[bertwert]

The camera had only 431 shutter actuations when I purchased it. Let's be realistic, why would anyone squirt oil in and around his own equipment? As I stated earlier, a sales/service center that I trust, told me that Pentax and Nikon both placed an excessive amount of oil in some of their models. Not all of them. I really do not wish to get into and inflammatory exchange by battling emails. Okay, with this camera, I am experiencing, oil spatter issues, potential for Auto-Focus to completely fail prematurely and now blacked out photographs. This was my favorite camera and now with only 5,000 or more actuations, I have to toss it or donate it. It was a wonderful piece of photograph apparatus and is not easy to let it go. Took wonderful photos.

Thanks for your input.

tt

Tony, it sounds like you got a bad apple, so to speak. Which does really suck. Hopefully you can find a solution.
If you do chuck it or donate it, don't leave the forums here, I quite enjoy your flowers

[reh321]

The camera had only 431 shutter actuations when I purchased it. Let's be realistic, why would anyone squirt oil in and around his own equipment? As I stated earlier, a sales/service center that I trust, told me that Pentax and Nikon both placed an excessive amount of oil in some of their models. Not all of them. I really do not wish to get into and inflammatory exchange by battling emails. Okay, with this camera, I am experiencing, oil spatter issues, potential for Auto-Focus to completely fail prematurely and now blacked out photographs. This was my favorite camera and now with only 5,000 or more actuations, I have to toss it or donate it. It was a wonderful piece of photograph apparatus and is not easy to let it go. Took wonderful photos.

Yes, let's be reasonable. The K-50 has been out for several years now. If there were any significant splattering problems, there would be at least one thread here for each incident of the problem, plus extra threads with "DYI" solutions. "Why would a sales/service center say such a thing?", you ask. What do they sell? What do they want to sell to you??


Why do you have to toss or donate it? If the "oil issue" isn't fixed, make them do it right; if they did fix the "oil issue", then purchase a couple of manual lenses and continue to take wonderful pictures.

[Tonytee]

Tony;

I came to this forum about a year ago and you were using the K50 then.
I do not understand that all of a sudden you have oil spattering on your sensor, dark exposures and focus motor grinding all of a sudden.
Anything is possible I guess but that is some bad luck you have there

Clarence

Hi Clarence and thanks for your input. Well, all I can say about bad luck is, too bad. The research I have done on the k-50 is that with the mileage it has, these problems are common. The aperture block issue typically (from what I am told) happens between four and six thousand actuations. In a way it is good luck and that is my wife and I are planning on an extended road trip to Mr. Rushmore in South Dakota. The k-50 would have been my first choice to bring with me. Better now than later.

Thanks Clarence, good to hear from you. Seems as though you have been very quiet in PYP.

rgds,
Tony

---------- Post added 06-17-18 at 07:34 PM ----------

Yes, let's be reasonable. The K-50 has been out for several years now. If there were any significant splattering problems, there would be at least one thread here for each incident of the problem, plus extra threads with "DYI" solutions. "Why would a sales/service center say such a thing?", you ask. What do they sell? What do they want to sell to you??


Why do you have to toss or donate it? If the "oil issue" isn't fixed, make them do it right; if they did fix the "oil issue", then purchase a couple of manual lenses and continue to take wonderful pictures.

You are making me out to the villain here. Keep in mind, I am the victim in that it turned out to be a bad investment for me. I am out the money, not Pentax or anyone else. I have had dozens of Pentax SLR film cameras and they were and still are very good quality products. In addition, I think their Takumar lenses are superb and hope there are many of them to go around for a long time to come.

Thnx,

Tony

---------- Post added 06-17-18 at 07:39 PM ----------

Yes, let's be reasonable. The K-50 has been out for several years now. If there were any significant splattering problems, there would be at least one thread here for each incident of the problem, plus extra threads with "DYI" solutions. "Why would a sales/service center say such a thing?", you ask. What do they sell? What do they want to sell to you??


Why do you have to toss or donate it? If the "oil issue" isn't fixed, make them do it right; if they did fix the "oil issue", then purchase a couple of manual lenses and continue to take wonderful pictures.

I will not even attempt to fix it myself. I am about as mechanically inclined as a spoiled clam. In addition, I just do not have the patience for it. The time and money for me to effect repairs, I could invest that into another piece of equipment such as a new lens. I already have $225.00 invested in it when I purchased it. Discussing mechanical problems on a DSLR is not complaining, it is simply an observation and needs to be addressed in hopes to come to a solution.

