K50 giving great underexposures

**psoo** · 12-29-2016, 10:08 AM

Need help folks. I bought a new K50 a couple of years ago and was happy with it. I usually use it on the AV mode, varying the aperture to suit my needs. Overnight, it suddenly started to give vast underexposures. The photos were almost black with only the brightest objects showing in the image. The apertures and the speeds appear to be appropriate for the ISOs I selected but I get these underexposures for the AV TV, and the P modes. I've checked all of the menu settings and don't think I have made any selections that would explain my problem. The fact that the camera suddenly stopped working properly overnight seems to prove the camera itself broke down. The camera has always been carefully used so abuse cannot be the cause of the problem.

I have a Kx and a K100D as spare cameras and I actually don't see any differences in the IQ for the three cameras for my type of amateur work. If the K50 is indeed broken, do you think it is worth spending, say, $200 for repair, or should I just sell it for spare parts and use a backup camera?

**shardulm** · 12-29-2016, 10:22 AM

Originally posted by psoo

Need help folks. I bought a new K50 a couple of years ago and was happy with it. I usually use it on the AV mode, varying the aperture to suit my needs. Overnight, it suddenly started to give vast underexposures. The photos were almost black with only the brightest objects showing in the image. The apertures and the speeds appear to be appropriate for the ISOs I selected but I get these underexposures for the AV TV, and the P modes. I've checked all of the menu settings and don't think I have made any selections that would explain my problem. The fact that the camera suddenly stopped working properly overnight seems to prove the camera itself broke down. The camera has always been carefully used so abuse cannot be the cause of the problem.

I have a Kx and a K100D as spare cameras and I actually don't see any differences in the IQ for the three cameras for my type of amateur work. If the K50 is indeed broken, do you think it is worth spending, say, $200 for repair, or should I just sell it for spare parts and use a backup camera?

Images pls....

Check on the meter setting. Are you doing everything right around the meter? There is AE-L/AF settings that intermingle. Hope you did not mess or decouple those accidentally. I do it at times when I want to meter (usually Spot) the light from an object different from the object that I want in focus to get the kind of exposure and focus I want. Tend to easily forget to revert back that setting and wonder what happened.

paolo11 · 12-29-2016, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by psoo

Need help folks. I bought a new K50 a couple of years ago and was happy with it. I usually use it on the AV mode, varying the aperture to suit my needs. Overnight, it suddenly started to give vast underexposures. The photos were almost black with only the brightest objects showing in the image. The apertures and the speeds appear to be appropriate for the ISOs I selected but I get these underexposures for the AV TV, and the P modes. I've checked all of the menu settings and don't think I have made any selections that would explain my problem. The fact that the camera suddenly stopped working properly overnight seems to prove the camera itself broke down. The camera has always been carefully used so abuse cannot be the cause of the problem.

I have a Kx and a K100D as spare cameras and I actually don't see any differences in the IQ for the three cameras for my type of amateur work. If the K50 is indeed broken, do you think it is worth spending, say, $200 for repair, or should I just sell it for spare parts and use a backup camera?

Hi psoo, I have the same problem with my K50. It's a popular failure both on the K30 and the K50 which i guess uses the same aperture block which is the cause of the failure. I and other have reported this problem to Pentax, and so far, I'm still waiting for an answer. A company pentaxcamerarepair.com fixes this problem,they are in CA, and I'll probably send my camera there for repair.

The problem (as posted by others) is a horse shoe magnet that prevents the aperture from going to a larger F stop. If you set your F stop to say F18, it will probably work. A quick fix is to put it in "sport mode:", fire off a few shots, and this will usually give a temp fix. Turn it off/on, and the scenario repeats. Go to web site and they will give you a verification about your problem, real simple.

Pentax should do a universal fix.

The Squirrel Mafia · 12-29-2016, 12:43 PM

Pentax K-30 & K-50 - PentaxForums.com

^ Go to that section of the forum & look at the "aperture" threads. Your K-50 probably has the same issue.

paolo11 · 12-29-2016, 02:03 PM

yes, it's a common Pentax K30/K50 problem where the aperture gets stuck. Mine won't open when at F 5.6, okay if i use a small setting like F 18. I can temporary fix the problem by using sport mode, but once turn off/on scenario repeats.

I'm shipping my camera out tomorrow for repair, and it's not Precision Camera repair. i give up with Pentax Service.

**clackers** · 12-29-2016, 02:21 PM

There's a thread where instructions are given if you're inclined to do a repair yourself, without actually replacing the aperture block.

