[bwDraco]

Has anyone on this forum experienced a shutter failure of any kind on a PENTAX DSLR camera? Did the camera return any error messages, or did it just fail to take pictures or take bad pictures? How many shutter cycles did the camera have? What happened afterwards? If the camera was repaired, how much did it cost?

--DragonLord

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Last edited by bwDraco; 06-20-2011 at 04:36 AM.

[shiner]

I've wondered the same thing.

[bwDraco]

In addition to the above questions:

• Does the 1/6000s maximum shutter speed of the K-x and K-r imply higher precision in the shutter assembly? Does this imply higher reliability and longer shutter life?
• When PENTAX said that the K-x shutter assembly (which the K-r inherited) "passed a demanding action test of more than 100,000 shutter releases", what did PENTAX mean in terms of shutter life and MTBF?

--DragonLord

[gp1806]

In addition to the above questions:

• Does the 1/6000s maximum shutter speed of the K-x and K-r imply higher precision in the shutter assembly? Does this imply higher reliability and longer shutter life?
• When PENTAX said that the K-x shutter assembly (which the K-r inherited) "passed a demanding action test of more than 100,000 shutter releases", what did PENTAX mean in terms of shutter life and MTBF?

--DragonLord

Good question. I looked for that info when I bought in to Pentax - couldn't find any data from Pentax about MTBF. I think they won't publish it. If you find out, please post back.

[rawr]

I think Copal make the shutters for Pentax and most of the industry, and have done so for decades. It might be worth researching some of your technical questions from that angle.

[agsy]

Has anyone on this forum experienced a shutter failure of any kind on a PENTAX DSLR camera? Did the camera return any error messages, or did it just fail to take pictures or take bad pictures? How many shutter cycles did the camera have? What happened afterwards? If the camera was repaired, how much did it cost? --DragonLord

I'm also interested. I just passed 10K on my K-x.

[bwDraco]

Well, I have 10989 shots on my K-r, since I do a lot of birding and action shooting, so I want to get an idea of what to expect when the shutter fails.

Well, I've been searching for a Red-Tailed Hawk around my area for some time, and I finally got a picture today:

Pentax K-r with Pentax DA L 55-300mm @ 300mm. 1/400s,f/5.8 ISO 160.
Cropped, scaled, removed purple fringing, and sharpened in GIMP
Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0


I certainly do not want to miss shots like these when my camera stops working on me!

--DragonLord

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Last edited by bwDraco; 08-27-2012 at 11:16 AM.

[rawr]

That hawk looks it could do with a touch of deconvolution or large radius USM to help deal with the motion blur and lens softness. Also dat watermark!

I think you have little to worry about with your shutter. Search on these forums for shutter failure. Failing shutters are about the last thing you hear people complaining about here.

[bwDraco]

The image has been redone with USM sharpening and a smaller watermark. Thanks for the suggestion, rawr.

--DragonLord

[.a.t.]

Has anyone on this forum experienced a shutter failure of any kind on a PENTAX DSLR camera?

Well, not exactly. But, I had a related problem. At about 50,000 clicks on my K10D, I was taking a series of shots. One moment everything was fine, the next - no response.
There was no warning, no odd behavior, no error message. The camera just wouldn't take a picture. The mirror wouldn't lift, and the shutter wouldn't fire. Everything else was normal.

By searching Pentax Forums, I found a thread mentioning the same symptoms I had (I can't find that thread now). According to the Pentax service people, that guy's problem turned out to be a broken "mirror drive". C.R.I.S. (the contracted Pentax service center) calls that part "mirror box motor", and for $260 they fixed mine. It took about 2 weeks to get my camera back. It now works good as new.

Yeah, that's a lot of $$. But, for me, it was worth it. I'm just a hobbyist, but I shoot a lot and I really like my K10D. Most people probably won't get to the point of mirror / shutter failure before they upgrade, anyway. (Here's a thread where another member also had problems at 50,000 clicks: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/general-technical-troubleshooting/144753-...r-problem.html)

So, nothing lasts forever. Just shoot, drink and be merry...
and maybe keep your fingers crossed.

Tim

[0rangepeel]

My K-x has gone for more than 30,000 actuations, and it's still going on fine. I doubt I'll hit 100,000 as that will take a couple more years, but who knows?

[Stone G.]

Has anyone on this forum experienced a shutter failure of any kind on a PENTAX DSLR camera? Did the camera return any error messages, or did it just fail to take pictures or take bad pictures? How many shutter cycles did the camera have? What happened afterwards? If the camera was repaired, how much did it cost?

--DragonLord

A digital camera is like most other electro-mechanical apparaturs - full of wear and tear parts, one of which will eventually break down someday. Usually without warning (ever experienced a hard disk crash or a power supply failure on your PC?).

Shutter failure would be the least of my concerns.

That said, I had a hair-rising experience this Saturday. I was shooting with my K200D that has had 36.000+ shutter actuations. I was shooting macro with a cordless radio release attached and suddenly, after some 50 exposures the camera went truly mad: It started all by itself clicking wildly (as in continuous Hi shooting mode) with no way of stopping it: Remote relase out: No effect. Turned camera off: No effect. Took lens off: No effect. Camera continued cliking wildly. Only after I removed the batteries while the camera was still cliking did this stop.

I then reloaded the batteries (Eneloops) and got the message: Battery depleted. Turned the camera on and off a few times and at last got a full charge indication again. The pictures that I had recorded were all there and nothing had been written to the card, while it was cliking wildly.

Now, three days after, my K200D works completely as normal -I event haven't had to recharge batteries yet.

Anybody here having had similar experiences?

[RonHendriks1966]

Well I had 62.000 on my K-7 and am now at my black K-5 just over 30.000. I have no worry's about the shutter.

[glasbak]

One of my K10D's shutter died around 95000 actuations.

[Jimmy_Dean0]

Hi All,

Chiming in a little late. My K-x developed a problem at around 8000-9000 actuations. The flash will no longer sync with the shutter (or vice versa), from 1/60th sec to 1/180th sec. Sent it to Pentax Canada and they say its the "shutter block". $40 for the part - $180 labor to install it . And it's not under warranty as I am outside of the 2 year warranty period, and I can't find my receipt from Best Buy . I'm trying to see if they will cover it since 9000 actuations seems quite low for a failure like this to occur.

Does anyone know where the "tested to 100,000 actuations" claim came from? Is it posted on the Pentax website anywhere, or is it an "urban legend"?

Thanks all