[Pentax Syntax]

Hi All,

Well my K-1 I received in May 2016 after a long wait on the preorder list has suffered the dreaded Mode dial error (intermittent) and so off to Precision it goes. Mine is an early unit and I thought I had dodged the bullet. I presume it will not be covered by warranty being outside of the 1 year warranty period. Lets hope the fix lasts longer.

[Adam]

BTW it never hurts to ask if it can still be done under warranty. When it's a defect like this rather than wear-and-tear, sometimes they're willing to be nice

[awscreo]

Second that, I had Olympus fix my camera under warranty, even though I was few months out of warranty coverage. Hopefully Pentax is as forgiving as oly, considering you bought their flagship model

[MadMathMind]

Mine failed too. I just live with it in manual mode. If you know how to read the EV meter, it's fully equivalent to any of the other modes, just less convenient.

[Pentax Syntax]

Thanks all. I asked for warranty repair in my request. Will be worth the fee if required. I am mainly a hyperprogram mode user and would miss it.

[Pentax Syntax]

BTW it never hurts to ask if it can still be done under warranty. When it's a defect like this rather than wear-and-tear, sometimes they're willing to be nice

Thanks. Definitely not wear and tear. Since I am a hyperprogram shooter, the camera rarely leaves P. It was strange behavior in P mode that prompted me to test the other modes. Some work (M, Tv and Tv Av modes work. Av mode does not) Let's see what happens. The quote for repair wasn't bad in either case.

[bossa]

Have Ricoh fixed this issue with newer models?

[Pentax Syntax]

Have Ricoh fixed this issue with newer models?

My impression is this has been fixed in the newer units. Early adopters were the main 'victims '.

[bossa]

Any idea of the serial numbers?

[victormeldrew]

Any idea of the serial numbers?

Ha! As with other Pentax known faults, it is only known to everyone except Pentax. There is neither any acknowledgement nor any public information as to its existence, its solution (if one exists) or when it was put in place. This is standard. I assume that they believe that if they never say anything then everyone will believe all is perfect and nobody will be any the wiser.

[stevebrot]

Any idea of the serial numbers?

There are a couple of threads on the problem. The issue surfaced fairly soon after the K-1 release and Ricoh/Pentax was very responsive. The problem was apparently an assembly issue, the fix was easy/quick, and by all appearances was limited to very early production. For many users the problem occurred very soon after sale and replacement was handled by the dealer. In other words, the number of reports were limited in both number and time frame. The problem was not pervasive and there was no recall nor compiled serial number list.

In the last month or so, there has been a number of new reports with the most common being that the camera is stuck in "M" mode. Whether this is the same as the original problem is unknown, though the bodies do appear to all be early production.


K1 Mode Dial Failure - PentaxForums.com

Be aware that there may be cross-posting between multiple threads.


Steve

[Pentax Syntax]

As a follow up I received the K-1 back from Precision cleaned and with the mode working again at no cost in one week The repair was covered! Very pleased with Ricoh and Precision repair :-)

[awscreo]

As a follow up I received the K-1 back from Precision cleaned and with the mode working again at no cost in one week The repair was covered! Very pleased with Ricoh and Precision repair :-)

lol, they have my unit for 3 weeks now, every week I call and ask for updates, they tell me "we'll call you as soon as we have an update" and then just ignore me until I call them again. No one can tell me what they are actually doing with it. They somehow lost the printed warranty and extended warranty I have WRAPPED AROUND THE CAMERA with an elastic band, so they want to charge me $300+, had to send them scan copies of everything, they told me they'll check if I'm eligible for warranty repair last week (usual "we'll call you with a follow up on that"), but even when I called today no one could tell me if I'm going to get charged or not. What a joke, honestly. Foliage is changing color, last warm days are passing by, and I'm stuck here with no camera.

[stevebrot]

I called today no one could tell me if I'm going to get charged or not

It sounds like there is a question as to whether the extended warranty is valid. Hopefully they can sort out whether your receipts match up. IIRC, you were having white dot problems, right?


Steve

[awscreo]

It sounds like there is a question as to whether the extended warranty is valid. Hopefully they can sort out whether your receipts match up. IIRC, you were having white dot problems, right?


Steve

Yup. I sent it in for some calibrations, together with 28-105, mentioned the crazy shutter shock range and slight decentering on the left side, no idea if they fixed that (they told me lens was fixed and label was created 1.5 weeks ago).

Funny thing is, I created the repair request only a week out of the original 1 year warranty, most of the cases I see online suggest that they'd fix that even if I didn't have the extended warranty. I also sent them a pdf with scans of the original receipt and adorama receipt for the extended warranty, but I don't think they bothered to scroll down to second page because they called me in the afternoon asking me to send that receipt to them.

They also told me they are "working on the tag number now", meaning they are working on the camera, but it's been 3 weeks, have they not been working on it before today?

I suspect they not going to fix the issue I sent the camera in for, and I'll just end up wasting 3 weeks of the best season for photography, as well as some nerves.