**psoo** · 12-29-2016, 02:36 PM

Thanks for your responses. It seems from your comments that this is an old problem that has been discussed widely in the Forums already. I will read other people's comments and try got figure out what I should do. Thanks for alerting me to previous postings.

paolo11 · 12-29-2016, 02:45 PM

You're welcome. If you can wait, I'll post my experience with repair site. I figure about two weeks, as they keep the camera for a couple of days before returning for testing purposes. I thought about doing the repair myself, but there is a lot of missing info especially when they file off the magnet. So for 100.00 plus shipping, and a warranty, I'll go that route as much as I hate too.

**psoo** · 12-29-2016, 03:06 PM

Originally posted by paolo11

You're welcome. If you can wait, I'll post my experience with repair site. I figure about two weeks, as they keep the camera for a couple of days before returning for testing purposes. I thought about doing the repair myself, but there is a lot of missing info especially when they file off the magnet. So for 100.00 plus shipping, and a warranty, I'll go that route as much as I hate too.

Thanks Paolo. I look forward to hearing about your experience. In the meantime, I'll use one of my backup Pentax bodies and hope that they don't fail in the same way.

wsteffey · 12-29-2016, 05:38 PM

To answer the second part of your post, I currently have a K100D, a K-x and a K-30 with the same apparent problem you are experiencing. I cannot afford to spend money for any of the Pentax cameras with this problem, up to and possibly including the K-70, and paying $400-$600 or more for a used K-5 or K-3 makes me uneasy. Reviewing my portfolio, I found I am happy with the images from the K-x and even the K100d, and often I must look at the image data to confirm what camera was used for what shot. Last week I decided to stay with the K-x for a while, but this week I found a K-r for $150 at a local pawnshop. I will stay with these cameras for while as they fulfill my needs.

paolo11 · 12-29-2016, 07:30 PM

Originally posted by wsteffey

To answer the second part of your post, I currently have a K100D, a K-x and a K-30 with the same apparent problem you are experiencing. I cannot afford to spend money for any of the Pentax cameras with this problem, up to and possibly including the K-70, and paying $400-$600 or more for a used K-5 or K-3 makes me uneasy. Reviewing my portfolio, I found I am happy with the images from the K-x and even the K100d, and often I must look at the image data to confirm what camera was used for what shot. Last week I decided to stay with the K-x for a while, but this week I found a K-r for $150 at a local pawnshop. I will stay with these cameras for while as they fulfill my needs.

wsteffey, Good idea about the pawn shop, you can hit good deals if you know what you're looking for. The K50 is my wife's camera, and she really likes it.

I am so mad when I read about your problems, and my recent one. I've called Pentax several times, they take the info, and I never hear back. A good number of people, like us, who have worked hard and long for our money getting hosed by Pentax isn't right. I wonder if anyone has ever contacted the corp. office to report these problems?

Check pentaxcamerarepair.com for a list of Pentax cameras with the aperture problem. I was amazed when I saw this.

I was told that the K70 has a different aperture block then the K30/K50 by Pentax.

I bought a K2000 refurbished a few years back, my first Pentax dslr, sold it when i bought my wife a K50, wish I had it back, never a problem.

Paolo

Blacknight659 · 12-30-2016, 05:10 AM

Yes aperture block is a problem for K-30, K-50, and Maybe even K-s1, Ks2 users. If I owned a K-50 with this issue, It would be subject to home repair OR I would use M lenses on it exclusively.

Good luck!

paolo11 · 12-30-2016, 07:15 AM

Originally posted by Blacknight659

Yes aperture block is a problem for K-30, K-50, and Maybe even K-s1, Ks2 users. If I owned a K-50 with this issue, It would be subject to home repair OR I would use M lenses on it exclusively.

Good luck!

I almost decided to solely use it as a manual camera as I do a lot of manual shooting, but, alas, alas, it's my wife's camera and she wants it fixed.

blende8 · 12-30-2016, 07:15 AM

Originally posted by clackers

There's a thread where instructions are given if you're inclined to do a repair yourself, without actually replacing the aperture block.

Where's this thread, please?

paolo11 · 12-30-2016, 08:27 AM

Hi, I've posted the threads under K30/K50 problems, but I've also answered many others with questions. Amazes me concerning the number of on-going problems with these cameras.

