Pentax k-3 will not power on

panonski · 06-07-2017, 01:50 AM

Originally posted by Csiegel

Well said panonski. I finally learned from Precision that the reason the camera died was that a screw came loose inside the housing and landed on the flash circuit. When I used the flash it fried every circuit in the camera. No word yet on whether Pentax will stand behind their product but considering there hasn't been any word from Pentax on anything at all I am planning on liquidating my pentax gear and moving to Nikon. This is customer service that you would expect from an ATT or Comcast. Anyway, I'm not happy about it. I've had a very good relationship with my Pentax cameras but if Ricoh really cares this little about their customers I feel it must be time to mosey on down the road.

I know it's sort of irrelevant for subject, but Pentax do things - that I personally really hate. Once of them is - silenced further development. Pentax have one nasty thing when it's up to throwing new camera on market field.

You can not hear from them they're planing to release new camera, until its already on the market ( they do exception from this rule with K1 ) .... which lead to you buy somewhat outdated camera like K3, and tomorrow they send to the market mark II version...

I talked about it some time ago with official Pentax salesman, and he confirmed my observation on that, telling me, there is no absolutely one way, how they as market store of Pentax gear can find out something - before Pentax tell them - and he said - Pentax never do that, unless it's already prepared for market.

He said - Only thing we can see is - somewhat limited info's - about - number of new releases in one business year, and we get that info every year, on the beginning of it . So, he told me - in 2017 will be one more release - but what it would be - he cannot say - because no one know that, except Pentax executives.
---
So, if you have some money - and going to invest in some system - it would be very good to know - wait or buy immediately . I would love that kind of infos ...

Personally I'm waiting for mirror less system better than Olympus - or competitive - and I invest some money in buying K3, and 3 lenses. I like the mount, and history . Pentax proved he can do very good job. After waiting for some time, and incorrect rumors (once again ) about developing new K-01, or whatever they will called it, Pentax was silenced ...

--
I can recall history of my Ricoh GX200 brilliant little camera from 2008. It was GX100 and after that successor GX200. GX300 never came out. They shut it out, and they continued to develop GR instead.
I was wait for a quite while - to get GX300 out - but finally I moved to OLy Pen5, with same sensor like from OMD-EM1. Heaven.
--
So, Ricoh can make very strange moves - and you can call it unreliable - because you never know what can happened to their further development .

One more thing I dislike - is firmware released area. It's so poor, they never do anything extra for their users. Updates are minor lens corrections or add ons to profiles, nothing more than that.
When you compare that - with Olympus company - it's crap.
I'm not here to getting overhaul on Oly - but when you look at their firmware releases updates - and what further functionality bring it to their cameras - you can only say "wow".
Their flagship OMD-EM1 had 4 mayor releases up to 4.0

Pentax dont do that - and when you buy something - deal with that. When you buy something outdated, and tomorow they throw something way better on the market field - deal with that. When they silenced and shut it up something you wait for further development - deal with that.

Company statement in all fields - "When we decide" - is somewhat outdated these days - Companies have to be more friendly, and supportive - not lame, not doing business just by own. Pentax is not bad system.
But they need to improve themselves in social communication area.

They must told us - what they will do - because - everything is different now. They had to many historic and not long time ago, failures - Ricox module cameras, Pentax Q development, Pentax K-01.

I'm planning myself to wait for a little while - just to see - what will be next ...
I read the KP was not that good at all, the assembling is worse than K3 or k3II - I don't know.

Pentax can do better - why they slowing down, ( or why we don't know for sure ) - that's the question(s) . I had hopes it could be ,my final system - but now - I'm not so sure about that

Last edited by panonski; 06-07-2017 at 02:01 AM.

Zeroed · 08-09-2017, 08:46 AM

Another "sudden death" here, was working one second, then not the next.

K3 with shutter count ~12,500. Originally bought Feb 2014.

It's been a good camera, but was quite an expensive purchase (for me) and I would have expected it to last longer (or at least be clearly my fault!).

