[Tonytee]

Greetings,

I am having a great deal of difficulty setting the shutter speed on my Pentax k100d Super, passed 30, manually. I can set the shutter speed below 30 manually, but I do not need it lower. The camera is fitted with the 18~55mm kit lens that came with it. The only setting where the shutter speed will go higher is on Action Shots, it goes up automatically to 1/180s. With this setting I left it on Action Shots along with the current Av setting of f/5.6, took the shot with the built-in flash and the shot turned out beautifully.

I failed to mention that ISO is at 200. I again set the Mode Dial to Tv, turned the e-dial and I still cannot set the shutter speed higher than 30. I then scoured the Operation Manual, set the Mode Dial to M, then tried to change shutter speed and Av, but no sale. I have had this camera for approximately three years and it has been a real jewel in the crown for me as I have had no problems with it. It currently has less that 8,000 shutter actuations. I do have four Eneloops Pro batteries installed and they are at full capacity. I do recall having a similar problem with an old Nikon digital body with a non-digital Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 lens attached and the shutter speed would not increase passed 30. However, the lens on the Pentax is a digital lens, so I am running out of ideas. I was just wondering if this could be a software malfunction issue.

Any ideas or suggestions or solutions will be greatly appreciated.

Rgds,

Tony

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Last edited by Tonytee; 08-30-2017 at 10:37 PM. Reason: Additional Information

[Adam]

Greetings,

I am having a great deal of difficulty setting the shutter speed on my Pentax k100d Super, passed 30, manually. I can set the shutter speed below 30 manually, but I do not need it lower. The camera is fitted with the 18~55mm kit lens that came with it. The only setting where the shutter speed will go higher is on Action Shots, it goes up automatically to 1/180s. With this setting I left it on Action Shots along with the current Av setting of f/5.6, took the shot with the built-in flash and the shot turned out beautifully.

I failed to mention that ISO is at 200. I again set the Mode Dial to Tv, turned the e-dial and I still cannot set the shutter speed higher than 30. I then scoured the Operation Manual, set the Mode Dial to M, then tried to change shutter speed and Av, but no sale. I have had this camera for approximately three years and it has been a real jewel in the crown for me as I have had no problems with it. It currently has less that 8,000 shutter actuations. I do have four Eneloops Pro batteries installed and they are at full capacity. I do recall having a similar problem with an old Nikon digital body with a non-digital Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 lens attached and the shutter speed would not increase passed 30. However, the lens on the Pentax is a digital lens, so I am running out of ideas. I was just wondering if this could be a software malfunction issue.

Any ideas or suggestions or solutions will be greatly appreciated.

Rgds,

Tony

Maybe you're reached the wrong end of the spectrum- 30 seconds is the limit for non-bulb exposures on the K100D. Try going the other way and you should (hopefully) reach the fractional shutter speeds if there's nothing wrong with the camera.

[Tonytee]

Maybe you're reached the wrong end of the spectrum- 30 seconds is the limit for non-bulb exposures on the K100D. Try going the other way and you should (hopefully) reach the fractional shutter speeds if there's nothing wrong with the camera.

Well, this reply is going to floor you and whoever else reads it. As I mentioned, I had four Eneloops Pro rechargeable batteries at full capacity in the K100D Super. I removed them and placed them back on the charging unit. I was going to do as you suggested, but I had to remove the lower Eneloops mAh rechargeable batteries from my Nikon Speedlight and insert them into the K100D Super and, lo' and behold, when I turned the camera on, the shutter was at 1/125s, and Av at f/8. I am in a state of shock as to why, and then starting shooting as I normally would, and the camera behaved wonderfully. The only thing I can think of is that the built-in flash for the K100D Super is a battery killer, as I had been using it for quite some time, however the battery level indicator clearly showed at full capacity.

Truth is stranger than fiction. All this time and it was a battery issue. I'll post back if any new or old developments surface. Phew!! That was close, I was picturing myself donating the camera to Goodwill. (

Thanks very much for your assistance.

TT

[GlennG]

All this time and it was a battery issue. I'll post back if any new or old developments surface. Phew!! That was close, I was picturing myself donating the camera to Goodwill.

Glad you got a quick resolution, apparently. I'll have to remember that for my Super as well. I wonder if that phenomena is not confined to that model, or may apply to others as well. I have to agree with you that the K100d Super is a very good shooter. I still have mine, and it is NOT going to Goodwill - ever! I wanted to check out my camera when you posted, but I'm not at the house currently due to some weather related issues in Houston, so sorry I did not provide anything useful.

[Tonytee]

Glad you got a quick resolution, apparently. I'll have to remember that for my Super as well. I wonder if that phenomena is not confined to that model, or may apply to others as well. I have to agree with you that the K100d Super is a very good shooter. I still have mine, and it is NOT going to Goodwill - ever! I wanted to check out my camera when you posted, but I'm not at the house currently due to some weather related issues in Houston, so sorry I did not provide anything useful.

Thanks for your response regarding the camera. I am going to check with a local Pentax/Ricoh Sales/Service Center and ask if they have had any issues with the battery life indicator providing spurious information and if anything can be done about it. I will let you know what I learn.

