[Flyingmariner]

OMG

I feel for you

I was so surprised.
My Pentax gear has always been so reliable.
Fortunately I held off posting some other gear I was going to sell to help fund it.

Kind regards,
Wayne.

[stevebrot]

Just to let you know I purchased a refurb "as new" K-3ii here in the UK and received it this morning.
It certainly looked as new and had only performed approx 200 shutter actuations.
I fired off about 30 shots with it and was extremely pleased.
Had a cuppa and went to fire it up again - totally dead!

Time for the shop to find a new guy for the refurb department.


Steve

[Flyingmariner]

Time for the shop to find a new guy for the refurb department.


Steve

The thing is Steve...
The camera store got the K-3ii's direct from Ricoh U.K.
The camera was literally as new.
I wonder if it is the same problem that affected the original K-3.
Kind regards,
Wayne.

[stevebrot]

The thing is Steve...
The camera store got the K-3ii's direct from Ricoh U.K.
The camera was literally as new.
I wonder if it is the same problem that affected the original K-3.
Kind regards,
Wayne.

Probably not since the original K-3 did not have a generic problem of sudden death when factory fresh. It may be, though, that your K-3II refurb suffered the issue before it was returned as defective. A "factory"* refurb is supposedly repaired and fully tested before being certified for resale. Yours apparently did not receive the full treatment before getting it "OK" sticker. That is why I made the crack about the refurb guy.

Is is safe to assume that the store is replacing your camera with another from stock?


Steve

* There is some doubt that these refurbs are actually sent back to the factory. More likely is they are tested ==> repaired ==> retested by the regional distributor.

---

Last edited by stevebrot; 03-21-2018 at 07:11 PM.

[Flyingmariner]

Probably not since the original K-3 did not have a generic problem of sudden death when factory fresh. It may be, though, that your K-3II refurb suffered the issue before it was returned as defective. A "factory"* refurb is supposedly repaired and fully tested before being certified for resale. Yours apparently did not receive the full treatment before getting it "OK" sticker. That is why I made the crack about the refurb guy.

Is is safe to assume that the store is replacing your camera with another from stock?


Steve

* There is some doubt that these refurbs are actually sent back to the factory. More likely is they are tested ==> repaired ==> retested by the regional distributor.

I am a little hesitant at the minute Steve...
Going to get a refund.

[panonski]

sudden death can affect any camera, but as I can see - or it seems so, K3, and K3 II are most vulnerable ( in pentax line ) ....
..
You're so lucky to experiance death so short after purchasing, because you can get your money back.

I would go for k-70 in your case, or KP... K-70 is a beast for price

[aslyfox]

sudden death can affect any camera, but as I can see, K3, and K3 II are most vulnerable ....
..
You're so lucky to experiance death so short after purchasing, because you can get your money back.

I would go for k-70 in your case, or KP... K-70 is a beast for price

This is something we could bring up with Ricoh at our CP+ interview, to get any hints on whether or not this is a known trend. Here's my takeaway:

Before we proceed, know that I sympathize with everyone who experienced poor customer service- this is certainly not how repairs/failures should be handled. That said, it makes a lot of sense for a manufacturer to refuse free service outside of the warranty period. That's just how it is unfortunately. Know that a lot of credit cards offer an extra year of warranty (in some regions) as an automatic benefit, so definitely check what you used for the original purchase.

For the most part these seem like isolated incidents to me. Around a dozen reports with vague/inconclusive answers from repair shops spread over a 2-year period is nowhere near enough to establish clear links, and the hint of physical damage in some of the reports suggests that perhaps this was sometimes the cause. Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that a loose screw (i.e. borderline assembly) at the factory led to a handful of bodies being more sensitive to external forces than others. Hopefully this will indeed turn out to be an isolated issue rather than one that keeps on trickling in- that would certainly be cause for alarm and would minimally warrant a follow-up from Pentax.

I will post an update here if I get any insight.

just curious

do you know something Adam and others don't ?

true there has been some failures but not an extraordinary number that I know of.

my K 3 was bought in August of 2016 and other than " operator error " there has been 0 problems with it.

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Last edited by aslyfox; 03-22-2018 at 05:12 AM.

[panonski]

just curious

do you know something Adam and others don't ?

.

no, I just know whaT I read from other users here...

