[RangerMD]

On the 1st of May, 2019, my new KP (bought December ’19 directly for the Official Pentax Representative in Greece, died in the most remorse manner one could imagine. We were on a country family excursion with some friends (both of them Pentax users owing to me). Took some pictures and when we sat to have lunch in a tavern, used wifi to upload one in my mobile to use for social media sharing. Then while browsing the photos from the camera, the camera suddenly died. Thought could be due to power of the battery, so replaced battery. Camera did not turn on since. Change lenses, removed batteries, removed SD card, replaced SD cards, charged and used new batteries, nothing. Both batteries reported above are original Pentax, one 2018 and one 2015 manufacture date. 2096 photos taken.
Had used it under light snow during February, with the 18-55 WR (also have the 18-50 DC WR but use the non-retracting one when weather actually demands WR). Other than that, mainly indoors use, also for photographing experimental designs with wistar rats.
Had not heard anything similar in a KP before. Pentax forums have a single report on a K1II doing this from time to time, some scattered K-3 reports with similar failure as well.
Truly disappointed, this happened on a table with three folks and their families; the three folks have been using Pentax gear since K10, K100 era. I really dislike the situation, owing 13 K-mount lenses and three APS-C bodies. One of the company upgraded to full frame Sony, the others two, we are still with Pentax, but it was me who decidedly upgraded to the KP with the intent to keep it for another 10-years (my trusty K100 is over-12 years old and still going).

Firmware was updated to 1.10 since bought new. I will revert back with news on this, but honestly it has really shaken my confidence in the robustness of Pentax cameras...

[rogerstg]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but I'd look at it differently. You and all those people using Pentax for years without incident and you're the first to have any problems - that's pretty good. Assuming you meant you bought it December 18, have it fixed under warranty.

[normhead]

Firmware was updated to 1.10 since bought new. I will revert back with news on this, but honestly it has really shaken my confidence in the robustness of Pentax cameras...

I persoanlly had my *ist D fail, I had it repaired under warranty. It lived a long happy life. No need to panic.

[BigMackCam]

Welcome to the forums, and sorry to hear of your problem.

Don't let it shake your confidence in the brand... or, if you do, know that every other brand has failures too. The KP has so far shown itself to be an extremely reliable camera. You've just been unfortunate, and that can happen with any item of equipment. There's not a camera brand or model around that's completely immune to the occasional failure here and there.

You were wise enough to buy your KP from an authorised source, and you're well within your warranty period. You're in a great position... send the camera in for warranty repair, and you'll get it back good as new.

Let us know how you get on?

[fsge]

It must be an electronics oriented issue that poped up too early.
Thankfully, warranty exists for a reason ! Please let us know how and when it is sorted out.

[RangerMD]

Forgot to write that I am monitoring the forums for some years now (since 2014 as a member) although I never really devoted some time to introduce myself. I will certainly let the community know, that is the main reason I now put some time onto this.

Indeed my Pentax experience today has been flawless, but then, it really died quite unexpectedly and suddenly!

[stevebrot]

Firmware was updated to 1.10 since bought new. I will revert back with news on this, but honestly it has really shaken my confidence in the robustness of Pentax cameras...

Sudden death or other electronics failure does happen. I can assure you that it happens across brands and at all price points. Whether there are other reports identical to yours with the KP is hard to say in that it is hard to track that sort of thing down using the forum search feature. I hope your repair bid goes well.


Steve

[normhead]

Forgot to write that I am monitoring the forums for some years now (since 2014 as a member) although I never really devoted some time to introduce myself. I will certainly let the community know, that is the main reason I now put some time onto this.

Indeed my Pentax experience today has been flawless, but then, it really died quite unexpectedly and suddenly!

A client had his Nikon D800 die on a photographic canoe trip. We were out shooting a sunset, and clunk, completely dead , impossible to revive. He brought along his daughter her boyfriend and his brother and the total cost fo him was over 6 grand, he carried a heavy bunch of lenses, and he got half of the shooting he paid for. Things could have been worse, you could have been in his circumstance

[mikesbike]

I persoanlly had my *ist D fail, I had it repaired under warranty. It lived a long happy life. No need to panic.

