[stevebrot]

Like Marc says...just because you read it here does not mean that there is a rash of defective cameras. For what it is worth, Consumer Reports indicates a defect rate of 5% for Canon and Nikon, 4% for Olympus, and 3% for Sony. While they have inadequate data from their readers for Pentax, they explicitly state that there is no reason to feel that Pentax warrants any reliability concerns.

Yep, there you go...1 out of 20 new Canon and Nikon SLRs go back for service or replacement. The moral of the story is to check any electronics purchase out thoroughly and send it back if it does not look good. BTW...you might want to make sure that Newegg will cover your shipping to send it back. Both B&H and Adorama will cover all shipping expenses for an exchange or return on a defective item.


Steve

[Marc Sabatella]

One thing to note, though - any time a defect like this gets reported, there ends up being a certain paranoia about it causing more people to test for the defect than ever would have otherwise. And most people, frankly, are not very good at running controlled tests. So you tend tend to get a lot of "false positives" - people whose incorrect testing methods fool them into thinking they have a problem when they really don't. Not really that dissimilar to the number of frantic calls doctors get after some disease gets in the news and suddenly everyone starts imagining they have the symptoms.

Anyhow, while a few people have posted examples of what look like obvious examples of this defect, I'd say a significant number of the posted reports are of the sort I mentioned. So don't be in such a rush to look for this problem that you "find" it when it isn't really there. One or two pictures wouldn't provie a thing. If you're really intent on doing this, shoot maybe 25 shots with SR on - and make sure it' *really* on (wait for the "hand" icon to appear in the viewfinder), 25 with SR off - same exact scene, same exact settings otherwise. Then examine them all closely and sort them from blurriest to sharpest. If the blurriest 25 turn out to be more than half SR, you might have a problem. But few blurry pictures with SR and a few sharp ones without doesn't prove a thing - camera shake isn't a consistent enough thing to be able to judge that haphazardly.

[stevebrot]

One thing to note, though - any time a defect like this gets reported, there ends up being a certain paranoia about it causing more people to test for the defect than ever would have otherwise. And most people, frankly, are not very good at running controlled tests. So you tend tend to get a lot of "false positives" - people whose incorrect testing methods fool them into thinking they have a problem when they really don't. Not really that dissimilar to the number of frantic calls doctors get after some disease gets in the news and suddenly everyone starts imagining they have the symptoms.

Anyhow, while a few people have posted examples of what look like obvious examples of this defect, I'd say a significant number of the posted reports are of the sort I mentioned. So don't be in such a rush to look for this problem that you "find" it when it isn't really there. One or two pictures wouldn't provie a thing. If you're really intent on doing this, shoot maybe 25 shots with SR on - and make sure it' *really* on (wait for the "hand" icon to appear in the viewfinder), 25 with SR off - same exact scene, same exact settings otherwise. Then examine them all closely and sort them from blurriest to sharpest. If the blurriest 25 turn out to be more than half SR, you might have a problem. But few blurry pictures with SR and a few sharp ones without doesn't prove a thing - camera shake isn't a consistent enough thing to be able to judge that haphazardly.

Marc,
Thank you for posting this comment. I was tempted to say something similar, but decided that I was not enough of a K-x expert to voice my opinion on this issue.


Steve

[Marc Sabatella]

Marc,
Thank you for posting this comment. I was tempted to say something similar, but decided that I was not enough of a K-x expert to voice my opinion on this issue.

I'm no K-x expert either - I've only handled one once - but I'm certainly well-familiar with the phenomenon in general (having fallen for it myself in the past), and do have a reasonably good handle on the sorts of things I've seen others do wrong in their tests. That's enough for me to have felt it worth commenting.

[newyorker]

This is way overrated / talked about issue... there are serious issues in all makes of cameras google D90 Hot Pixel issue or D5000 had 2 recalls, every manufacturer has defects however all said those are wonderful cameras and so is Pentax K-x, it gives D90 a run for money which is almost double the cost and is in a different class all together.

I did following test ... please let me know if the testing process was right or I can do something else...all shots were hand held, I shot images with text on those so Blur / double images are easy to identify ..

and Please note - It is recommended to turn off SR when mounted on tripod.

1) SR on , TV mode - Shutter Speeds 1/30 to 1/200 at 55 MM - No Blurring / double images - Horizontal camera position
2) SR on , TV mode - Shutter Speeds 1/30 to 1/200 at 55 MM - No Blurring / double images - Vertical camera position

the picture I took was of a Moisturizer bottle and had a lot of text written over it, I think it is easy to spot blurring on text rather than on anything else.

I did not find any blurring or double text on pictures at 100% crop... so I think at least my camera does not have this issue.

[tibbitts]

I would not worry about a camera you might buy "years" in the future, since it probably won't be a kx if you want to buy new.

If you're worried about the kx in this regard compared to other cameras, for the same or less money you could get any number of older cameras, pentax or otherwise - k100, km, k10, etc.

Paul

[DaveHolmes]

I haven't notced any mirror slap issue with my K-x ...