Layabout · 11-05-2017, 04:59 PM

My K3 has decide not to turn on iintermitently, I have tried 4 different batteries which work fine in my K5, but don't always work in K3. I have plugged in an external power supply and it works fine, just not always on battery power SD card door is closed and have tried different cards and have the latest firmware installed

JaneAlison · 12-16-2017, 06:26 PM

Mine just quit, too. I was in the middle of shooting, than there was nothing. Have changed batteries, reloaded card, etc. Still nothing.

awaldram · 12-18-2017, 04:43 AM

Was getting concerned for my k3 reading this thread till realised it spans 18 Months.

**aslyfox** · 12-18-2017, 03:25 PM

Originally posted by awaldram

Was getting concerned for my k3 reading this thread till realised it spans 18 Months.

sorry to hear about those who are having problems

it would be nice if folks reporting such problems would indicate the manufacturing date of the affected camera

this would allow others to know if their K 3 was manufactured at or near the time of the one with the problem

this is how you can check your camera shutter count and determine manufacturing date

year/month/day format

________________

Check Your Camera's Shutter Count & Manufacture Date

Use this tool to check your camera's shutter count and find out when the camera was manufactured. Note that if you upload an image that has been processed by Photoshop, etc., it might not be usable as some of its EXIF data could have been stripped. To proceed, simply upload an unedited JPEG photo taken with your camera using the form below! Your files are not stored on our server after the EXIF data is read.

Read more at: Check Camera Shutter Count and Manufacture Date

Layabout · 12-18-2017, 03:25 PM

My K3 has now come back to life but will only work with 3 of my 4 batteries which all work fine in my K5 so not sure what the problem was but hopefully it won't happen again. I hope all you cameras fix themselves as mine did.

**suraswami** · 12-18-2017, 06:30 PM

Originally posted by Layabout

My K3 has now come back to life but will only work with 3 of my 4 batteries which all work fine in my K5 so not sure what the problem was but hopefully it won't happen again. I hope all you cameras fix themselves as mine did.

OEM or third party battery?

JaneAlison · 12-19-2017, 06:50 AM

Unfortunately can't get exif data on manufacturing date or actuations as everything has already been downloaded into Photoshop. Will dig out paperwork and see if anything there on manufacturing date. Bought camera new January 2014. Serial # begins 60495--. Should receive new battery and charger later, today. See if that makes any difference.
Frustrated.

**aslyfox** · 12-19-2017, 07:44 AM

Originally posted by JaneAlison

Unfortunately can't get exif data on manufacturing date or actuations as everything has already been downloaded into Photoshop. Will dig out paperwork and see if anything there on manufacturing date. Bought camera new January 2014. Serial # begins 60495--. Should receive new battery and charger later, today. See if that makes any difference.
Frustrated.

good luck on the new battery and battery charger perhaps that is the problem

we now know yours was made prior to 1/14.

how much earlier who knows

I just bought mine but it was made in 6/16

Layabout · 12-19-2017, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by suraswami

OEM or third party battery?

OEM battery. Works fine with third party ones

JaneAlison · 12-20-2017, 07:05 PM

New Pentax battery & charger didn't work. Originals were Pentax, too. Time to send it in to someone.

Shadow_of_the_Wind · 01-03-2018, 03:42 PM

My K3 died today just as I was trying to buy a new lens. Manufacture Date 2013:11:20, shutter count 9,535

Layabout · 01-04-2018, 04:02 PM - **1 Like**

After the initial failure and trying various things my K3 eventually came back to life and has been working fine. Just checked manufacture date 2014 and shutter count now 14657 not sure of count at failure.It now works with all of my battery
Hopefully all of yours will miraculously come back to life

Shadow_of_the_Wind · 01-04-2018, 04:17 PM

Originally posted by Layabout

After the initial failure and trying various things my K3 eventually came back to life and has been working fine. Just checked manufacture date 2014 and shutter count now 14657 not sure of count at failure.It now works with all of my battery
Hopefully all of yours will miraculously come back to life

For how long it's been dead? What did yu do with it?

11-05-2017, 04:59 PM	#48
Layabout New Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Edgewater West Australia Posts: 23	K3 won't power up My K3 has decide not to turn on iintermitently, I have tried 4 different batteries which work fine in my K5, but don't always work in K3. I have plugged in an external power supply and it works fine, just not always on battery power SD card door is closed and have tried different cards and have the latest firmware installed

12-16-2017, 06:26 PM	#49
JaneAlison New Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 7	K3 failure Mine just quit, too. I was in the middle of shooting, than there was nothing. Have changed batteries, reloaded card, etc. Still nothing.