---------- Post added 12-30-16 at 10:30 AM ----------

oops, sorry. You should be able to do a search on the repairs

12-29-2016, 10:08 AM	#1
psoo Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 485	K50 giving great underexposures Need help folks. I bought a new K50 a couple of years ago and was happy with it. I usually use it on the AV mode, varying the aperture to suit my needs. Overnight, it suddenly started to give vast underexposures. The photos were almost black with only the brightest objects showing in the image. The apertures and the speeds appear to be appropriate for the ISOs I selected but I get these underexposures for the AV TV, and the P modes. I've checked all of the menu settings and don't think I have made any selections that would explain my problem. The fact that the camera suddenly stopped working properly overnight seems to prove the camera itself broke down. The camera has always been carefully used so abuse cannot be the cause of the problem. I have a Kx and a K100D as spare cameras and I actually don't see any differences in the IQ for the three cameras for my type of amateur work. If the K50 is indeed broken, do you think it is worth spending, say, $200 for repair, or should I just sell it for spare parts and use a backup camera?

12-29-2016, 10:22 AM	#2
shardulm Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Cumming, GA Posts: 793	Originally posted by psoo Need help folks. I bought a new K50 a couple of years ago and was happy with it. I usually use it on the AV mode, varying the aperture to suit my needs. Overnight, it suddenly started to give vast underexposures. The photos were almost black with only the brightest objects showing in the image. The apertures and the speeds appear to be appropriate for the ISOs I selected but I get these underexposures for the AV TV, and the P modes. I've checked all of the menu settings and don't think I have made any selections that would explain my problem. The fact that the camera suddenly stopped working properly overnight seems to prove the camera itself broke down. The camera has always been carefully used so abuse cannot be the cause of the problem. I have a Kx and a K100D as spare cameras and I actually don't see any differences in the IQ for the three cameras for my type of amateur work. If the K50 is indeed broken, do you think it is worth spending, say, $200 for repair, or should I just sell it for spare parts and use a backup camera? Images pls.... Check on the meter setting. Are you doing everything right around the meter? There is AE-L/AF settings that intermingle. Hope you did not mess or decouple those accidentally. I do it at times when I want to meter (usually Spot) the light from an object different from the object that I want in focus to get the kind of exposure and focus I want. Tend to easily forget to revert back that setting and wonder what happened. Last edited by shardulm; 12-29-2016 at 10:25 AM. Reason: Grammer

12-29-2016, 02:45 PM	#8
paolo11 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 115	K50 You're welcome. If you can wait, I'll post my experience with repair site. I figure about two weeks, as they keep the camera for a couple of days before returning for testing purposes. I thought about doing the repair myself, but there is a lot of missing info especially when they file off the magnet. So for 100.00 plus shipping, and a warranty, I'll go that route as much as I hate too.

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12-29-2016, 10:28 AM	#3
paolo11 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 115	Originally posted by psoo Need help folks. I bought a new K50 a couple of years ago and was happy with it. I usually use it on the AV mode, varying the aperture to suit my needs. Overnight, it suddenly started to give vast underexposures. The photos were almost black with only the brightest objects showing in the image. The apertures and the speeds appear to be appropriate for the ISOs I selected but I get these underexposures for the AV TV, and the P modes. I've checked all of the menu settings and don't think I have made any selections that would explain my problem. The fact that the camera suddenly stopped working properly overnight seems to prove the camera itself broke down. The camera has always been carefully used so abuse cannot be the cause of the problem. I have a Kx and a K100D as spare cameras and I actually don't see any differences in the IQ for the three cameras for my type of amateur work. If the K50 is indeed broken, do you think it is worth spending, say, $200 for repair, or should I just sell it for spare parts and use a backup camera? Hi psoo, I have the same problem with my K50. It's a popular failure both on the K30 and the K50 which i guess uses the same aperture block which is the cause of the failure. I and other have reported this problem to Pentax, and so far, I'm still waiting for an answer. A company pentaxcamerarepair.com fixes this problem,they are in CA, and I'll probably send my camera there for repair. The problem (as posted by others) is a horse shoe magnet that prevents the aperture from going to a larger F stop. If you set your F stop to say F18, it will probably work. A quick fix is to put it in "sport mode:", fire off a few shots, and this will usually give a temp fix. Turn it off/on, and the scenario repeats. Go to web site and they will give you a verification about your problem, real simple. Pentax should do a universal fix.

12-29-2016, 12:43 PM	#4
The Squirrel Mafia Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 3,054	Pentax K-30 & K-50 - PentaxForums.com ^ Go to that section of the forum & look at the "aperture" threads. Your K-50 probably has the same issue.

12-29-2016, 02:03 PM	#5
paolo11 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 115	yes, it's a common Pentax K30/K50 problem where the aperture gets stuck. Mine won't open when at F 5.6, okay if i use a small setting like F 18. I can temporary fix the problem by using sport mode, but once turn off/on scenario repeats. I'm shipping my camera out tomorrow for repair, and it's not Precision Camera repair. i give up with Pentax Service.