Man O'Man that situation in Houston,Tx., is so heart wrenching, that I could not watch it any longer. We do plan on sending assistance any way we can. This country gets the world's worst weather with Hurricanes, Tornadoes, flash flooding, earthquakes and forest fires that seem to last forever, and to mention the below freezing temperatures in blizzard conditions.

Thanks again,

Tony

---------- Post added 08-31-17 at 02:34 PM ----------

Glad you got a quick resolution, apparently. I'll have to remember that for my Super as well. I wonder if that phenomena is not confined to that model, or may apply to others as well. I have to agree with you that the K100d Super is a very good shooter. I still have mine, and it is NOT going to Goodwill - ever! I wanted to check out my camera when you posted, but I'm not at the house currently due to some weather related issues in Houston, so sorry I did not provide anything useful.

Greetings,

Here is what I found out. They had never heard of this type of malfunction of the battery life indicator. I had to check and see what software version I had. To do this, I had to push in and hold the Menu button with the camera off, then turn the camera on, and the read out on the rear monitor said: VER: 1.00. Unfortunately, Pentax did not produce an update for this camera. Now at this point, all I can do is to be sure to have fully recharged batteries, including a spare set and if this should happen again to where i cannot increase Shutter Speed Passed 30, that is my battery level indicator and it is time to either recharge or replace the batteries. I was also advised that should this happen again, to bring the camera in for them to test the circuits. My thinking is that if it is a fried circuit, the shutter speed wouldn't work at all.

Thanks, hope this helps for someone.

Tony

[Tonytee]

Another day in the life of Tony and his battery and camera issues. This past Friday, 9/1/17 I recharged the 4 Eneloops Pro batteries in their respective charger to full capacity. I took a couple of snaps to see how everything performed and happy to report, there were no problems. Picked up the k100d Super today, took a few snaps indoors, and suddenly the Shutter Speed was back down to 30 and the Av was back 5.6. At this point, the battery level indicator again showed batteries were at full capacity. I then removed the Energizer rechargeable batteries from my Nikon Speedlight, inserted them into the K100D Super body and again, the camera was powered up fully. The plot thickens, because I noticed on the battery level indicator, it was at the half capacity level. So the battery indicator is fine as far as I know. I took the supposedly dead 4 Eneloops Pro batteries and placed them into the Nikon Speedlight and everything worked perfectly. Now logic tells me that there is a possibility that the 4 Eneloops Pro batteries have a problem. I have them now in their recharger again and will see what happens when I insert them back into the K100D Super. Well, at this point I am happy to discover that there is nothing wrong with the camera as far as I know. Thanks for reading and I will report back on my new findings.

Rgds,

Tony

[pentasonic49]

The K100D which is the immediate predecessor of yours often had problems with battery voltage. Mine which I bought new in 2006 would never run for long with rechargeable's, and only likes Energiser Lithium's, which have a new voltage of 1.7.

[BrianR]

Hi Tony, you never did answer Adams post - are you absolutely positive that you didn't end up at the wrong end of the shutter speed spectrum? Did you try taking a photo when the display read "30", and if so what happened?

When you pull out the batteries, the next time you power up the camera the shutter speed and aperture will reset back to the defaults of 1/125s and f/8, I think this may be standard behavior on Pentax DSLR's.

My k100d was very sensitive to low voltage AA's. It would drain very little of the AA's capacity before displaying half power and eventually refusing to power on. However, flash units are not nearly as sensitive to the slightly decreased voltage and these same slightly depleted batteries will be able to power a flash for quite some time. The flash will not charge as quickly as the batteries deplete, but they are pretty capable of operating until the batteries are nearly completely drained.

Good luck diagnosing the problem.

[Tonytee]

Maybe you're reached the wrong end of the spectrum- 30 seconds is the limit for non-bulb exposures on the K100D. Try going the other way and you should (hopefully) reach the fractional shutter speeds if there's nothing wrong with the camera.

Hello Adam,

It was brought to my attention that I had not answered your question. I thought I had in my second sentence when I mentioned that I can go below 30 shutter speed but no higher. Hopefully I understood your suggestion correctly. The last few days have been a roller coaster ride with batteries and equipment, so I will post my results later today or at least by the weekend. Again, my apologies if I did in fact seemingly ignore your suggestion. Trust me, it wasn't deliberate.

Best,

TT

[Adam]

Hello Adam,

It was brought to my attention that I had not answered your question. I thought I had in my second sentence when I mentioned that I can go below 30 shutter speed but no higher. Hopefully I understood your suggestion correctly. The last few days have been a roller coaster ride with batteries and equipment, so I will post my results later today or at least by the weekend. Again, my apologies if I did in fact seemingly ignore your suggestion. Trust me, it wasn't deliberate.

Best,

TT

Hmm, well you can never go above 30s (i.e. to 60s) unless you have a K-1, K-70, KP or newer. You'd have to use bulb otherwise.

But it does sound like some sort of power issue may be at play here as well.

[Tonytee]

Hmm, well you can never go above 30s (i.e. to 60s) unless you have a K-1, K-70, KP or newer. You'd have to use bulb otherwise.