12-18-2017, 03:25 PM	#51
aslyfox Seeker of Knowledge Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Topeka, Kansas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 24,581	Originally posted by awaldram Was getting concerned for my k3 reading this thread till realised it spans 18 Months. sorry to hear about those who are having problems it would be nice if folks reporting such problems would indicate the manufacturing date of the affected camera this would allow others to know if their K 3 was manufactured at or near the time of the one with the problem this is how you can check your camera shutter count and determine manufacturing date year/month/day format ________________ Check Your Camera's Shutter Count & Manufacture Date Use this tool to check your camera's shutter count and find out when the camera was manufactured. Note that if you upload an image that has been processed by Photoshop, etc., it might not be usable as some of its EXIF data could have been stripped. To proceed, simply upload an unedited JPEG photo taken with your camera using the form below! Your files are not stored on our server after the EXIF data is read. Read more at: Check Camera Shutter Count and Manufacture Date Last edited by aslyfox; 12-18-2017 at 03:34 PM.

12-18-2017, 03:25 PM	#52
Layabout New Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Edgewater West Australia Posts: 23	Back from the dead My K3 has now come back to life but will only work with 3 of my 4 batteries which all work fine in my K5 so not sure what the problem was but hopefully it won't happen again. I hope all you cameras fix themselves as mine did.

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06-07-2017, 01:50 AM	#46
panonski Pentaxian Join Date: May 2015 Location: Zagreb Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 624	Originally posted by Csiegel Well said panonski. I finally learned from Precision that the reason the camera died was that a screw came loose inside the housing and landed on the flash circuit. When I used the flash it fried every circuit in the camera. No word yet on whether Pentax will stand behind their product but considering there hasn't been any word from Pentax on anything at all I am planning on liquidating my pentax gear and moving to Nikon. This is customer service that you would expect from an ATT or Comcast. Anyway, I'm not happy about it. I've had a very good relationship with my Pentax cameras but if Ricoh really cares this little about their customers I feel it must be time to mosey on down the road. I know it's sort of irrelevant for subject, but Pentax do things - that I personally really hate. Once of them is - silenced further development. Pentax have one nasty thing when it's up to throwing new camera on market field. You can not hear from them they're planing to release new camera, until its already on the market ( they do exception from this rule with K1 ) .... which lead to you buy somewhat outdated camera like K3, and tomorrow they send to the market mark II version... I talked about it some time ago with official Pentax salesman, and he confirmed my observation on that, telling me, there is no absolutely one way, how they as market store of Pentax gear can find out something - before Pentax tell them - and he said - Pentax never do that, unless it's already prepared for market. He said - Only thing we can see is - somewhat limited info's - about - number of new releases in one business year, and we get that info every year, on the beginning of it . So, he told me - in 2017 will be one more release - but what it would be - he cannot say - because no one know that, except Pentax executives. --- So, if you have some money - and going to invest in some system - it would be very good to know - wait or buy immediately . I would love that kind of infos ... Personally I'm waiting for mirror less system better than Olympus - or competitive - and I invest some money in buying K3, and 3 lenses. I like the mount, and history . Pentax proved he can do very good job. After waiting for some time, and incorrect rumors (once again ) about developing new K-01, or whatever they will called it, Pentax was silenced ... -- I can recall history of my Ricoh GX200 brilliant little camera from 2008. It was GX100 and after that successor GX200. GX300 never came out. They shut it out, and they continued to develop GR instead. I was wait for a quite while - to get GX300 out - but finally I moved to OLy Pen5, with same sensor like from OMD-EM1. Heaven. -- So, Ricoh can make very strange moves - and you can call it unreliable - because you never know what can happened to their further development . One more thing I dislike - is firmware released area. It's so poor, they never do anything extra for their users. Updates are minor lens corrections or add ons to profiles, nothing more than that. When you compare that - with Olympus company - it's crap. I'm not here to getting overhaul on Oly - but when you look at their firmware releases updates - and what further functionality bring it to their cameras - you can only say "wow". Their flagship OMD-EM1 had 4 mayor releases up to 4.0 Pentax dont do that - and when you buy something - deal with that. When you buy something outdated, and tomorow they throw something way better on the market field - deal with that. When they silenced and shut it up something you wait for further development - deal with that. Company statement in all fields - "When we decide" - is somewhat outdated these days - Companies have to be more friendly, and supportive - not lame, not doing business just by own. Pentax is not bad system. But they need to improve themselves in social communication area. They must told us - what they will do - because - everything is different now. They had to many historic and not long time ago, failures - Ricox module cameras, Pentax Q development, Pentax K-01. I'm planning myself to wait for a little while - just to see - what will be next ... I read the KP was not that good at all, the assembling is worse than K3 or k3II - I don't know. Pentax can do better - why they slowing down, ( or why we don't know for sure ) - that's the question(s) . I had hopes it could be ,my final system - but now - I'm not so sure about that Last edited by panonski; 06-07-2017 at 02:01 AM.

