[snobrewer]

My fairly new (about 7 months old) K70 has been working well, but suddenly will only autofocus and shoot via the shutter release button when the monitor is on and not through the viewfinder which has always been my preference, for many years. When the camera was only a few weeks old I had to send it back because the monitor blacked out and there was no autofocus and shutter release. They sent it back in great working order, but blamed it on a grain of sand in the shutter release button, and blamed me, which I thought was rather strange because I keep my gear in very good order. Now the same thing is happening except my monitor is not blacking out. My old K-x is still going and gives me no trouble and before that I have had several Pentax film cameras which I have loved. This is really disappointing and inconvenient as I teach Photography at high school and shoot a lot of Rugby Union in Canberra, Australia as well as seascape (especially seagulls) and landscape where I live on the coast of New South Wales. This is occurring with all my lenses.
Can someone advise me please. I have read that there can be solenoid problems with some models.

[MarkJerling]

Hi snobrewer

Welcome to the forum. I can't offer any specific advice with regard to the problems you're having with your K70 but, with the camera only 7 months old, luckily, with Australia's consumer protection laws, you should not have any difficulty having these problems fixed at no cost to you.
I find it interesting that, with your previous repair, they attempted to blame you for the ingress of a grain of sand in the shutter release button, considering how well the camera is supposed to be sealed according to the official blurb: Features1 | PENTAX K-70 | RICOH IMAGING You may want to remind your local service agents of those advertising materials.

Best of luck with the repair!

Kind regards,
Mark

[snobrewer]

Hi snobrewer

Welcome to the forum. I can't offer any specific advice with regard to the problems you're having with your K70 but, with the camera only 7 months old, luckily, with Australia's consumer protection laws, you should not have any difficulty having these problems fixed at no cost to you.
I find it interesting that, with your previous repair, they attempted to blame you for the ingress of a grain of sand in the shutter release button, considering how well the camera is supposed to be sealed according to the official blurb: Features1 | PENTAX K-70 | RICOH IMAGING You may want to remind your local service agents of those advertising materials.

Best of luck with the repair!

Kind regards,
Mark
:aotearoa:

Thanks Mark.

[Michail_P]

Ι hope you get your K-70 fixed with no cost. Doesn't really sound like a solenoid issue.

[SharkyCA]

My fairly new (about 7 months old) K70 has been working well, but suddenly will only autofocus and shoot via the shutter release button when the monitor is on and not through the viewfinder which has always been my preference, for many years. When the camera was only a few weeks old I had to send it back because the monitor blacked out and there was no autofocus and shutter release. They sent it back in great working order, but blamed it on a grain of sand in the shutter release button, and blamed me, which I thought was rather strange because I keep my gear in very good order. Now the same thing is happening except my monitor is not blacking out. My old K-x is still going and gives me no trouble and before that I have had several Pentax film cameras which I have loved. This is really disappointing and inconvenient as I teach Photography at high school and shoot a lot of Rugby Union in Canberra, Australia as well as seascape (especially seagulls) and landscape where I live on the coast of New South Wales. This is occurring with all my lenses.
Can someone advise me please. I have read that there can be solenoid problems with some models.

As said in previous post, doesn't sound like solenoid problems, I have had that problem with my K-70, I suspect it is something else! Good luck! PS, did you try a camera reset to factory default?

[photogem]

My fairly new (about 7 months old) K70 has been working well, but suddenly will only autofocus and shoot via the shutter release button when the monitor is on and not through the viewfinder which has always been my preference, for many years. When the camera was only a few weeks old I had to send it back because the monitor blacked out and there was no autofocus and shutter release. They sent it back in great working order, but blamed it on a grain of sand in the shutter release button, and blamed me, which I thought was rather strange because I keep my gear in very good order.

Well, the K70 is WR, so I'd take that grain of sand with a grain of salt.

Does this mean they didn't repair it on warranty?
If so, then I would to go to court for that.

Now the same thing is happening except my monitor is not blacking out.
Then I'd press them for a replacement camera.

Possibly the original fault was not dealt with the right way ... sounds to me like a mainboard problem

But what I would test first is:
- in the menu set back to standard
- battery out for one night .... and then check again, just in case.

My old K-x is still going and gives me no trouble and before that I have had several Pentax film cameras which I have loved. This is really disappointing and inconvenient as I teach Photography at high school and shoot a lot of Rugby Union in Canberra, Australia as well as seascape (especially seagulls) and landscape where I live on the coast of New South Wales.

Then you tell that to those who sold you the K70

I have read that there can be solenoid problems with some models.

No relation to the solenoid.

[snobrewer]

As said in previous post, doesn't sound like solenoid problems, I have had that problem with my K-70, I suspect it is something else! Good luck! PS, did you try a camera reset to factory default?

Yes I did. No luck!

[snobrewer]

Well, the K70 is WR, so I'd take that grain of sand with a grain of salt.

Does this mean they didn't repair it on warranty?
If so, then I would to go to court for that.


Possibly the original fault was not dealt with the right way ... sounds to me like a mainboard problem

But what I would test first is:
- in the menu set back to standard
- battery out for one night .... and then check again, just in case.


Then you tell that to those who sold you the K70


No relation to the solenoid.

I took your advice and took the battery out for 20 odd hours. Put it back in today and hey, its all working as it should again. So far so good. Thank you for your advice. Just hope it works OK from now on, but at least I know that I can do this. Thanks to everyone for their help.

[photogem]

Great!
There are usually 3 steps one can take on:
1. Factory Reset
2. Factory Reset + battery out for a day or so
3. Factory Reset via Debug-Menu or PK-Tether or PK-Triggerchord (last one you just google for).

Often when I just did a normal factory reset via menu, I later found that not everything has been reset.
Only Debug or PK-Tether/Triggerchord allow a real reset.