[ignath]

last frames i took yesterday were accompanied by weird, harder than usual sound, that was somehow more stretched. the same was happening on several single occasions few weeks before yesterday, but only for one or two shots. so, shutter stopped to respond, there was no more light at the end of viewfinder, then i switched camera off to change the battery because indiacator still showed that newly bought & fully charged for the first time fujitsu lsd were still full after 600 photos taken with manual lenses only, no long exposures this time and of course no inbuilt flash used (blasphemy! ), but since standard battery was usually shown almost empty just after 50 shots, it was natural to consider that indicator is incorrect again. after battery was changed the screen still was functioning, however shutter remained unresponsive. took the lens off and there was mirror locked up. then after another switching off/on even screen was dark. last 3 shots were black (didn't check that immediately, only after i copied files into computer).
bought it locally for 300 euros a year ago, it was looking good, seller said it's used just a little, but after got to know here at pentaxforums how to check shutter count, it was a bit over 50k, then also death of the green solenoid was discovered, but that was not a problem as i used only lenses with aperture ring and mostly manual focus. until buying DA 12-24mm F4 ED AL [IF] few months ago i had no idea that solenoid isn't functional.

for the archives - total shuttercount for is 56'463 frames + 3 black ones.

one of the good shots from last 24 hours of this camera:
6 / beware of the auto! | lens used - smc pentax-a 1:1.7 50m? | Flickr

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Last edited by ignath; 05-02-2019 at 09:54 AM.

[ArcziPL]

Yes, it sounds like a dead shutter (or mirror; they are mechanically coupled).

Not much entries for this particular model in the database

pentax k 50 | Camera Shutter Life Database

but it seems that only 60% of K-50 survive beyond 50k shots.

bought it locally for 300 euros a year ago, it was looking good, seller said it's used just a little, but after got to know here at pentaxforums how to check shutter count, it was a bit over 50k, then also death of the green solenoid was discovered, but that was not a problem as i used only lenses with aperture ring and mostly manual focus. until buying DA 12-24mm F4 ED AL [IF] few months ago i had no idea that solenoid isn't functional.

Sound clearly like a fraud... I'm sorry.

[stevebrot]

Not much entries for this particular model in the database

pentax k 50 | Camera Shutter Life Database

but it seems that only 60% of K-50 survive beyond 50k shots.

I made an earlier attempt to break the information on that page down, but screwed up the math. The takeaway other than the small sample size (n=85 total) is from the top of the page:

Average number of actuations after which shutter is still alive: 25,042.1
Average number of actuations after which shutter died: 85,872.2

...coupled with the number reporting for each class (62 and 23, respectively).

There is little information in the survivor data except to calculate the projection statistic of 61% surviving to at least 50,001 actuations. More important is that half the reported deaths happened at 85,872.2 or above. Mind you, that last number means little without some indication of scatter and is likely skewed by the report of over 1,000,000 at death for a single body.

The shutter life database site is a little sketchy in that all-cause mortality is not factored in and the count at death is assumed to be due to shutter failure. There is also the issue of low participation for both survivors and the dead. I took part with my K10D, but decided not to with my K-3.

FWIW, failure to make 50,000 counts is only known to have affected 20% of the participant K-50s, whereas 13% are known to have made it at least that far.


Steve

[stevebrot]

just to be a 100% sure - is my k-50 shutter really dead?

Yes...it appears so...


Steve