08-09-2017, 08:46 AM	#47
Zeroed New Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 7	Another "sudden death" here, was working one second, then not the next. K3 with shutter count ~12,500. Originally bought Feb 2014. It's been a good camera, but was quite an expensive purchase (for me) and I would have expected it to last longer (or at least be clearly my fault!).

12-18-2017, 04:43 AM	#50
awaldram Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Hampshire Photos: Gallery Posts: 732	Was getting concerned for my k3 reading this thread till realised it spans 18 Months.

12-18-2017, 06:30 PM	#53
suraswami Site Supporter Join Date: Jun 2015 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 419	Originally posted by Layabout My K3 has now come back to life but will only work with 3 of my 4 batteries which all work fine in my K5 so not sure what the problem was but hopefully it won't happen again. I hope all you cameras fix themselves as mine did. OEM or third party battery?

12-19-2017, 06:50 AM	#54
JaneAlison New Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 7	Unfortunately can't get exif data on manufacturing date or actuations as everything has already been downloaded into Photoshop. Will dig out paperwork and see if anything there on manufacturing date. Bought camera new January 2014. Serial # begins 60495--. Should receive new battery and charger later, today. See if that makes any difference. Frustrated.

12-19-2017, 07:44 AM	#55
aslyfox Seeker of Knowledge Join Date: Aug 2016 Location: Topeka, Kansas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 24,581	Originally posted by JaneAlison Unfortunately can't get exif data on manufacturing date or actuations as everything has already been downloaded into Photoshop. Will dig out paperwork and see if anything there on manufacturing date. Bought camera new January 2014. Serial # begins 60495--. Should receive new battery and charger later, today. See if that makes any difference. Frustrated. good luck on the new battery and battery charger perhaps that is the problem we now know yours was made prior to 1/14. how much earlier who knows I just bought mine but it was made in 6/16

12-19-2017, 07:58 PM	#56
Layabout New Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Edgewater West Australia Posts: 23	Originally posted by suraswami OEM or third party battery? OEM battery. Works fine with third party ones

12-20-2017, 07:05 PM	#57
JaneAlison New Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 7	New Pentax battery & charger didn't work. Originals were Pentax, too. Time to send it in to someone.

01-03-2018, 03:42 PM	#58
Shadow_of_the_Wind New Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 19	My K3 died today just as I was trying to buy a new lens. Manufacture Date 2013:11:20, shutter count 9,535

01-04-2018, 04:02 PM - 1 Like	#59
Layabout New Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Edgewater West Australia Posts: 23	After the initial failure and trying various things my K3 eventually came back to life and has been working fine. Just checked manufacture date 2014 and shutter count now 14657 not sure of count at failure.It now works with all of my battery Hopefully all of yours will miraculously come back to life

01-04-2018, 04:17 PM	#60
Shadow_of_the_Wind New Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 19	Originally posted by Layabout After the initial failure and trying various things my K3 eventually came back to life and has been working fine. Just checked manufacture date 2014 and shutter count now 14657 not sure of count at failure.It now works with all of my battery Hopefully all of yours will miraculously come back to life For how long it's been dead? What did yu do with it?