[Medex]

Hi, fellow pentaxians,

In autumn 2019 I had the problem with K-1 - shutter started to stack. After some tricks it worked for short time of period, but lately stacked completely.
I sent my camera for diagnostics to dedicated service in Sweden and they found the problem - shutter charge motor is damaged and should be replaced. The price is 450 euro.

I would ask for your opinion about repair cost. How do you think, is it worth that money? The K-1 has about 85000 shutter actuations (actually much more, because this count shows just pictures made, and no shutter actuations are calculated in case of Live View usage (and I did a lot of shooting in LV mode)). Otherwise body is in good shape and shutter is OK according to serviceman conclusions.

I have second Pentax K-1 body that is still under warranty and shoot with it now.
Money are not a big problem. But maybe it is worth to leave damaged camera for parts in case the second body will have problems?

Does anyone had similar problems?

Thank you.

[aslyfox]

Question No. 1

are you only willing to use a full frame sensor camera

if not, and time is not of the essence, you may want to wait until the much anticipated K New is released and see whether it has any feature you like

perhaps the K 1 and K 1 II advantages will be surpassed ?

Question No. 2

what are your options if you do want two cameras available to you?

what is the cost of buying a used K 1 in your area vs. cost of repair

keeping in mind you know what you did with your damaged K 1 and will have no idea what happened to any K 1 you can buy

[D1N0]

I would contact Ricoh or your dealer anyway to try to get them to repair it under warranty. 85000 is not 300000.

[Medex]

Question No. 1

are you only willing to use a full frame sensor camera

if not, and time is not of the essence, you may want to wait until the much anticipated K New is released and see whether it has any feature you like

perhaps the K 1 and K 1 II advantages will be surpassed ?

Question No. 2

what are your options if you do want two cameras available to you?

what is the cost of buying a used K 1 in your area vs. cost of repair

keeping in mind you know what you did with your damaged K 1 and will have no idea what happened to any K 1 you can buy

Yes, I would like to use full frame camera, even I have at least K-5II (my daughter is using it now) and k-5 converted to Infrared. The majority of my optics are FF compatible.
I bought second camera quite cheap with 22000 actuations. And today I could buy one more used (5000 actuations, warranty 1,5 years) for 999 euros (with two lenses and 2 batteries, but I don't need that lenses).
I have no plans to buy K-new, but would like to buy DFA* 85/1.4

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Last edited by MarkJerling; 02-24-2020 at 12:30 PM. Reason: Cleanup.

[gaweidert]

Personally I would get it repaired. It does not look like Pentax is going to come out with a full frame DSLR for some time. If they do and you decide to purchase one, you can always sell it and get the money back on the repair. If you only have one camera it is going to fail at the worst possible time. There is a saying: Two is one and one is none.

[D1N0]

n fact the shutter is OK, the broken part is shutter charge motor.

I would consider that part of the shutter mechanism

[Medex]

I would consider that part of the shutter mechanism

That is interesting point, I will ask the dealer, But there is no warranty for 300000 actuations beyond 2 years warranty period for shutter if something fails.
Another guestion I have no answer yeat is does that shutter charge motor is simple motor or whole assembly. Maybe the motor is absolutely the same as in k-30 camera or similar and it could be replaced much cheaper by myself

---------- Post added 02-24-20 at 04:01 PM ----------

Personally I would get it repaired. It does not look like Pentax is going to come out with a full frame DSLR for some time. If they do and you decide to purchase one, you can always sell it and get the money back on the repair. If you only have one camera it is going to fail at the worst possible time. There is a saying: Two is one and one is none.

So, I am still under considerations about repair or not

[UncleVanya]

@medex, the price doesn't seem too high to be worth the repair. This assumes the camera is in good shape.

[D1N0]

I think they will probably replace the entire shutter assembly:

[Medex]

@medex, the price doesn't seem too high to be worth the repair. This assumes the camera is in good shape.

Thank you, UncleVanya.

[UncleVanya]

As mentioned with the claimed shutter life you might try emailing Pentax or escalating to see if you can get with a discount or free repair. The failure seems uncommon and at that low shutter count it wouldn't hurt to try.

[Medex]

I think they will probably replace the entire shutter assembly:

The answer from service: "No there is no problem with the shutter unit, the shutter charging motor assy will be replaced."
Could be subtlety of terminology.

[D1N0]

Could be subtlety of terminology

It sounds dodgy to me

[Medex]

It sounds dodgy to me

could be In case of charge motor assy replacement I would like to replace whole shutter mechanism
The shutter charge motor is separate part but the shutter can't work without that part in durability tests

Personally I would get it repaired. It does not look like Pentax is going to come out with a full frame DSLR for some time. If they do and you decide to purchase one, you can always sell it and get the money back on the repair. If you only have one camera it is going to fail at the worst possible time. There is a saying: Two is one and one is none.

I agree. I don't exactly know what 450 E's is worth in dollars, but if you can get it not only repaired but cleaned, calibrated, adjusted, and/or reconditioned, you'll probably get it back better than new. And a good, used one is worth about a thousand to twelve-hundred bucks right now, I think. I'd say it's worth fixing.

A side point: I don't know anything about the law where you live, but in the U.S., a "warranty" is a promise made at the time of sale that the product will conform to certain standards or possess certain characteristics. That representation that the thing would give you 300,000 actuations WAS a warranty. That business about fixing broken stuff for free is a "limitation of remedies", which may be included in a manufacturer's warranty, but is not itself a warranty. If they said you'd get 300,000 actuations of the shutter and you got less before it gave up, that's a breach of warranty, regardless of any time limit other than the applicable statute of limitations (where I live, that's four years). I'd demand that they fix it for free, regardless of their "limited warranty", because they promised you a certain number and you didn't get it. (Since it was probably an unintentional misrepresentation, you can't claim "fraud", though it may be "constructive fraud" which would justify "rescission", the right to get your money back for the purchase price.)