12-29-2016, 02:21 PM	#6
clackers Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Melbourne Photos: Albums Posts: 16,397	There's a thread where instructions are given if you're inclined to do a repair yourself, without actually replacing the aperture block.

12-29-2016, 02:36 PM	#7
psoo Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 485 Original Poster	Thanks for your responses. It seems from your comments that this is an old problem that has been discussed widely in the Forums already. I will read other people's comments and try got figure out what I should do. Thanks for alerting me to previous postings.

12-29-2016, 03:06 PM	#9
psoo Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 485 Original Poster	Originally posted by paolo11 You're welcome. If you can wait, I'll post my experience with repair site. I figure about two weeks, as they keep the camera for a couple of days before returning for testing purposes. I thought about doing the repair myself, but there is a lot of missing info especially when they file off the magnet. So for 100.00 plus shipping, and a warranty, I'll go that route as much as I hate too. Thanks Paolo. I look forward to hearing about your experience. In the meantime, I'll use one of my backup Pentax bodies and hope that they don't fail in the same way.

12-29-2016, 05:38 PM	#10
wsteffey Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 106	To answer the second part of your post, I currently have a K100D, a K-x and a K-30 with the same apparent problem you are experiencing. I cannot afford to spend money for any of the Pentax cameras with this problem, up to and possibly including the K-70, and paying $400-$600 or more for a used K-5 or K-3 makes me uneasy. Reviewing my portfolio, I found I am happy with the images from the K-x and even the K100d, and often I must look at the image data to confirm what camera was used for what shot. Last week I decided to stay with the K-x for a while, but this week I found a K-r for $150 at a local pawnshop. I will stay with these cameras for while as they fulfill my needs.

12-29-2016, 07:30 PM	#11
paolo11 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 115	Originally posted by wsteffey To answer the second part of your post, I currently have a K100D, a K-x and a K-30 with the same apparent problem you are experiencing. I cannot afford to spend money for any of the Pentax cameras with this problem, up to and possibly including the K-70, and paying $400-$600 or more for a used K-5 or K-3 makes me uneasy. Reviewing my portfolio, I found I am happy with the images from the K-x and even the K100d, and often I must look at the image data to confirm what camera was used for what shot. Last week I decided to stay with the K-x for a while, but this week I found a K-r for $150 at a local pawnshop. I will stay with these cameras for while as they fulfill my needs. wsteffey, Good idea about the pawn shop, you can hit good deals if you know what you're looking for. The K50 is my wife's camera, and she really likes it. I am so mad when I read about your problems, and my recent one. I've called Pentax several times, they take the info, and I never hear back. A good number of people, like us, who have worked hard and long for our money getting hosed by Pentax isn't right. I wonder if anyone has ever contacted the corp. office to report these problems? Check pentaxcamerarepair.com for a list of Pentax cameras with the aperture problem. I was amazed when I saw this. I was told that the K70 has a different aperture block then the K30/K50 by Pentax. I bought a K2000 refurbished a few years back, my first Pentax dslr, sold it when i bought my wife a K50, wish I had it back, never a problem. Paolo

12-30-2016, 05:10 AM	#12
Blacknight659 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 731	Yes aperture block is a problem for K-30, K-50, and Maybe even K-s1, Ks2 users. If I owned a K-50 with this issue, It would be subject to home repair OR I would use M lenses on it exclusively. Good luck!

12-30-2016, 07:15 AM	#13
paolo11 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 115	Originally posted by Blacknight659 Yes aperture block is a problem for K-30, K-50, and Maybe even K-s1, Ks2 users. If I owned a K-50 with this issue, It would be subject to home repair OR I would use M lenses on it exclusively. Good luck! I almost decided to solely use it as a manual camera as I do a lot of manual shooting, but, alas, alas, it's my wife's camera and she wants it fixed.

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12-30-2016, 07:15 AM	#14
blende8 Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Bremen, Germany Photos: Albums Posts: 1,521	Originally posted by clackers There's a thread where instructions are given if you're inclined to do a repair yourself, without actually replacing the aperture block. Where's this thread, please?

12-30-2016, 08:27 AM	#15
paolo11 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 115	Hi, I've posted the threads under K30/K50 problems, but I've also answered many others with questions. Amazes me concerning the number of on-going problems with these cameras. ---------- Post added 12-30-16 at 10:30 AM ---------- oops, sorry. You should be able to do a search on the repairs