[Noel Cramer]

I have been using Av systematically these last 2 months or so, when the mode setting suddenly went over to Tv or P, M and B sporadically without any way of getting the other settings... A slight sidewise pressure on the mode setting knob would also change the setting... The camera was always used in good conditions during this last year, without any shocks or having being dropped.
Must be some electro-mechanical defect.
I have sent the camera for repairs (not easy to find a Pentax representative in Switzerland...).

[Noel Cramer]

I sent my camera for repairs to the Pentax repair service in Switzerland (K.A. Jäger AG, Oberebenestasse 67A, CH-5620 Bremgarten) who repaired the mode setting defect, checked the camera functions and did other necessary adjustments. The camera was returned within the same week. Repairs free of charge, under guarantee.
I can fully recommend their service.

[jcdoss]

I would love it if an option to format both SD cards would appear in the next firmware.

[crow71]

After downloading pics and putting card back in K-1 I get the message that card is not formatted. I ejected the card properly from my Macbook. Never had this problem before. Other card worked fine and no issues. Cards were Sandisk Extreme Pro.

[Class A]

After downloading pics and putting card back in K-1 I get the message that card is not formatted.

Have you updated to the latest firmware version?

I've heard that earlier firmware versions had issues with some cards.

[Not a Number]

After downloading pics and putting card back in K-1 I get the message that card is not formatted. I ejected the card properly from my Macbook. Never had this problem before. Other card worked fine and no issues. Cards were Sandisk Extreme Pro.

The problem may be the card and not the camera. Sandisk 16GB MicroSD cards have been known to become read-only spontaneously - there is no write protect tab on MicroSD cards. The only solution was to send the defective cards to Sandisk for replacement.

Formatting the card with SD Formatter will reset the disk structure back to factory specifications eliminating possible corruption that could cause the behavior you are seeing.

SD Card Formatter - SD Association

[StefanMikes]

First, sorry to ask somewhat naieve questions perhaps.

1. The camera is loaded with two SD cards: Slot 1 with SanDisk Extreme Pro 16 GB, Slot 2 with SanDisk Extreme Pro 32 GB. The frame counter reads for RAW DNG:
Slot 1: 401 frames
Slot 2: 200 frames
If we divide 32 / 400 it gives 80 MB per frame estimate (it applies to both cards). Actual size of a RAW DNG file in FF mode is 40 GB. How comes I was covering a wedding and could take over 700 frames on the 32 GB card although K-1 said it would be only 401. How does K-1 calculate available shot space?

2. I was expecting that when the Slot 2 has been chosen as the first slot, and the slot sequence was 2 -> 1 then the K-1 should automatically switch to Slot 1 when the SD card in Slot 2 got full. Instead I got the message "Memory Card Full" and since I was a fresh user, I had to remove SD2 to be able to continue shooting. Now I can understand I could have switched the cards using the menu. Should not K-1 switch the slots automatically in the sequential mode?

3. The bug already reported on Page 12. With Sandisk Extreme Pro 32 GB (a Micro SD card mounted in a SD adapter), an only card in Slot 1 reports "This image cannot be displayed" in Preview after a RAW DNG has been captured. The only solution is to insert the SD card into Slot 2 or use both slots with SD cards inserted. No cure for over 1 year?

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Last edited by StefanMikes; 07-29-2017 at 03:55 AM.

[joergens.mi]

Add 1. Pentax ist working very conservative with it's calculations. It is based on the worst possible scenario, otherwise custumor will complain the camera displays 400 photos to be taken, an I get only 398 on my card. Therefore a approch with roundabout 70-80 MB per pictures is correct. Second the camera itself always calculates the free picture numbers bei dividing the free space on the card by the default file size. Therefore you can be really shure, that you will get the numbers shown in the display on yopur card. Typically the posible pictures are (1.5 times the pictures shown in the display even that is conservatively taken. The value is based one measurement done with K20D K5 K3 K1 over the last years) This type of calculation ist no point to complain about in my opinion.

Add 2, t also think that the cards will be switched automatically when one card is full in sequential mode (I don't will test this, because I'm using 128 GB cards, they never got full up to now - maximum was filled by ca 60% with 1400 pictures RAW pictures on a K1)

[Noel Cramer]

ADD 2: Cards do switch automatically in sequential mode (1 to 2). I have tested that with 64 gb cards. But it will not switch if card 2 is active and full and card 1 is empty.

[StefanMikes]

Add 1. Pentax ist working very conservative with it's calculations. It is based on the worst possible scenario, otherwise custumor will complain the camera displays 400 photos to be taken, an I get only 398 on my card. Therefore a approch with roundabout 70-80 MB per pictures is correct. Second the camera itself always calculates the free picture numbers bei dividing the free space on the card by the default file size. Therefore you can be really shure, that you will get the numbers shown in the display on yopur card. Typically the posible pictures are (1.5 times the pictures shown in the display even that is conservatively taken. The value is based one measurement done with K20D K5 K3 K1 over the last years) This type of calculation ist no point to complain about in my opinion.

