[LeFanch]

Hi,

Unfortunately I experienced a malfunction of my beloved K-1 II this week-end while attending an airshow close to my home. I have been in contact with Amazon after-sale services and will get it reimbursed as soon as they receive it.

If you except the few (traumatic) minutes when I understood that I was not going to take pictures of the last part of the airshow in spite of my efforts, and the fact that I only used this camera for a month and a half, it was a rather positive experience.

Here are some details:
I had taken around 500 pictures, the battery in the body was about half-full. Since I was not taking pictures constantly, the camera had gone to power-saving, I woke it up by half-pressing the shutter release. I had to press it a bit harder for some reason. No problem. Camera awake, I was happy.
A few minutes later, same thing, I pressed the shutter release, but this time, no success.

No panic, I switched the camera off, then on again a few seconds later. The top display showed the 2 memory cards symbols blinking twice, then the display stayed blank. No way to wake it up. Since I have seen a few posts on resetting camera here, I took the battery out of the camera, but that did not do the trick. I did that again and waited a bit longer (5 min) before putting the battery back. No go. Again, I removed the battery and waited 15 min but still no joy.
Since the top display showed SD cards symbols, I removed the cards and tried again. No luck. I put empty cards in, changed battery. Nothing.
I gave-up.

The day after I contacted Amazon chat for support, and my contact got me to try a few things:
Starting with Menu pressed, to check any firmware display. Nothing (but I knew that, I had tried that as well).
Starting with shutter release pressed to reinitialise the camera (this one, I did not know, but I'll keep it in mind). No joy either.
Turning dials to different positions in case, I quote, "a bad connection would fool the body into 'thinking' that the shutter release is pressed". Nothing.

The chat session lasted about 10 minutes, and decision was made to send the camera back for reimbursement. It is now on the way to some Amazon office / warehouse, so I will soon be able to buy a new one.

I have no idea how this happened, and found no other feedback about anything similar on this forum, so I assume it is just an isolated incident.
Nevertheless, I thought I would let you guys know that it could happen, and no fix was found in my case.

I will soon order a new K-1 II, with no hesitation. It is a body that I loved using for this rather short time, and I am looking forward to using it again soon.

Cheers!

François

[BigMackCam]

Sorry to hear that, François, but glad that you'll be getting another one.

It sounds as if Amazon were pretty helpful in their online support, and showed a greater level of understanding than I would have expected

[LensBeginner]

Ouch! hope this is a one-off, and you've exhausted your dose of bad luck
Agree with BigMackCam, I don't usually expect this level of professionalism and tech-savviness from a seller.

[redpit]

This is frustating and horrible to happen during an event like an airshow! I don't even want to think about it...

I hope as you said that it is an isolated incident and you'll enjoy your new K-1II!

[victormeldrew]

That is a shame. I wonder if Amazon had any specific knowledge (that I've personally never heard of) or whether they have some generic camera troubleshooting that might possibly apply to a camera fault? The whole 'try turning it on with a button pressed' thing is fairly common on many devices, after all.

Glad they're just going to refund you and not send it off to Pentax to hunt for any evidence of moisture inside...

[rawr]

Sad to hear.

Was there any useful information recorded in the EXIF from the last few images before the camera died? Like camera body temperature, camera settings, voltage levels etc.

Also what lens was mounted at the time? And were there any other accessories attached, like a flash or battery grip?

[LeFanch]

Thanks guys,

I was surprised too, by how quick the decision was made to get the camera back and send refund.
The few questions that I had to answer, and the 2-3 things he asked me to do would tend to indicate that he was going through a list of basic troubleshooting "items" as you mentioned victormeldrew

And yes, I was pretty happy that he just offered a refund. I know I took good care of this camera, that it was not hit, did not fall or was not used in any hostile environment, but I still had the impression that at some point I could be confronted to someone mentioning a obscure "line in small characters" somewhere in the manual / terms of warranty and basically mentioning that they could not help...

---------- Post added 12-06-18 at 14:19 ----------

Sad to hear.

Was there any useful information recorded in the EXIF from the last few images before the camera died? Like camera body temperature, camera settings, voltage levels etc.

Also what lens was mounted at the time? And were there any other accessories attached, like a flash or battery grip?

No accessory attached, the lens was the (fantastic) Pentax 150-450mm zoom. While testing I also mounted a 50/1.7 lens too.

I was planning on looking at the exif, but I have not done it yet. I loaded the pictures to my computer, but just had a quick look at the last ones to check for any corrupted file. They were all OK.
I'll let you know if I find anything abnormal.

