[piontec]

Hi all,
I have a problem with my K-50. A few days ago it worked perfectly fine. Since then, it was lying gently in my photo bag. When I took it yesterday and shoot a photo, it came totally dark. Not 100% black, some pixels were shown as above black, but completely dark, useless and heavily underexposed. To my eye, it looked like a cap was on the lens (no, it wasn't). I checked the settings, everything seemed OK, but each frame was completely dark. Checked with my Metz 48 flash - the same. In Ap mode, the light meter was showing correct exposure, but the frame was nearly completely black. At first, I thought it's the light meter, but then I compared K-50 to Lumix G6 I had access to. I set the same shutter, ISO and aperture on both of them. The shot out of G6 was perfectly exposed, while out of K-50 - the same nearly 100% black frame. I changed the glass - no difference. I reset all the settings to factory settings - still the same. The only difference is when LV mode is used to shoot a frame - it's still underexposed, but at least something's visible.

Any ideas what's wrong? Is my K-50 dead ?

[jatrax]

Search this forum for "aperture block" and you will find a lot of information on an issue that might be the problem.

[CarlJF]

Do a search for "Aperture block failure". There are many threads discussing the issue...

[piontec]

OK, I will reply to my own question:
Dark exposure problems on K-30 or K-50? Read me first! - PentaxForums.com
I haven't heard about the problem before Now I have it :/

[Dmoran]

I have a K500 (non weather sealed version of K50). I started to experience this and I do the following. Use the AA adapter and load it with Eneloop rechargeables. Before I start a shoot, I switch to JPEG and put it in high frame rate. Fire off 10-20 shots with the aperture wide open.Towards the end of the burst, it will operate correctly. The camera is fine for the rest of the day. I may be lucky in that I can kick it out of the stuck aperture block condition.

[cainmh]

Hi all,
I have a problem with my K-50. A few days ago it worked perfectly fine. Since then, it was lying gently in my photo bag. When I took it yesterday and shoot a photo, it came totally dark. Not 100% black, some pixels were shown as above black, but completely dark, useless and heavily underexposed. To my eye, it looked like a cap was on the lens (no, it wasn't). I checked the settings, everything seemed OK, but each frame was completely dark. Checked with my Metz 48 flash - the same. In Ap mode, the light meter was showing correct exposure, but the frame was nearly completely black. At first, I thought it's the light meter, but then I compared K-50 to Lumix G6 I had access to. I set the same shutter, ISO and aperture on both of them. The shot out of G6 was perfectly exposed, while out of K-50 - the same nearly 100% black frame. I changed the glass - no difference. I reset all the settings to factory settings - still the same. The only difference is when LV mode is used to shoot a frame - it's still underexposed, but at least something's visible.

Any ideas what's wrong? Is my K-50 dead ?

I just started having the identical problem with my K-S2. OK exposures in live view but severely underexposed while looking through the viewfinder. I can get some reasonable exposures with +5 stops. As far as it will go.