[JoeKrepps]

I sent an e-mail to Ricoh Imaging's customer service over the weekend. I got a generic answer - "Sorry. Thanks for being a loyal customer. Contact precisioncamera.com.". (I mentioned I have an ME Super.) Not a surprise but it would have been nice if they'd give me more info'. It doesn't sound like I'm the first. (Lol! I tried to see if Ricoh would send me a loaner while it's away. I'd love to try a K-3ii or a KP. No dice. Oh well.)
The camera was flawless today - 1st image through 306th.
Guess my next move is to contact Precision Camera. Has anyone dealt with them? Quick turn-around for warranty work? I'd hate to miss the peak Fall colors, probably a week or so away.
Loved my Nikon, which I'll use while the K1 is "on vacation" but I'm weirdly _obsessed_ with the K1. It doesn't even feel heavy any more. Makes the D5300 feel like a toy.

[Not a Number]

I sent an e-mail to Ricoh Imaging's customer service over the weekend. I got a generic answer - "Sorry. Thanks for being a loyal customer. Contact precisioncamera.com.". (I mentioned I have an ME Super.) Not a surprise but it would have been nice if they'd give me more info'. It doesn't sound like I'm the first. (Lol! I tried to see if Ricoh would send me a loaner while it's away. I'd love to try a K-3ii or a KP. No dice. Oh well.)
The camera was flawless today - 1st image through 306th.
Guess my next move is to contact Precision Camera. Has anyone dealt with them? Quick turn-around for warranty work? I'd hate to miss the peak Fall colors, probably a week or so away.
Loved my Nikon, which I'll use while the K1 is "on vacation" but I'm weirdly _obsessed_ with the K1. It doesn't even feel heavy any more. Makes the D5300 feel like a toy.

It is usually better to call the customer service number that's printed on your warranty card than using the contact form on the website. At least you got an automated response. For a time people were getting no response at all.

[derekkite]

I sent an e-mail to Ricoh Imaging's customer service over the weekend. I got a generic answer - "Sorry. Thanks for being a loyal customer. Contact precisioncamera.com.". (I mentioned I have an ME Super.) Not a surprise but it would have been nice if they'd give me more info'. It doesn't sound like I'm the first. (Lol! I tried to see if Ricoh would send me a loaner while it's away. I'd love to try a K-3ii or a KP. No dice. Oh well.)
The camera was flawless today - 1st image through 306th.
Guess my next move is to contact Precision Camera. Has anyone dealt with them? Quick turn-around for warranty work? I'd hate to miss the peak Fall colors, probably a week or so away.
Loved my Nikon, which I'll use while the K1 is "on vacation" but I'm weirdly _obsessed_ with the K1. It doesn't even feel heavy any more. Makes the D5300 feel like a toy.

The problem with your situation is that they very well may not see the issue. Bouncing around in shipping may fix the problem. I'd talk to them to see if they have any suggestions. It may be best to wait a bit, within the warranty period. It obviously is an indication of some problem, and likely will get worse. Which then makes it easy to diagnose and repair.

But talk to them at Precision.

It sounds like a cold solder joint or dodgy connection of some kind.

[Snakeisthestuff]

Short update on my issues:
Ok so I know now for sure that my problem is the mirror who got stuck occasionally.

I had it acting worse today, freezing the camera on the first shot while being black in the viewfinder. Removing battery, putting it back in and turning on the camera the first thing I heard was the mirror switching down.
Then the camera was working as usual.

I am almost half a year out of warranty. I will try to contact ricoh on this issue but not so much hope they will fix it for free...

[D1N0]

Any updates on this problem? My K-1 is barely a month out of warranty and just had it's first black image on start. Shutter sound was weird too.

[stevebrot]

Any updates on this problem? My K-1 is barely a month out of warranty and just had it's first black image on start. Shutter sound was weird too.

Talk to Ricoh. If you are only one month out of warranty, they will likely cover.


Steve

[JoeKrepps]

Short update on my issues:
Ok so I know now for sure that my problem is the mirror who got stuck occasionally.

I had it acting worse today, freezing the camera on the first shot while being black in the viewfinder. Removing battery, putting it back in and turning on the camera the first thing I heard was the mirror switching down.
Then the camera was working as usual.

I am almost half a year out of warranty. I will try to contact ricoh on this issue but not so much hope they will fix it for free...

I've noticed a few things.
1) It's worse in warm/hot weather. Now that winter is settling in, it (black first photo) doesn't happen as often. As others, probably on the K1 Facebook page, have pointed out, hitting the Live View button is an easy way to know if the mirror is going to flip up. I experienced the same behaviour last year.

2) If the mirror stays up, it's faster to hit the Review button on the back than take the battery out, then in and restart it. Hitting the Review button has worked 100% of the time.
3) There are times, after a few dozen photos that day, that the mirror _sounds_ like it; flipped up for the photo, flipped down afterwards, then quickly flips up and down.

I kinda' wish it didn't do this but I'm accepting it as "this is what they do". Much like the European cars I've owned over the years - you love them, quirks and all. Hoping in a few years, when the Shutter Count comes up on 300k (I shoot 50k-60k photos/year), the K-1 Mkii won't do this. Maybe I'll go for the new 2020 K-YetToBeNamed crop sensor camera.

[Snakeisthestuff]

Any updates on this problem? My K-1 is barely a month out of warranty and just had it's first black image on start. Shutter sound was weird too.