K-3 sudden death is well documented, and yes, ceratinly is isolated cases, when you compare number of produced units...

But then again, it happens - no matter what adjective you would use. "Often", "rare", "isolated", "more often" - it's up to you... For me - it's "often". Clear ?

[Mikesul]

We all need to be careful what general conclusions we draw from reading forum postings. Reports of failure are not a statistically significant sample and rarely give enough information to form a reliable judgement. Some K-3 units had problems early on with shutters. A very few early K-3iis suffered from a lock up problem. In both cases Pentax had a fix. I owned both cameras (2 k-3iis) and never had an issue. You are correct that all cameras can develop issues (that is why there are warranties) but the K-3 series was probably no worse than any others. The K-1 has been very stable but some owners have had issues which, again, is completely normal. Please do not spread ideas that a particular brand or model is subject to failure if there is not solid statistical evidence of a wide spread problem which has not been addressed.

[aslyfox]

no, I just know whaT I read from other users here...

K-3 sudden death is well documented, and yes, ceratinly is isolated cases, when you compare number of produced units...

But then again, it happens - no matter what adjective you would use. "Often", "rare", "isolated", "more often" - it's up to you... For me - it's "often". Clear ?

no problem

thanks for the speedy response

I wondered if I had missed something

I have followed the ones reported here on the forums, even asking for those affected to check and post manufactured date

Check Your Camera's Shutter Count & Manufacture Date

Read more at: Check Camera Shutter Count and Manufacture Date

as you say, each of us have to decide what is a significant number of failures

to me, it hasn't risen to that level but certainly there is nothing wrong with YMMV

in fact, I bought a K 3 II and battery grip in late November from B & H

[panonski]

Please do not spread ideas that a particular brand or model is subject to failure if there is not solid statistical evidence of a wide spread problem which has not been addressed.

I'm not. It's my point of view.

Sudden death is a serious problem, if you think about it in a way - what causes it... It's not something user would be, or even more important, SHOULD BE EXPECTED.

In this forum, I've seen quite enough reports for this failure... More over, here are just isolated reports ... Intersteing how "isolated" can be used in different way... Don't you think, sport ?

---------- Post added 03-22-18 at 05:54 AM ----------

not quite this problem, but then again, maybe is similar failure ...

Ricoh offers fix for Pentax K3 II power-off problem

[aslyfox]

thanks for the link

I agree it is a different older issue which should be corrected by now


______________________________________

Ricoh offers fix for Pentax K3 II power-off problem

posted Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 10:48 PM EDT

According to the company, certain K-3 II bodies can fail to turn off even after the Power switch is moved to the Off position, if the camera is left without a charged battery installed for an extended period of days or weeks. This issue has already been corrected in all cameras currently coming off the production line.. . .

If you want to know whether your Pentax K-3 II is affected by this service program, you'll want to turn the body over and check the serial number, which is located directly behind the battery compartment at the base of the handgrip. Any camera with a serial number of 6206660 or higher will not be affected by the problem, . . .

If your serial number is below 6206660, however, you'll want to confirm whether or not it is affected by comparison your number to the list below. If yours is within the listed ranges, you need not return the camera for repair. If it is both below 6206660 and not shown within the ranges below, you'll need to return your camera to Ricoh, however.

____________________________________

[ click on link if you want more info ]

[Adam]

just curious

do you know something Adam and others don't ?

true there has been some failures but not an extraordinary number that I know of.

my K 3 was bought in August of 2016 and other than " operator error " there has been 0 problems with it.

They said they knew about the issue, but also that it was isolated rather than something widespread.

[stevebrot]

sudden death can affect any camera, but as I can see - or it seems so, K3, and K3 II are most vulnerable ( in pentax line ) ....

Wrong...based on who knows what data? I have participated in a lot* of help and troubleshooting requests over the last decade or so and can only remember a few having to do with total failure of K-3. The K-3II had a fault on initial release that was quickly caught and remedied (users got new cameras IIRC), but that is about it.


Steve

* Probably a couple of thousand

[stevebrot]

K-3 sudden death is well documented, and yes, ceratinly is isolated cases, when you compare number of produced units...

I believe there may be a confusion of terms here. "Well documented" on this side of the world means existence of readily available, clear, complete, unambiguous, and verifiable records. It does not mean common, prevalent, rumored, reported, or claimed.


Steve