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09-10-2015, 08:52 AM   #16
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No point fiddling around with firmware update. Send it into precision camera ASAP

09-10-2015, 09:20 AM   #17
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Let me clarify how my camera reacted to mirror flap with the 1.11 firmware.

Camera would flap twice without recording an image. It would then lockup and at that point I would have to take out the battery.
I then put the battery back in, turn on the camera and everything works but the battery is almost completely depleted.

This is basically what it has done from the beginning. As far as I know the firmware only stops the mirror from flapping continuously.
It does not stop the incident altogether.

Ok, so this morning I tried to get the camera to turn on. Put a fresh battery in. No lights buttons or Lcd came on.
But the mirror started flapping continuously at about 1 frame per second until I took the battery out.

It reminded of how a fish will often flap after you cut its head off.

Last edited by Stargeezer; 09-10-2015 at 09:25 AM. Reason: spelling
09-10-2015, 04:27 PM   #18
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Send it in for repair. At this point there is nothing forum members can recommend to fix the problem. Precision will probably have the camera back to you fairly quickly. In any case you do not have a working camera now and that is really the only option for repair. Let us know how the repair turns out.
09-10-2015, 05:34 PM   #19
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Thank you Mikesul, Of course you are correct. But this was an informative type post not a request for advice.
A warning so to speak, for others thinking it won't escalate past a missed frame occasionally.
Maybe just a little bit of a rant.
Joe

09-11-2015, 10:49 AM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by Stargeezer Quote
I had my k-3 9 months. Every few months mirror flop would arise. Unlike others mine usually happened when the battery was fully charged.
I also had intermittent freezes for a week after the mirror flop. Other issues also. My 18-135 would not come out of sleep mode . AFC would act erratically. Metering would be way off.
Then it seemed things would start going back to normal.
The last time I had the mirror flap was 2 weeks ago with the usual erratic behavior to follow.
Monday I went out with a freshly charged battery and it died after 5 minutes. I took the battery out and put it back in and it still did not come on.
I went home and took the battery from my k-5. The k-3 turned on, I took one shot and it died. I put in a different fully charged battery it turned on and then died.
The battery was dead instantly. I tried again a few hours later and then nothing at all. Brick brick brick!!! Ugh. This sucks.

Its going to Precision tomorrow without a lot of confidence that they will fix everything. Did I say this sucks?
Joe

It is clear that the K3 has presented many quality issues since its release. I have read most of the posts here, and am quite sympathetic.



I have been very fortunate that the *istDL, K10 and K5IIs in my camera bag have performed flawlessly. So far the Pentax cameras and lenses have never failed to produce great photos.

Having to send then off for warranty work is something I have not experienced.



From another post here:

QuoteQuote:
The good news is that this fix will be covered by warranty. Since the earliest K-3 release date was November 2013, all K-3's purchased from authorized retailers should be under warranty, and the fix should not cost the user anything.

The last part doesn't add up. The owner (customer ) is required to pay for shipping.


How does that "not cost the user"?
And what about loss of use?


After laying out a thousand bucks or so the last thing I want to do is bundle up my camera and send it off somewhere. What about loss of use? Since there is a significant number of K3's with problems, Pentax should be making every effort to satisfy their customers.


Then there is the ever changing factory authorized repair centers.


Indeed, it sucks.


I wish you the best Joe, and hope your camera is repaired to your complete satisfaction.
09-13-2015, 10:58 PM   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by Racer X 69 Quote
It is clear that the K3 has presented many quality issues since its release.
Would you care to enumerate? I am aware of one on the K-3 that was prevalent and serious (runaway mirror) and another (that makes two) that was prevalent and an annoyance (camera freeze). At present, both appear to be relatively rare. Beyond that has been the usual scattered issues.


Steve

(My K-3 used to have the occasional freeze, but have not encountered such for about a year now...)
09-13-2015, 11:05 PM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by Stargeezer Quote
This is basically what it has done from the beginning. As far as I know the firmware only stops the mirror from flapping continuously.
It does not stop the incident altogether.
You are correct. The FW solution mitigates the symptoms and is not a cure. Anyone seeing the symptom should send the camera in for service. It will not go away be itself.

QuoteOriginally posted by Stargeezer Quote
A warning so to speak, for others thinking it won't escalate past a missed frame occasionally.
Maybe just a little bit of a rant.
A little bit of a rant...yes, though your warning is pertinent. Why you have waited for 9 months is a little strange. From your description, your camera suffers from multiple system-level issues. My suspicion would be a flaky main board or perhaps moisture incursion at some point.

Anyway, good luck on getting it fixed. With any luck you will be a happy camper and be able to get full value from your purchase.


Steve

09-14-2015, 02:07 AM   #23
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Would you care to enumerate?