1. I was almost convinced with the answer (thank you very much) before I started little thinking.

2. Calculation of size of an uncompressed 36 Mpx RAW file
7360 * 4912 = 36152320 pixels
36152320 * 14 bit = 506132480 pixels
506132480 / 8 bit = 63266560 Bytes
63266560 / 1024 = 61783.75 KB
61783.75 / 1024 = 60.34 MB (approximate size of 36 Mpx uncompressed RAW file, add a small amount for EXIF data, let it be 60.35 MB)

Now, 32 GB * 1024 = 32768 MB;
32768 / 60.35 = 542 shots available (rounded down to next integer number).

This is not a rocket science.

I cannot explain why RAW DNG files from the K-1 are significantly smaller than the file size as calculated above. Either those are compressed or delivered at significantly reduced bit-depth of 10-bits (that would be BAD). Same applies to PEF files (these are about 42 MB in size). So far, I never got a RAW DNG file bigger than 50 MB.

3. On the other hand, a RAW DNG file taken from Pixel Shift Resolution has a quadruple size of a single RAW file. It could be as much as 156 MB. 156/4 = 39 MB. I'm pointing to the fact that a K-1 user might want to take Pixel Shift Resolution pictures only. In such situation, a 32 GB card would be able to store about 32768 / 160 = 204 shots instead of promised 401.

Is it possible that Ricoh engineers might not understand what they were doing?! So sophisticated camera and so unreliable with simple calculations with different picture-taking modes? Very disappointing indeed. I am not so experienced to know how Canon and Nikon do it but as a Pentaxian I can only say I am very much disappointed in this respect. I am an engineer myself.

P.S. I am very happy with the K-1 as such. I might want just invest into larger SD cards. Still, is it a wedding or a large music festival coverage, an aspiring professional photographer must be aware how many shots are still available on their memory cards. Otherwize, a prize-winning shot might be unexpectedly lost.

[StefanMikes]

ADD 2: Cards do switch automatically in sequential mode (1 to 2). I have tested that with 64 gb cards. But it will not switch if card 2 is active and full and card 1 is empty.

Thank you very much. Very useful answer.

[Class A]

I cannot explain why RAW DNG files from the K-1 are significantly smaller than the file size as calculated above.

Both PEF and DNG files use lossless compression.

Depending on the noise levels in the image, the compression can be very effective (when there is little noise and hence less entropy = more predictability) or it can be less effective. That is why any "image capacity" display has to guess the actual number of images and it is better to conservatively err on the low side.

[StefanMikes]

Both PEF and DNG files use lossless compression.

Depending on the noise levels in the image, the compression can be very effective (when there is little noise and hence less entropy = more predictability) or it can be less effective. That is why any "image capacity" display has to guess the actual number of images and it is better to conservatively err on the low side.

Right.
An uncompressed RAW (worst case scenario) takes 63.35 MB. Not 80. Why to use the wrong estimate.

[BrianR]

36152320 * 14 bit = 506132480 pixels

See RAW file size - PentaxForums.com where, according to Barry, each pixel becomes 16 bits of storage space. So you're at just under 73 MB uncompressed (in terms of the "MB" used by storage manufacturers, where 1 MB = 1000000 Bytes). Add in the embedded jpeg previews (on the K-1 samples I downloaded, these were in the neighbourhood of 5 MB), and you're not far from the 80 MB estimate for an uncompressed raw file. Crank the ISO and go shoot some heavily detailed scenes, see just how large a raw file you can make.

AFAIK Pentax has always leaned very heavily on the conservative side for number shots remaining. This would strongly suggest it's not due to their incompetence, but is an intentional design. The alternate is that they're just so utterly terrible at their jobs that no one has noticed over how many generations of digital cameras?

[StefanMikes]

See RAW file size - PentaxForums.com where, according to Barry, each pixel becomes 16 bits of storage space. So you're at just under 73 MB uncompressed (in terms of the "MB" used by storage manufacturers, where 1 MB = 1000000 Bytes). Add in the embedded jpeg previews (on the K-1 samples I downloaded, these were in the neighbourhood of 5 MB), and you're not far from the 80 MB estimate for an uncompressed raw file. Crank the ISO and go shoot some heavily detailed scenes, see just how large a raw file you can make.

Thank you. That is convincing. I took a shot at maximum ISO and the resulting file was 67 MB. In fact, switching to Pixel Shift Resolution also decreases the number of available shots, which seems legit.

What I therefore miss from K-1 is reporting the number of taken shots along the free shot number estimate. A friend told me Nikons give a number such as 138/146 where 138 is the number of shots already taken and 146 is the number of shots still available. If anyone can tell me where I can find the number of shots already taken in the K-1, then I dismiss the case completely ;-)