[paolo11]

Ricoh/Pentax does not require product registration. Keep your receipt from an authorized dealer and all should be well should you require warranty service. If you still have questions, you can ping the Ricoh/Pentax customer service reps directly here on Pentax Forums:

Ask Ricoh Imaging Support - PentaxForums.com


Steve

Thanks, I called and they verified what you said.

[Not a Number]

The web registration form is more for marketing purposes than anything else. However the Advantage Program for the 645z may (unconfirmed) require registration.

Those warranty/product registration cards you're suppose to fill out and mail in? I never mail them in and have never been denied warranty service as long as I have a receipt/bill of sale.

[stevebrot]

The company called dslrparts has been around for a long time. Recently, they have set up Pentax camera repair. Above, is a cut and paste from their web site. I called and sent e-mail, but haven't heard back yet. This is all they do, fix aperture problems. so Pentax has known about this problem for years.

dslrparts has been around for a long time, but their sister site pentaxcamerarepair has only been around for a few months (domain registered Aug 20, 2016 with site active in October). They did not offer repair services before this Autumn. The list of affected cameras on their home page represents those known to have a similar aperture control block, not those with reported failures. To the best of my knowledge,* aperture control block failure such as reported for the K-30/K-50 has been limited to those models, the K-500 (few), and K-S2 (rare).

As for long-term culpability by Pentax spanning multiple bodies, that is conjecture. As noted on many posts on this site, the aperture control block issue first appeared on this site about 16 months after the K-30's 2012 introduction and not long after the K-50 launch. I participated in the first troubleshooting requests and remember well the puzzlement regarding the rash of sudden failures of what had been a relatively trouble-free body. The reports continued as K-50 bodies aged with no real indication as to what components were failing. I personally sent a K-50 in for repair in early 2015 and Precision replaced both the electronic controller and the mechanical parts...not exactly a surgically precise repair. It has only been fairly recently that the mechanical actuator solenoid has been the focus of the online user investigation. Presumably, that is the part being replaced by Ricoh/Pentax and is what is repaired by pentaxcamerarepair.** So much for that series.

Before the K-30, back to 2007 when I joined this forum, I don't recall reports for other models with similar symptoms. Online forums are very sensitive to any product issues and lack of reported issues is a strong indicator of product strength. If there is a history of aperture controller block failure in Pentax dSLRs, the bread trail ends with the K-30.


Steve

* The "best of my knowledge" is the experience of cooperative learning as an active member of Pentax Forums since Spring of 2007 along with the recent surveys conducted by Pentax Forums.

** How they repair this issue (used parts?) is not stated on their site Edit: recently changed to indicate a modification of the aperture controller block, nor is the effectiveness of the fix beyond their promise to warranty the repair for a year. What was known about the problem at Pentax and when it was first fully characterized is unknown. What is known is that it is likely that the full initial production run of K-50 was finished and the K-30 was out of production before the K-30 failures started occurring. Did Pentax "dump" defective product hoping that nobody would notice? That is possible, of course, but would have been incredibly stupid.

[GateCityRadio]

Pity about the un-pleasant experience. Seems a poor reflection on Pentax USA. Surely they must keep some lens parts inventory somewhere within Pentax USA. And Pentax Japan certainly should keep lens parts in stock, which Precision or Ricoh could overnight freight into the USA.

What about trying another repairer? I've read good things about the KEH repair service here. Maybe they have the parts and can do the repair.

I sent a 16-50 back to KEH for repair under warranty....they in turn sent it to precision. KEH was pretty good about getting back to me in a day or two on my weekly "do you have an update on my lens?" Emails. They couldn't get in touch with precision at all after they sent the lens off to them. I sent it to KEH in august...I finally asked for a refund and got the money a few days ago. KEH seemed very disorganized with my info. At first they tried to tell me they sent my refund upon receiving the lens (never happened). At one point they sent me a 50-135 (I had ordered one at the same time as the 16-50 and they somehow mixed up what lens I sent back) as a replacement...I ended up sending it back because I already have one....Before this I've had very good luck with them and I'll still buy from them. Their prices are competitive and their return and warranty policies are great. I had to return two other lenses in the past for replacement and they were very fast with sending me another one when they have one in stock. I guess I can live without a short zoom for a while and just use the 21 LTD.

So back in June, I damaged my Pentax 12-24 lens such that it wouldn't zoom anymore. Contacted Ricoh and then sent it in to Precision Camera Repair for the repair. This was in June. They quickly diagnosed what part I needed, ordered it, but of course it was on backorder and it took Pentax/Ricoh months to ship them the part. The part finally arrived in late August, and I thought certainly I'd get the lens back shortly thereafter. However, I just found out on Monday that Precision was returning my lens to me UNREPAIRED. It's now mid-September and I just got it back and sure enough, it's as broken as ever. Precision told me the part needed was no longer available. That made no sense and so I just spoke with Ricoh and they said that when Precision tried to put the ordered part on to the lens, only then did they realize that the rail was bent and apparently, Pentax has discontinued the 12-24mm lens and no longer has parts such as the rail. So good luck friends if your 12-24 ever breaks! The Ricoh guy apologized but offered nothing to make me feel better. I said it was pathetic that it took them months to realize the rail was damaged, that they no longer have parts, and that nothing else could be done. I requested a replacement lens since this one is now largely useless, but he said they can't help me with a replacement or discount or anything because they only do business with third parties, not with individual customers. I requested to speak with Corporate because they're the ones making all the decisions and he said my only course of action was to send them a letter with my request in the mail. I said that sounds like a dead-end and that I'll never hear back from them, and he didn't offer much to make me think otherwise.

