result in a bunch of stability problem fixes that otherwise would not have come to light.
---------- Post added 06-12-14 at 09:51 PM ----------
Originally posted by DRabbit Radman:
My thought on the repair is that I'd love to confirm it... but unfortunately, I don't have a K3 for testing anymore.
I don't like that the email Bruce received indicates that it would "resolve/reduce" the problem - as opposed to just RESOLVE it completely.
I'm also concerned that the email I received said testing is still ongoing. I'm glad they are working on it, but the fact a real fix is taking so long makes me wonder if the K3 has some fatal flaw that just cannot be fixed completely. Admittedly though, I've lost a bit of faith because of all the time that's passed and all the back and forth I personally went through, so I'm going to demand a little more proof than probably the next person.
This seems to be positive progress and movement in the right direction, but because these emails are so vague, and because Pentax isn't replying to the community, rather individual owners one at a time, I'm left feeling less than satisfied that the issue is gone for good.
From their standpoint, there are a number of things that they are trying to determine. First, what is causing the problem. Second is to fix it. Can it be fixed with a firmware upgrade, or does it need to be fixed in a shop, or some major components replaced, or like Nikon D600 a design problem. There probably isn't one cause, or even one problem, but the same symptoms showing up caused by different things. Yours was a problem with interval shooting, mine is one lens rarely and randomly. Probably different causes and different solutions. Maybe the fix makes interval shooting reliable but doesn't fix some of the more rare and random events, who knows. Or the other way.
We shall see how it turns out. I had a stain on my K-5, the early ones had an expensive fix swapping the sensor. Mine was an early body bought late, and by then the fix seemed to be much less complicated once they figured out how to do it. I suspect the same will happen here as the fixes get applied.