There seems to be no shortage of threads and posts here regarding the problems with the K3. Every time I visit this forum they are not hard to miss.
09-14-2015, 10:28 AM - 1 Like   #24
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Would you care to enumerate?
QuoteOriginally posted by Racer X 69 Quote
There seems to be no shortage of threads and posts here regarding the problems with the K3. Every time I visit this forum they are not hard to miss.
If you say so...The reason I ask is that I actively monitor and respond to troubleshooting requests for models that I have owned or have significant hands-on experience with. At present that includes the K10D, K-30/K-50, and K-3. Aside from the runaway mirror issue (not present as a general problem for about a year at this point) and the periodic freeze-up (also only rarely reported at present, though never formally acknowledged by Ricoh/Pentax) the K-3 has not been particularly trouble prone. The pattern I have seen overall is the usual mix of user error, inexperience/unreasonable expectation, camera abuse, and the odd lemon body.*

Sadly the industry standard for defects is alarmingly high. At present Consumer Reports data for repairs and serious problems with interchangeable lens cameras is as follows:
  • Panasonic: 4%
  • Canon: 5%
  • Sony: 7%
  • Pentax/Ricoh: 7%
  • Nikon: 8%
  • Olympus: 8%
These numbers represent a significant spike since six months ago.** At that time Pentax was not on the list, but (IIRC) Sony and Canon were at 4% with Nikon at 6%. Undoubtedly, the general recall of Pentax K-3II and ongoing K-50 problems are at least partially responsible for the brand's poor showing there. I find it shocking that greater than 1 in every 14 Sony, Pentax, Nikon, or Olympus ILC that goes out the door of B&H is going to go back for replacement or warranty repair. A year or so ago the average was less than 1 in 20.***


Steve

* The thing that makes tabulating issues hard is that some users with problems tend to spam the forums for every little thing. In general, one can discount reports of "AF sucks", "video sucks", "cannot get good photos", pre/post purchase paranoia, or resurrection of ancient threads asking if "x" is still a problem.

** Consumer Reports updates their quality and reliability reports annually in the Fall based on surveys sent out in the early summer.

*** To provide a bit of perspective, the defect rate for laptop computers ranges from 10% (Apple) to 19% (HP, Toshiba, Dell, and Asus).

Last edited by stevebrot; 09-14-2015 at 10:51 AM.
09-14-2015, 04:36 PM   #25
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What I can't figure out is how the issue went away with the K5II and K5IIs only to RETURN with the K3 and K3II. How is that even possible? Will it go away (finally) with the Full Frame?
09-14-2015, 05:50 PM   #26
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QuoteOriginally posted by Qwntm Quote
What I can't figure out is how the issue went away with the K5II and K5IIs only to RETURN with the K3 and K3II.
Not the same issue. Different symptoms (and fix) for the K-3 than for the earlier bodies. With the K-3II it there have only been two three (I missed one hiding in a comment) reports on this site and the symptoms are not clear.


Steve

Last edited by stevebrot; 09-18-2015 at 06:54 PM.
09-18-2015, 11:49 AM   #27
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09-18-2015, 05:26 PM   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Not the same issue. Different symptoms (and fix) for the K-3 than for the earlier bodies. With the K-3II it there have only been two reports on this site and the symptoms are not clear.


Steve



How was the mirror flap on the K5 different from the mirror flap on the K3? Seems to me from all I have read it was the same issue. For the k5 there was no fix other than removing the battery.


The fact that it's being reported at all with the K3II is a really poor showing. After you have crashed 2 planes, there is a lot less tolerance for even just an inflight emergency on any of your other flights. Just sayin'
09-18-2015, 06:05 PM   #29
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With the K-3II, I sure do hope that the cameras affected are the ones with the identified serial numbers in Ricoh's list. I agree this mirror flap problem is giving Pentax a bad reputation. I wouldn't like to have one myself. I'm expecting my K-3II next week. I'm praying that it's problem free since the serial number is above the listed serial numbers.
09-18-2015, 06:27 PM   #30
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QuoteOriginally posted by Qwntm Quote
How was the mirror flap on the K5 different from the mirror flap on the K3?
I would have to wade through the posts, but IIRC on the K-5 the shutter cycled as well and there was only a couple of flops (flaps?) per occasion. On the K-3 it is the mirror only and it will run on until the battery dies or is pulled. The K-3 has a completely different control approach for mirror/shutter/aperture actuator sequencing then previous models. It should be noted that the runaway mirror issue on the K-3 was far from universal and seemed to follow particular usage patterns. I own a camera in the affected serial number with over 15,000 actuations and have never had a single occurrence of the problem (fingers crossed). My experience is far from rare and I sometimes wonder if the issue would have gotten as much attention were it not for the determined efforts of a few people who were heavily impacted and who publicized their problems widely on various Web sites. It has been my impression that the K-3 issues have been far less severe and prevalent than those on the K-5 or K-r or (recently) K-30/K-50.

QuoteOriginally posted by Qwntm Quote
The fact that it's being reported at all with the K3II is a really poor showing.
I would agree except for the low number of reports (three on this site) and vague description of the symptoms. In the most recent case, it was described as the shutter spontaneously starting on its own with the camera in Continuous (H) mode. That camera was also in the serial number range for GPS lockup, but was asymptomatic. The first report (about a month ago) sounded more like the runaway mirror as on the K-3 but was also present along with the GPS lock-up issue. I believe both cameras were returned to the dealer for replacement. The third was a comment on the thread for the first report and the user just said it had happened once and never again with no elaboration.

I would consider issues of runaway mirror on the K-3II to be rare and poorly characterized at present.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/303298-k3-ii-shutter-doesnt-stop-firing.html

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/301746-any-reports-mirror-flap-k3-ii.html


Steve
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