I'm really discouraged right now about Pentax and starting to think I should just move on to Canon/Nikon or anybody who is more professional, responsive, able to repair cameras/lenses in a timely fashion (this isn't my first disappointment with Pentax in terms of repair time), and who even seems to care about keeping their customers happy.

And my most heavily used lens is now useless to me.

Precision sucks...that's all I have to say. Its a wonder you were even able to get in contact with them at all. Truth be told though if your lens is past its warranty there really isn't much Ricoh can do about it.

[paolo11]

dslrparts has been around for a long time, but their sister site pentaxcamerarepair has only been around for a few months (domain registered Aug 20, 2016 with site active in October). They did not offer repair services before this Autumn. The list of affected cameras on their home page represents those known to have a similar aperture control block, not those with reported failures. To the best of my knowledge,* aperture control block failure such as reported for the K-30/K-50 has been limited to those models, the K-500 (few), and K-S2 (rare).

As for long-term culpability by Pentax spanning multiple bodies, that is conjecture. As noted on many posts on this site, the aperture control block issue first appeared on this site about 16 months after the K-30's 2012 introduction and not long after the K-50 launch. I participated in the first troubleshooting requests and remember well the puzzlement regarding the rash of sudden failures of what had been a relatively trouble-free body. The reports continued as K-50 bodies aged with no real indication as to what components were failing. I personally sent a K-50 in for repair in early 2015 and Precision replaced both the electronic controller and the mechanical parts...not exactly a surgically precise repair. It has only been fairly recently that the mechanical actuator solenoid has been the focus of the online user investigation. Presumably, that is the part being replaced by Ricoh/Pentax and is what is repaired by pentaxcamerarepair.** So much for that series.

Before the K-30, back to 2007 when I joined this forum, I don't recall reports for other models with similar symptoms. Online forums are very sensitive to any product issues and lack of reported issues is a strong indicator of product strength. If there is a history of aperture controller block failure in Pentax dSLRs, the bread trail ends with the K-30.


Steve

* The "best of my knowledge" is the experience of cooperative learning as an active member of Pentax Forums since Spring of 2007 along with the recent surveys conducted by Pentax Forums.

** How they repair this issue (used parts?) is not stated on their site Edit: recently changed to indicate a modification of the aperture controller block, nor is the effectiveness of the fix beyond their promise to warranty the repair for a year. What was known about the problem at Pentax and when it was first fully characterized is unknown. What is known is that it is likely that the full initial production run of K-50 was finished and the K-30 was out of production before the K-30 failures started occurring. Did Pentax "dump" defective product hoping that nobody would notice? That is possible, of course, but would have been incredibly stupid.

Good info, thanks. dslrparts and pentax camera repair are one in the same. I was told by the owner that he's repaired 25 cameras so far with good results.if the repair can't be made, camera is mailed back postage paid.

.Why am I going this way? It's due to the poor support I've received over the past month or so from Pentax concerning this problem and another problem due to warranty, which, thanks to this forum, has been cleared up. Also, Precision has a terrible rating.

What is not conjecture is the fact that Pentax won't own up to their problem with the K30/50, they should repair these cameras at no charge. One owner of a K50 was 3 weeks out of warranty, and cost him 120 euros.

I bought my K50 in 2014, so that leaves plenty of time by Pentax to have done something about the problem, if, as you state, problem popped up in 2012 and so much for QC. Hard to believe Pentax engineers couldn't resolve the problem and kept producing the camera with a lurking problem.

In reality, any mass produce item that has a lot of competition is prone to the type of problem. Not an excuse.

thanks again,

Paolo

[stevebrot]

What is not conjecture is the fact that Pentax won't own up to their problem with the K30/50, they should repair these cameras at no charge.

That is an interesting theory that you share with a few other users on this site.

One owner of a K50 was 3 weeks out of warranty, and cost him 120 euros.

That has not been the usual case for Ricoh/Pentax North America where they have generally been very lenient in providing warranty service to owners of effected cameras that were several months out of warranty. Whether that constitutes "owning up to the problem" is a matter of opinion. If you feel that is not the case, you might consider pursuing the matter in small claims court.

if, as you state, problem popped up in 2012

I did not say that.


Steve

[awscreo]

I believe I sent my Oly EM1 to Precision for repairs, way out of the warranty. Had an issue with one of the wheels in the back not being responsive (was a wide-enough spread problem), I guess issue was big enough for olympus to offer free repairs for my camera. Sent it to Precision, don't remember having any issues with them. They returned the camera fully functional, within few weeks if I recall correctly.

[paolo11]

stevebrot, I just used this as a reference to when you noted the problem popped up. So 2013 or so.

"As noted on many posts on this site, the aperture control block issue first appeared on this site about 16 months after the K-30's 2012 introduction and not long after the K-50 launch."

Read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/6-pentax-dslr-discussion/304037-disgusted...#ixzz4ULXuC4aU

---------- Post added 12-30-16 at 01:30 PM ----------

I believe I sent my Oly EM1 to Precision for repairs, way out of the warranty. Had an issue with one of the wheels in the back not being responsive (was a wide-enough spread problem), I guess issue was big enough for olympus to offer free repairs for my camera. Sent it to Precision, don't remember having any issues with them. They returned the camera fully functional, within few weeks if I recall correctly.

I've never used Precision, I just read the feedback from people who used them. funny, the worse negs were from Sony camera repairs. Out of 5 stars, they have received 2.2. I did call them, and they told me Pentax takes it on a case by case basic whether they will pay for the repair. One Pentax owner go them to pay 30% of the cost after a lot of nagging. I didn't want to go that route.