Thnx,

Tony

---------- Post added 06-17-18 at 07:45 PM ----------

Tony, it sounds like you got a bad apple, so to speak. Which does really suck. Hopefully you can find a solution.
If you do chuck it or donate it, don't leave the forums here, I quite enjoy your flowers

Many thanks, Mr. Bertwert. I am not planning on leaving this awesome forum. So from now on, you will see more of my photos having been taken with Olympus, Canon, Pentax K100D and Nikon. Quite a variety, eh?

Thanks,

Tony

[reh321]

You are making me out to the villain here. Keep in mind, I am the victim in that it turned out to be a bad investment for me. I am out the money, not Pentax or anyone else. I have had dozens of Pentax SLR film cameras and they were and still are very good quality products. In addition, I think their Takumar lenses are superb and hope there are many of them to go around for a long time to come.

No, you are making yourself whatever you are becoming. My point was that if anything other than the aperture control issue were endemic to these cameras, we would have heard much about it by now ... and one-off issues are a fact of life not deserving a public spectacle. As it is, by complaining this way, you insert yourself into a list of people who complain about everything that goes wrong, assume that it is a system-wide issue, and try to scare the world. I hope you enjoy life as a Nikon user with their confusing charts of lens compatibility that make me want to sing about old McDonald .... AI-AI-O.

My K-30 may be in the process of failing, but I'm not dressing myself in rags and publicly bemoaning my fate; I see no point to telling everyone about my problems, and I have the lenses needed to use my K-30 as a purely manual camera, so that is what I will do if I do run into problems - I will certainly be much better off than I was when my eighteen-month old Canon Rebel died just before my daughter 's graduation where she received the last degree that would be received by a member of my family

---

Last edited by reh321; 06-17-2018 at 08:20 PM.

[Tonytee]

No, you are making yourself whatever you are becoming. My point was that if anything other than the aperture control issue were endemic to these cameras, we would have heard much about it by now ... and one-off issues are a fact of life not deserving a public spectacle. As it is, by complaining this way, you insert yourself into a list of people who complain about everything that goes wrong, assume that it is a system-wide issue, and try to scare the world. I hope you enjoy life as a Nikon user with their confusing charts of lens compatibility that make me want to sing about old McDonald .... AI-AI-O.

My K-30 may be in the process of failing, but I'm not dressing myself in rags and publicly bemoaning my fate; I see no point to telling everyone about my problems, and I have the lenses needed to use my K-30 as a purely manual camera, so that is what I will do if I do run into problems - I will certainly be much better off than I was when my eighteen-month old Canon Rebel died just before my daughter 's graduation where she received the last degree that would be received by a member of my family

Sir, all I have done was bring to light the fact that I am having performance issues with my k-50. Please, I would appreciate your not hurling accusations at me, by calling me names. I do hope that someone else may benefit from the troubles that I am having, by perhaps using preventative measures to avoid the problem I am having in their future.

Let's please put this to bed, as again, I am not fond of creating problems. My choice to not purchase anymore Pentax DSLRs is mine and mine alone. So I do not feel it is necessary to lambaste me when all I am doing is expressing my own decisions.

Thanks,

Tony

[reh321]

Sir, all I have done was bring to light the fact that I am having performance issues with my k-50. Please, I would appreciate your not hurling accusations at me, by calling me names. I do hope that someone else may benefit from the troubles that I am having, by perhaps using preventative measures to avoid the problem I am having in their future.

Let's please put this to bed, as again, I am not fond of creating problems. My choice to not purchase anymore Pentax DSLRs is mine and mine alone. So I do not feel it is necessary to lambaste me when all I am doing is expressing my own decisions

I have not called you any name, nor have I lambasted you, not have I attacked your tender feelings.
I have simply told you that the world is not as gray as you have portrayed

Only in Pentax-ville do people feel a need to announce their problems to the world - and their desire to jump to another brand.
If want to end this, then stop misconstruing what I said - simply stop replying and let this thread slowly sink to the oblivion it deserves.

[stevebrot]

As I stated earlier, a sales/service center that I trust, told me that Pentax and Nikon both placed an excessive amount of oil in some of their models.

That is interesting. The Nikon issue is well known, though yours is the first report I can remember of something similar on Pentax. I remember you having problems with black stuff inside your camera too and wonder if the two might be related. Is there any chance the previous owner might have attempted lubrication to correct the aperture control block issue and that the remedy did not work out well?

That is what I get for not reading through the thread before commenting. I agree that one would normally expect greater than 5000 exposures from with only 830 (or 431 or 305 or whatever) exposures when purchased. As for why someone would squirt oil into their camera...let me assure you, stranger things have been done. You have had serious issues with your K-50 for at least the last six month or more and I am sorry that it has not provided good service.