But it does sound like some sort of power issue may be at play here as well.

I am afraid I have to plead ignorance on the first part of your comment. Well, I started thinking I would try to be a good detective and take a closer look at the Eneloops Pro batteries. On the carton, it clearly states that these batteries will retain 85% of their power at about one year, as long as they are not used. I do not know how long they were on the shelf, or how long it had been since the manufacture date. I did check on when I purchased them and it was Oct., 25th, 2016. I did use them a lot during this past Spring and Summer, so it is anyone's guess as to how much actual power the batteries now contain. Here is what is stated on the Eneloop Pro batteries: 1.2V/1.2V, 2450 mAh. According to the Owner's Manual, the batteries should be at 2500mAh. I searched high and low and had no luck finding them so I settled on these believing that .50 mAh couldn't make that much of a variance.

Then I checked the Energizer rechargeables and on the battery is stated: Energizer 2000mAh, 1.2V NR15. Interesting with a much lower mAh, they have the same 1.2V as the Eneloops Pro. Now the question remains as to the reason that fully charged Eneloop Pro batteries went so far down in power as to cause the shutter speed to revert to 30s and become impossible to manually increase it without having been used for two days. I just took a couple of snaps with the K100D Super with the Eneloop batteries and the photos came out beautifully. I can upload one photo if it would help to view the EXIF Data.

Thanks for reading,

Tony

[BrianR]

Hi Tony, he's suggesting that your camera was set to a 30 second long exposure, the display would read .... 30", as opposed to a 1/30 second long exposure, where the display reads simply .... 30. It's easy to get this mixed up, and if you're at a 30 second long exposure, clicking the dial one direction will do nothing as it's as long as the camera can be set for without using bulb mode. This would be normal behavior. Did you try taking a picture when your camera was 'stuck'? If so, what happened?

Eneloop Pros were by far the best rechargeable batteries I used in my k100d. The non-rechargeable Energizer Lithiums mentioned above were about the only things that performed better, but would be costly in the long run depending on how much you use your camera.

[Tonytee]

Hi Brian,

Ahhh, I see what you are saying now. When I took a photo with the camera on 30", the shutter would open and the external flash would fire, however the shutter remained open the whole time. Interestingly enough, some of the photos turned out very well. I thought the external flash behaved somewhat oddly in that, when it was activated, it made sort of a "Poof" sound. I lost patience with it (Gee, imagine my surprise) and turned the camera off. Then the orange flashing light appeared and a few seconds later the photo appeared, this all happened with the camera switched off.

Well, I recall a few years back there was another discussion regarding the k100d/s camera power issues. One member advised to go with the Energizer rechargeables because he had absolutely no problems with those. Had I been more opened minded and took his advice, I would have saved approximately $28.00. Okay from here I will continue to trudge along and keep track of what happens regarding the K100D/S and its power issues. Your assistance as well as from others is greatly appreciated.

Adios,

Tony

[Tonytee]

Greetings,

Well, I was having a good day until I decided to pick up the K100d Super and shoot a few pics. Once again, as soon as I attempted to take a third shot, the LCD Panel showed, "30" for shutter speed, and I could not go anywhere with it but down. I had fully charged the Eneloops Pro batteries on 9/4/2017 and I did take a few snaps within the two week period to keep it going. So now I had to remove the Eneloops Pro, put them on their respective charger and waited until they were fully charged. I then installed them back into the camera, took two more shots and again, old number "30" showed up. I then removed the batteries, placed them in their charger again and waited two hours before the charger lights went off. I failed to mention earlier that when I removed the batteries, I installed the Energizers, turned the camera on and all was well with the exception that the time and date were gone. Now this typically happens when the batteries are left out of the camera for at least 24hrs., but the batteries somehow nearly fully depleted themselves to where there was not enough power to even retain the day/date settings. What I am going to do now is to leave the Eneloops Pro batteries outside the camera for a few days, install them in the camera and see how long they last. Should they prematurely deplete themselves, the most cost effective way to deal with it would be to keep the Eneloop Pros in my Nikon Speedlight and the Energizers in the camera. I refuse to pay another $32.00 for batteries that fail prematurely. One issue could be that the Eneloops are just not compatible with my K100D Super camera. Thanks again for reading and I will report again should any other issues raise their ugly heads.

Regards,
Tony

[Tonytee]

Another updated revelation. As I mentioned in my last text, I had fully charged the Eneloops Pro batteries, placed them into my k100d Super, took two shots using an external flash and then removed the batteries and placed them next to my computer. A thought occurred to me to try re-charging them again after only two shots and see what happens. Surprisingly when I placed the charger with the batteries into the wall socket, all four lights came on indicating that the batteries were low enough to require another charging. So after only two shots, the batteries took almost two hours to become fully charged. When they were fully charged, I installed them again into the camera, took two shots with an external flash, removed the batteries, placed them again into the charger and they are currently charging. All four lights came on. I cannot believe this. Either these batteries are defective or they are just not compatible with the k100d Super camera. I will wait and see what happens when they are fully charged again, placed into the camera, take two shots and then see how long it takes to re-charge them after only two shots. CYA Soon.

Tony