[MJKoski]

Do you have a repair center in Finland or is it sent to Sweden?

I got an answer from the Swedish repair center today, after sending them some test shots with white noise, stating that the early cameras had not had their sensors properly adjusted. Not sure what it means but I guess I will send it in.

I brought my unit to my dealer in Finland who sent it to Sweden to be serviced. But in the end this is good news. Solution is available after all.

For those looking for the issue. Take ISO25600 shot, 30 seconds with lens cap on. It seems that the affected units will have a darkened bar on top of the image. The guy who talked to Focus Nordic folks had also this dark bar in high ISO images.

I brought my unit to my dealer in Finland who sent it to Sweden to be serviced. But in the end this is good news. Solution is available after all.

For those looking for the issue. Take ISO25600 shot, 30 seconds with lens cap on. It seems that the affected units will have a darkened bar on top of the image. The guy who talked to Focus Nordic folks had also this dark bar in high ISO images.

I ask because the repair center had not heard of the problem before I mailed them the other day. Got the answer today. I guess your camera has yet to arrive.

[fromunderthebridge]

I brought my unit to my dealer in Finland who sent it to Sweden to be serviced. But in the end this is good news. Solution is available after all.

For those looking for the issue. Take ISO25600 shot, 30 seconds with lens cap on. It seems that the affected units will have a darkened bar on top of the image. The guy who talked to Focus Nordic folks had also this dark bar in high ISO images.

Thanks for the tip. My unit thankfully seems unaffected by the dark band error as well.

I do not have the dark bar on the top but I do have white noise in the shadows. Comparing to my K-3 where there is smooth blackness.

[fromunderthebridge]

Tested again, this time 145s @ iso 100 pushed 5 stops in ACR, color NR off. Same result, random RGB noise, no white spots. (Just reporting my results, not challenging anyone else's).

[tabugman]

Edit: I see I wasn't the first to report this. Sorry about that

My unit has the black band at the top, so I am affected.

According to Kameraservice (the authorized Pentax service center here in Sweden), the early copies of the K-1 lacks an adjustment that should have been been done at the factory. They recommend people experiencing this issue to send in their camera to be adjusted.

That's all I know and what sort of adjustment they're performing is unknown to me, but it looks like there is a fix for it.

I got the information from a Swedish fellow Pentax K1 user. It would be nice if Ricoh released some more information on which copies are affected to keep us guessing...

[stevebrot]

I got the information from a Swedish fellow Pentax K1 user. It would be nice if Ricoh released some more information on which copies are affected to keep us guessing...

It is quite possible that they don't know a range of serial numbers or manufacturing dates yet. My feeling is that given the nature of the problem (particularly the black bar), a general recall of early batch product would be in order.


Steve

[stevebrot]

Yea, pissed is easy word for this. Especially when called a troll when participating in the discussion.

I thought the name calling was a bit out of order, particularly since it was your first post here. OTOH, a post that consists primarily of reference to multiple other cameras that you were more happy with does sound sort of trollish. It still is not clear to me why there was an expectation of superior long exposure performance with the K-1 over the other cameras mentioned, but that is not the issue, right?

Again, sorry you were singled out for strong criticism based on a single post.

The saving grace of all this is that two very real issues have been characterized (at least partially) and that a clear cause and remedy has been found. Even better is that your experience was part of the process and that your camera is being fixed. With any luck Ricoh will issue a service bulletin of some sorts or maybe even a limited recall such as was done with the K-3II.

Thank you for your input on a sticky issue.


Steve

[MJKoski]

I have gone thru lot of devices during the last five years. I am helpless gear junkie but also a dedicated photographer. I dived into Sony system for years thanks to the tilt screen but got burned quite a few times as when you try to expose over 30 seconds with a7x camera you are hit by 14 -> 12bit drop which drops available DR by one stop. Combine that with LENR the DR drops another stop. Now, D810 (fixed one) allowed multiminute base ISO exposures without LENR which is important to me as I shoot majority of my stuff at dusk/dawn when the good light lasts for 15 minutes.