I wish you luck with whatever brand you move too. With any luck you will get a camera that provides years of trouble-free use. Most dSLR makers have essentially equivalent reliability in Consumer Reports latest survey of 3-year ownership. In that survey 7% of Canon owners reported problems followed by 8% of Sony and Nikon and 10% of Pentax (presumably from K-30/K-50 issues and initial K-1 problems). (Less than 6% difference is considered insignificant.) I would note that problems for all four brands are significantly higher than last year. For mirrorless the picture is more clouded:

• Canon -- 6%
• Panasonic -- 7%
• Fujifilm -- 9%
• Sony -- 10%
• Nikon -- 11%
• Olympus -- 14%

If you go mirrorless, Consumer Reports suggests Canon or Panasonic over Olympus. Or you just may shoot with one of your other cameras that cause you less problems.


Steve

(...I thought the K100D was dead?)

---

Last edited by stevebrot; 06-18-2018 at 05:30 AM.

[Adam]

The camera had only 431 shutter actuations when I purchased it.

Seeing a recent camera on the market with such a low shutter count, and at such a low price, could mean that the seller knew there was something wrong with it...

return to using the K100D exclusively.

IMO, the K-50 is so much better than the K100D that it's hard to imagine you'd continue being satisfied with the latter's image quality. Given that you seem to have gotten a good deal to begin with, I'd consider either repairing it, or cashing it in for what you can and getting a replacement K-S2 or K-70. Even with an "oil problem" your K-50 should at least be worth 2/3 of what you paid for it.

[Tonytee]

That is interesting. The Nikon issue is well known, though yours is the first report I can remember of something similar on Pentax. I remember you having problems with black stuff inside your camera too and wonder if the two might be related. Is there any chance the previous owner might have attempted lubrication to correct the aperture control block issue and that the remedy did not work out well?

That is what I get for not reading through the thread before commenting. I agree that one would normally expect greater than 5000 exposures from with only 830 (or 431 whatever) exposures when purchased. As for why someone would squirt oil into their camera...let me assure you, stranger things have been done. You have had serious issues with your K-50 for at least the last six month or more and I am sorry that it has not provided good service.

I wish you luck with whatever brand you move too. With any luck you will get a camera that provides years of trouble-free use. Most dSLR makers have essentially equivalent reliability in Consumer Reports latest survey of 3-year ownership. In that survey 7% of Canon owners reported problems followed by 8% of Sony and Nikon and 10% of Pentax (presumably from K-30/K-50 issues and initial K-1 problems). (Less than 6% difference is considered insignificant.) I would note that problems for all four brands are significantly higher than last year. For mirrorless the picture is more clouded:

• Canon -- 6%
• Panasonic -- 7%
• Fujifilm -- 9%
• Sony -- 10%
• Nikon -- 11%
• Olympus -- 14%

If you go mirrorless, Consumer Reports suggests Canon or Panasonic over Olympus. Or you just may shoot with one of your other cameras that cause you less problems.


Steve

(...I thought the K100D was dead?)

Hello Steve and thanks very much for your input. The member that I purchased the k-50 from had a 100% feedback rating. This person has been a member for a very long time and I doubt seriously that this individual would do something along those lines. If that were the case that this individual did do something like squirt oil into the interior of the body, why would take so long to show up Now? The soot material that you refer to is a problem caused by the plastic lens end cap. When removing the lens, there were some particles in the lens and they migrated over to the sensor. I have solved that problem. I do not recall any other issues regarding the k-50. At any rate, thanks again for your assistance.

Tony

---------- Post added 06-17-18 at 11:22 PM ----------

Seeing a recent camera on the market with such a low shutter count, and at such a low price, could mean that the seller knew there was something wrong with it...



IMO, the K-50 is so much better than the K100D that it's hard to imagine you'd continue being satisfied with the latter's image quality. Given that you seem to have gotten a good deal to begin with, I'd consider either repairing it, or cashing it in for what you can and getting a replacement K-S2 or K-70. Even with an "oil problem" your K-50 should at least be worth 2/3 of what you paid for it.

Well, the oil problem is not the only issue. There is also the potential for the Auto-Focus motor to completely fail at any time now. It happened once, it will happen again. Then there is the potential for the aperture block problem as I mentioned earlier, with a speedlight, I got four consecutive shots that were completely black. This all took place not only in one day, but a matter of two hours. It isn't worth the investment of repairs as I can use the money to get one of those wonderful Pentax 18~135mm lenses.

Thanks for your input. Greatly appreciated.

Tony

P.S. As for my settling for the K100D, please take a look at my most recent uploads using this camera. I think you will be impressed with that 6.1 megapixel sensor.