Short update on my situation. So it got a little worse with now almost every time I pick the camera up the first frame will be black because of the mirror not opening. So I got the routine to try live-view after switching the camera on to see if the mirror is stuck. If the picture is black I switch live-view on / off for several times which usually brings the mirror back in position. Then it works until I put the camera to rest for some time. When it kind a freezes, which happens very seldom, I take the battery out and back in and that fixes it.

I heard that this whole problem might be connected to faulty / low voltage of batteries. I have the feeling that might be true as I noticed it is happening more frequently with one of my two batteries. That batterie also is drained faster as the other one. Both are genuine Pentax brand batteries bought with my K-1.
It could be that there is somehow not enough power to move the mirror up at some point, maybe because of friction between the moving parts, like cold motor oil vs warm motor oil, to get a car reference.
After that friction has cleared it works until it sits for a while and the friction builds up again.

[stevebrot]

I've noticed a few things.
1) It's worse in warm/hot weather. Now that winter is settling in, it (black first photo) doesn't happen as often. As others, probably on the K1 Facebook page, have pointed out, hitting the Live View button is an easy way to know if the mirror is going to flip up. I experienced the same behaviour last year.

2) If the mirror stays up, it's faster to hit the Review button on the back than take the battery out, then in and restart it. Hitting the Review button has worked 100% of the time.
3) There are times, after a few dozen photos that day, that the mirror _sounds_ like it; flipped up for the photo, flipped down afterwards, then quickly flips up and down.

I kinda' wish it didn't do this but I'm accepting it as "this is what they do". Much like the European cars I've owned over the years - you love them, quirks and all. Hoping in a few years, when the Shutter Count comes up on 300k (I shoot 50k-60k photos/year), the K-1 Mkii won't do this. Maybe I'll go for the new 2020 K-YetToBeNamed crop sensor camera.

Are you saying that you did not send your camera for repair last year when it was still in-warranty?


Steve

[JoeKrepps]

Are you saying that you did not send your camera for repair last year when it was still in-warranty?


Steve

That's correct. I did not send it back. The problem stopped happening as colder weather started. At the time, there was no way to tell if the problem went away or if it was temperature related.


Further, I shoot just under 60k photos/year. I didn't want to be without the camera for an extended length of time, for an intermittent problem, which seemed to go away. My backup camera is a Nikon D5300 which is already nearly 50k over it's Nikon rated Shutter Count of 150k. The K-1 replaced it, as my primary camera. The backup for that camera is a Nikon D60 I had repaired, by Nikon. Its measly 3 AF points would make for a very long day when you're shooting that much. (Going from its 3 AF points to 39 in the D5300 was like getting a present!)



IF the K-1 consistently had the problem going into the colder months, then I would have bit the bullet and sent it back. It only takes a second or two to hit the Live View button, to see if it's going to behave. Even if it misses the first shot, though I'm "in a hurry" to crank out a few hundred photos in 2-3 hours, I would simply reshoot the first photo. Likewise, if I'd read about several other people who had a K-1 with the same problem (i.e. it's a known K-1 issue) and sending it to a Pentax Repair Facility fixed it for good, then I would have been more likely to send it back. (My "profit margin" is so thin, renting another K-1 while mine was being repaired, wasn't much of an option.)


I'm not terribly worried about #3, double flipping of the mirror for a photo. It just started a month or two ago, doesn't happen often and it doesn't affect the image. Just some weird things my Nikons never did. That D5300 would struggle with low light focusing, during the winter, on occasion but, mechanically it never, ever had a glitch. Honestly, the K-1 has similar challenges in the exact same, low light situations for focusing.


On the other hand, glitches and all, I wouldn't trade my K-1 for anything! My right arm looks like a body builder's (lol!) from lifting it a few hundred times/day and the images are, far and away, superior to my Nikons. The easy access to controls has me fiddling with settings when I should simply be shooting. It's extremely forgiving of me, in that way.

Here's a screenshot, taken of my Shutter Count, on the one year anniversary...(hope this works!)

[stevebrot]

That's correct. I did not send it back. The problem stopped happening as colder weather started. At the time, there was no way to tell if the problem went away or if it was temperature related.

I hope this all works out for you. Unlike some European cars, what you have described is not generally "what they do" or a quirk of the K-1. With any luck the issue will not worsen to the point of failure.


Steve

[derekkite]

I have a number of batteries and this is the first sign that one of them is going bad.

[D1N0]

I believe the battery that came with the K-1 was in it. I also use the K-5 battery in the K-1. I'll try the crappy degraded third party ones I have that I now use in the K-5. They should cause it when it is battery related. Het hasn't happened yet since that one time though.

[Snakeisthestuff]

I talked to a pentax rep today. He said it is a known issue of the lubricant of the mirror. If the camera is not used for some time it becomes sticky.
It is similar to the aperture block issue of the K-50 but that was of course a much worse problem. The K-1 problem seems to affects only a few people it seems. I told him I believe another thing adding up might be the battery which is going bad, so there might be a problem to create enough force to move the sticky mirror on the first try.

I asked him if it would make sense to send the camera in to get it fixed but he seemed rather pessimistic on that .

[Mikesul]

I talked to a pentax rep today. He said it is a known issue of the lubricant of the mirror. If the camera is not used for some time it becomes sticky.
It is similar to the aperture block issue of the K-50 but that was of course a much worse problem. The K-1 problem seems to affects only a few people it seems. I told him I believe another thing adding up might be the battery which is going bad, so there might be a problem to create enough force to move the sticky mirror on the first try.

I asked him if it would make sense to send the camera in to get it fixed but he seemed rather pessimistic on that .

So the moral is USE your K-1!