I decided to try K-1 as it had the same chip as D810 AND tilt screen. Maybe my expectations were too high. Why I need a tilt screen is neck damage from car crash accident in 2011. Composing without one causes lot of pain when doing low angle shooting.

I am totally tired of all gear swapping. I started with K200D back in 2008 and probably will quit with Pentax camera some day.

[tabugman]

I have some new information from Kameraservice (via another user) about the remedy they apply.

Apparently, there is an extra software calibration that wasn't performed on the early K-1s. Any fix will therefore be a software one as it seems.

[stevebrot]

I have gone thru lot of devices during the last five years. I am helpless gear junkie but also a dedicated photographer. I dived into Sony system for years thanks to the tilt screen but got burned quite a few times as when you try to expose over 30 seconds with a7x camera you are hit by 14 -> 12bit drop which drops available DR by one stop. Combine that with LENR the DR drops another stop. Now, D810 (fixed one) allowed multiminute base ISO exposures without LENR which is important to me as I shoot majority of my stuff at dusk/dawn when the good light lasts for 15 minutes.

I decided to try K-1 as it had the same chip as D810 AND tilt screen. Maybe my expectations were too high. Why I need a tilt screen is neck damage from car crash accident in 2011. Composing without one causes lot of pain when doing low angle shooting.

I am totally tired of all gear swapping. I started with K200D back in 2008 and probably will quit with Pentax camera some day.

Sorry about the neck injury. That sort of thing can definitely make photography and life in general much less pleasant.

I found your comments regarding the A7 interesting; ditto for the D810. I like doing long exposure work, but have not found a reasonable solution for noise management on digital. With film, it is fairly easy to do long exposures with reciprocity failure being the major consideration. Oh well, figuring all this stuff out is half the fun, eh?


Steve

[MJKoski]

Rent a D810 sometime. It is rather good with single long exposures at base ISO. Upper limit is somewhere between 3-4 minutes @ +15C. LENR is not really necessary until that barrier. Perhaps 645Z delivers as well but that is straight out of my budget.

[Class A]

I am totally tired of all gear swapping. I started with K200D back in 2008 and probably will quit with Pentax camera some day.

You do realise, though, that other manufactures just give you different problems like oil on the sensor (D600), AF sensor misalignment (D800), white dots (D810), mirror box shavings wrecking viewfinder and AF system (1DX), mandatory lossy RAW compression causing artefacts (Sony 7 series)?

Some of these issues, the Sony problem (now fixed) and the K-1 problem (now fixed), would not matter to a large class of photographers. If you are a discerning person (I am too), the best way to cope with gear problems is to manage your expectations. You'll never get guaranteed perfection, in particular not when being an early adopter.

Even when you order a mirror for a $1.175 billion telescope to be manufactured with 1/800,000th of an inch precision, you may receive a nasty surprise when you learn that you have to pay another mission to fit glasses on your one-of-a-kind space telescope. I think that's an occasion where one could rightfully exclaim "That's not funny at all.".

I understand your loaner camera (you don't even have to wait for the repair, which is unusual unless you are a professional with a contract) does not have either of the two problems you found (which probably have the same cause) and there is no reason to believe your original camera won't perform the same way once it has been repaired. So, say two years from now, what would be the impact of having had to send in your camera once? Will you still say "I better get away from Pentax"?

I understand the need for venting, but I also think it is good to maintain perspective.

Lets hope the fix fixes this... Added 1.95 stops and lifted the shadows 100%. 908 seconds ISO100.

[MJKoski]

If they do something which was done to D810 then your sample shot will look better but it will still have some dots. That was my experience with fixed D810 and 600 second long exposures without LENR (ISO64). And your test is with 900 seconds. In subzero temp winter shooting (-20C) that 600 second barrier was obtainable without LENR with the Nikon. I guess Pentax will reach same level.

D800E was interesting as well because it allowed same kind of long exposures as D810 but also quite a bit more shadow lifting capacity. D810 is better in pulling highlights. Not sure how K-1 compares to these two yet.