[bavd]

Well, I surely hope you will toss or disassemble it. Otherwise we will have someone else being disappointed and complaning about Pentax making lousy cameras.....
Also you should realise that brand forums tend to exaggerate problems with equipment. For this is the place to go and look for a solution.
If you take a look at car forums you would probably never want to buy a BMW, Mercedes, or expensive brand for all the problems listed there.
Having owned a z1, ist-d, k20 and k-3 i can honesty say i have never had any problems with the equipment up to now.
Sorry you have had bad luck with the camera. All i can say is take a look at one of the photo contest or photo sharing galleries and see for yourself the amount of material coming from great gear.

[LensBeginner]

+1 to stevebrot, never heard of oil issues with Pentax camera before, only the Nikon D600.
Aperture issue, that's common, but can be fixed DIY.
I'd look for a flagship model, like a K-5, K-3 or K-3II... those are probably more reliable, and the aperture actuator doesn't have a history of failures.

[Tonytee]

+1 to stevebrot, never heard of oil issues with Pentax camera before, only the Nikon D600.
Aperture issue, that's common, but can be fixed DIY.
I'd look for a flagship model, like a K-5, K-3 or K-3II... those are probably more reliable, and the aperture actuator doesn't have a history of failures.

Excellent recommendations. I will certainly look in to it.

Thanks a million.

tt

[stevebrot]

I do not recall any other issues regarding the k-50. At any rate, thanks again for your assistance.

You are very welcome. I was talking about the stuff below...

Well, the oil problem is not the only issue. There is also the potential for the Auto-Focus motor to completely fail at any time now. It happened once, it will happen again. Then there is the potential for the aperture block problem as I mentioned earlier, with a speedlight, I got four consecutive shots that were completely black. This all took place not only in one day, but a matter of two hours.

...and also freeze up back in February, two days before the soot report.* Plausible explanations were given in responses for both concerns, but I have been shooting ILC since 1970 and that thread was the first I had heard of lens cap shavings resulting in visible debris deposited on the mirror or falling from the mirror box of a camera. A bad or failing battery is likely for the freeze up problem and the two February problems are probably not related, but given the gravity of the current report, it is hard to say.

Anyhow, all of that is just forensics. You have chosen to shift away from Pentax and with any luck that choice will render your quiver of cameras trouble-free.


Steve

* No, I am not spying on you. I routinely look at post history when I recognize the user name and the problem appears complex. Past problems often provide clues to current distress. Unfortunately the forum software only exposes the most recent 300 records for and for a frequent poster like you, that only provides about a six month window.

[stevebrot]

I do not recall any other issues regarding the k-50. At any rate, thanks again for your assistance.

You are very welcome. I was talking about the stuff below...

Well, the oil problem is not the only issue. There is also the potential for the Auto-Focus motor to completely fail at any time now. It happened once, it will happen again. Then there is the potential for the aperture block problem as I mentioned earlier, with a speedlight, I got four consecutive shots that were completely black. This all took place not only in one day, but a matter of two hours.

...and also freeze up back in February, two days before the soot report.* Plausible explanations were given in responses for both concerns, but I have been shooting ILC since 1970 and that thread was the first I had heard of lens cap shavings resulting in visible debris deposited on the mirror or falling from the mirror box of a camera. A bad or failing battery is likely for the freeze up problem and the two February problems are probably not related, but given the gravity of the current report, it is hard to say.

Anyhow, all of that is just forensics. You have chosen to shift away from Pentax and with any luck that choice will render your quiver of cameras trouble-free.


Steve

* No, I am not spying on you. I routinely look at post history when I recognize the user name and the problem appears complex. Past problems often provide clues to current distress. Unfortunately the forum software only exposes the most recent 300 records for and for a frequent poster like you, that only provides about a six month window.

[jimfellows]

Hi Tony,


From what I have read there are three Problems:


1 The oil issued which you have had repaired.
2 The focus motor grinding, happened only once.
3 The dreaded aperture block issue.


For the auto focus issue, is it possible the lens was tight or jammed or some how miss mounted that one time? It could have been a one time thing. How often have yo0u used the camera since?


For the aperture block, it really is not that hard of a fix. I did by just doing the filling of the end of the plunger portion of the troublesome solenoid. This way there is no soldering that needs to be done, just about 20 some odd screws to take out.


I know haw you feel about thing when they fail, I owned a Saab for a few years, it is by for the care I loved the most and hated the most all rolled into one. It had every thing go wrong with it that was commonly mentioned in the Saab forums.


If you want help with a repair, let me know I can help walk you through it,


Good Luck,


Jim