---

Last edited by LeFanch; 06-12-2018 at 05:24 AM. Reason: Spelling

[rawr]

No accessory attached, the lens was the (fantastic) Pentax 150-450mm zoom. While testing I also mounted a 50/1.7 lens too.

Aha. No likely problems there. Sometimes accessories can introduce bugs, particularly electrical bugs. I've had camera crashes due to teleconverters, battery grip, old 3rd party flash on a sync cable etc.

EXIF is usually a mine of information. Curious to hear what you find in there.

[gaweidert]

Seems to me that maybe the shutter release button malfunctioned. Having to push it further to get the camera to wake up may be the clue.


I have a rule of thumb. It has worked for decades at preventing camera failures at inopportune times. I always have a backup camera available when photographing one of a kind happenings. If I don't have the backup camera then my primary camera will fail, If I do have a backup, then the primary unit always works great. It's like some kind of universal law.

[jgnfld]

Seems to me that maybe the shutter release button malfunctioned. Having to push it further to get the camera to wake up may be the clue.


I have a rule of thumb. It has worked for decades at preventing camera failures at inopportune times. I always have a backup camera available when photographing one of a kind happenings. If I don't have the backup camera then my primary camera will fail, If I do have a backup, then the primary unit always works great. It's like some kind of universal law.

I've found the same law applies on the water with boating machinery and rigging as well.

Sorry to hear of OP's plight.

[LensBeginner]

I've found the same law applies on the water with boating machinery and rigging as well.

Sorry to hear of OP's plight.

Murphy's Law applied to Redundancy... I like that! or, wait, actually I don't
Same applies to umbrellas and rain, now that I think about it...

[gaweidert]

Murphy's Law applied to Redundancy... I like that! or, wait, actually I don't
Same applies to umbrellas and rain, now that I think about it...

Just always remember that two is one and one is none.

[reh321]

Thanks guys,

I was surprised too, by how quick the decision was made to get the camera back and send refund.
The few questions that I had to answer, and the 2-3 things he asked me to do would tend to indicate that he was going through a list of basic troubleshooting "items" as you mentioned victormeldrew

And yes, I was pretty happy that he just offered a refund. I know I took good care of this camera, that it was not hit, did not fall or was not used in any hostile environment, but I still had the impression that at some point I could be confronted to someone mentioning a obscure "line in small characters" somewhere in the manual / terms of warranty and basically mentioning that they could not help...

This is why products have warranties - every product has cases of "infant mortality" - some part unexpectedly fails early in the life of the product. If the product gets past that point, it should last a normal life.

I'm really sorry this happened the way it did. I'm glad they handled graciously; unfortunately, a backup camera is the only way to keep shooting, but you have also shown grace during the period, and you are to be commended for handling it so well.

[Not a Number]

This is why products have warranties - every product has cases of "infant mortality" - some part unexpectedly fails early in the life of the product. If the product gets past that point, it should last a normal life.

Failures are most likely to happen at the beginning and end of equipment service life. This is known as the bathtub curve of reliability. A decreasing rate of failure (early failures) followed by a fairly constant rate (random failures) and finally an increase in the rate (wear-out failures). The name comes from the shape of the curve being similar to a cross-section of a bathtub.

If equipment goes through the early failure phase without failure than it is likely to continue to operate reliably until the wear-out failure phase although random failure can happen at any time. Equipment needed for high reliability will be go through an accelerated burn-in period before being placed into service.

Looks like this camera suffered from early failure. Stuff happens.

[reh321]

Failures are most likely to happen at the beginning and end of equipment service life. This is known as the bathtub curve of reliability. A decreasing rate of failure (early failures) followed by a fairly constant rate (random failures) and finally an increase in the rate (wear-out failures). The name comes from the shape of the curve being similar to a cross-section of a bathtub.

If equipment goes through the early failure phase without failure than it is likely to continue to operate reliably until the wear-out failure phase although random failure can happen at any time. Equipment needed for high reliability will be go through an accelerated burn-in period before being placed into service.

Looks like this camera suffered from early failure. Stuff happens.

My Dad had a reputation with automobiles - when purchasing a new-to-him vehicle, he would tell the dealer where to find the "trade-in" ... in other words, he would drive it as long as it would run. He used to tease me about my many cameras - with film cameras I replace my camera every six years or so, although my last two film cameras lasted eleven years each. As a result of this, I have never been in the habit of selling old equipment - it didn't have much resale value once I was done with it - so I just packed the old camera bag away {if it still worked} and used it as a backup for the next one. That procedure wouldn't have been useful at the air-show, but having a backup you're familiar with does allow one to keep photographing while the current primary camera is in the shop.