I had the same thing happen. It was a battery drain problem. It was likewise repaired under warranty with no further issue. After some years of use, my K200D developed battery drain also. In terms of many, many Pentax models, over a 37 year period of shooting with Pentax, these being my only two failures so far, I consider this a good record.

Good luck in getting your KP back in service or replaced soon!

[RangerMD]

Got camera back previous week. A new one actually, new box, everything exept battery. Had to order a new tempered glass protector as the one that died had it fixed when I sent it to service. Still got a couple of grips extra.

With regard to the issue:
Service were not able to detect moisture, cracks or whatsoever could have caused the camera to suddenly die.
Most likely cause which cannot be ruled out:
Overheating that made the PCB fail at some point, which was too minor to detect. Overheating could have been caused from WiFi tethering.

I know wifi tethering kills the battery too early, same hapening to my Lumix GX-80. However, the camera was only used to send ONE photo to my mobile, then I forgot Wifi on but unpaired my mobile, so it was on idle waiting for wifi connection (not longer than 20-25 minutes overall wifi) while we were browsing images in the KP's screen. Cannot be sure whether this caused so much overheating. Battery was cool when I extracted it to change it, so was the camera.

So, my thinking and doing from now on, very cautious use of the wifi with the Pentax KP, with parsimony, only on to share something, then off. That would be my advice to other Pentaxian folks as well!

I need to one more time thank the community for their support!

[fsge]

Thank you RangerMD for this follow up and piece of advice.

[BigMackCam]

Got camera back previous week. A new one actually, new box, everything exept battery. Had to order a new tempered glass protector as the one that died had it fixed when I sent it to service. Still got a couple of grips extra.

With regard to the issue:
Service were not able to detect moisture, cracks or whatsoever could have caused the camera to suddenly die.
Most likely cause which cannot be ruled out:
Overheating that made the PCB fail at some point, which was too minor to detect. Overheating could have been caused from WiFi tethering.

I know wifi tethering kills the battery too early, same hapening to my Lumix GX-80. However, the camera was only used to send ONE photo to my mobile, then I forgot Wifi on but unpaired my mobile, so it was on idle waiting for wifi connection (not longer than 20-25 minutes overall wifi) while we were browsing images in the KP's screen. Cannot be sure whether this caused so much overheating. Battery was cool when I extracted it to change it, so was the camera.

That's great news that your camera was replaced under warranty!

So, my thinking and doing from now on, very cautious use of the wifi with the Pentax KP, with parsimony, only on to share something, then off. That would be my advice to other Pentaxian folks as well!

I need to one more time thank the community for their support!

It's certainly possible that the issue may have been overheating linked to WiFi tethering, but - with respect - I think it's premature to draw any conclusions at this stage. This is, after all, just one camera presenting an issue that we've not heard reported before. If we had a sample size of five or ten cameras presenting the same fault under the same conditions, that would begin to support your suspicions.

I would advise KP owners to use their cameras according to the manual, and if a problem occurs, let us know on the forums and have it fixed / replaced under warranty as you did.

Thanks for letting us know of your positive outcome, and enjoy your camera

[rogerstg]

It's certainly possible that the issue may have been overheating linked to WiFi tethering, but - with respect - I think it's premature to draw any conclusions at this stage.

+1. FWIW, I've used mine wifi tethered for hours at a time with no ill effects. Sometimes a manufactured component fails, unrelated to any design defect.

[stevebrot]

Camera replaced within warranty,

Thank your for circling back with the resolution; too bad, however, that your screen protector was a loss too.


Steve

[stevebrot]

I would advise KP owners to use their cameras according to the manual, and if a problem occurs, let us know on the forums and have it fixed / replaced under warranty as you did.

Always a good idea.


Steve