[stillshot2]

To also answer the OP's question, yes, there have been many K30/50 cameras that have become less usable due to aperture block failure. How common, it is hard to know but it seems to be the weakest link. My K30's aperture block died with a little over 10,000 actuations. I bought it used for about $250, got about 8,000 of those shots, then sold it for $150 with its issue known to the buyer. I'd say $100 for 3 years of usage and 8,000 shots could be considered worth it, but it's hard to say since if it wouldn't have died I'd still be using it today and would not have needed to upgrade to the K3.

[normhead]

To also answer the OP's question, yes, there have been many K30/50 cameras that have become less usable due to aperture block failure. How common, it is hard to know but it seems to be the weakest link. My K30's aperture block died with a little over 10,000 actuations. I bought it used for about $250, got about 8,000 of those shots, then sold it for $150 with its issue known to the buyer. I'd say $100 for 3 years of usage and 8,000 shots could be considered worth it, but it's hard to say since if it wouldn't have died I'd still be using it today and would not have needed to upgrade to the K3.

$250 for 8,000 images is 3 cents an image. A little more than you'd like for digital but still not a complete waste of money.

[reh321]

$250 for 8,000 images is 3 cents and image. A little more than you'd like for digital but still not a complete waste of money.

The main issue isn't cost. The main issue is loss of confidence. Too many stories about this condition start off something like "I pulled my K-50 out of the closet to take photos of my daughter born this morning, and all I got was a series of black images". Yes, one could always argue that they should have checked the camera 'yesterday', but that is hard to accept 'today' ..... that is why I had been packing at least one manual lens every day for at least a month before mine started demonstrating Dark Image Syndrome - but not everyone is as cautious as I am.

Incidentally, I also paid $250 for my K-30 {shutter count = 3}, but I got just 3019 images {in three years} before the problems started ; I've always described myself as a "low volume shooter"

[normhead]

but not everyone is as cautious as I am.

I have always found with just about anything, don't use failing equipment, for anything. Not just cameras. I'm actually quite mystified by all these folks watching a problem go from bad to worse, with plenty of warning. What's the thought process there? Most of the stories I've heard start off with "at first it just happened every now and then but eventually it completely failed." I missed that story where the camera failed without warning pn someone's daughter's birthday. I guess as a person who ships things off to Sun Camera at the first sign of a problem, I'm scratching my head. Everything electronic and mechanical or electrical will eventually fail. Leaving things after your equipment starts warning you it has a problem can in many instances mean you cause more damage than the original failing part.

I'm wondering if the victim type "this shouldn't have happened" attitude is what keeps people from doing these repairs when the problem first arises. If, I'm going to use a camera, I pack the bag, after changing or charging the batteries the night before the shoot, but then, I have more cameras to choose from. Maybe folks with one body are more reluctant to send them off. It's possible.

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Last edited by normhead; 10-30-2018 at 02:47 PM.

[reh321]

I have always found with just about anything, don't use failing equipment, for anything. Not just cameras. I'm actually quite mystified by all these folks watching a problem go from bad to worse, with plenty of warning. What's the thought process there? Most of the stories I've heard start off with "at first it just happened every now and then but eventually it completely failed." I missed that story where the camera failed without warning pn someone's daughter's birthday. I guess as a person who ships things off to Sun Camera at the first sign of a problem, I'm scratching my head. Everything electronic and mechanical or electrical will eventually fail. Leaving things after your equipment starts warning you it has a problem can in many instances mean you cause more damage than the original failing part.

I'm wondering if the victim type "this shouldn't have happened" attitude is what keeps people from doing these repairs when the problem first arises. If, I'm going to use a camera, I pack the bag, after changing or charging the batteries the night before the shoot, but then, I have more cameras to choose from. Maybe folks with one body are more reluctant to send them off. It's possible.

I will not ship my camera off for repair, because my experience is that it would cost me more than I paid for this camera for them to even touch it. Right now, I'm experimenting with solutions. Eventually I'll just purchase a replacement.

Beginning with my first rangefinder camera in 1969, this is my 9th primary camera. The average for the first 8 is just over 5 years per camera; two, one that lasted 9 months until I decided it didn't meet my needs, and one that died after 20 months, I have declared to be "failures" - so I recently declared 40 months {2*20} to be the dividing line between "failure" and "success". The first dark images occurred at the end of month 36 for this camera, but I have continued to use it because I wanted it to qualify as "successful" .... it is about to start month #42, so it now does qualify as a "success", but with my fully manual lenses I don't see any reason to purchase its replacement until I'm convinced {12 months limit on this} that the KP is the best Pentax is going to offer me.

[ThorSanchez]

I'm actually quite mystified by all these folks watching a problem go from bad to worse, with plenty of warning. What's the thought process there? Most of the stories I've heard start off with "at first it just happened every now and then but eventually it completely failed." I missed that story where the camera failed without warning pn someone's daughter's birthday.

My K-30 took hundreds of pictures in the summer of 2015. Was flawless on a trip to Canada and New York. Was great with a series of long-exposures on July 4th. Then suddenly with no warning it at all went black during my kid's first little league practice of the fall season. I have thousands of photos on my Google photos site from the time I first got the K-30, but a nice three-month empty hole with only a few phone or ancient Canon point-and-shoot shots because it was at Precision. I ended up buying a K-3ii just before Thanksgiving because I didn't want to miss the entire holiday with no good camera.

[reh321]

I have always found with just about anything, don't use failing equipment, for anything. Not just cameras. I'm actually quite mystified by all these folks watching a problem go from bad to worse, with plenty of warning. What's the thought process there? Most of the stories I've heard start off with "at first it just happened every now and then but eventually it completely failed." I missed that story where the camera failed without warning pn someone's daughter's birthday. I guess as a person who ships things off to Sun Camera at the first sign of a problem, I'm scratching my head. Everything electronic and mechanical or electrical will eventually fail. Leaving things after your equipment starts warning you it has a problem can in many instances mean you cause more damage than the original failing part.

I'm wondering if the victim type "this shouldn't have happened" attitude is what keeps people from doing these repairs when the problem first arises. If, I'm going to use a camera, I pack the bag, after changing or charging the batteries the night before the shoot, but then, I have more cameras to choose from. Maybe folks with one body are more reluctant to send them off. It's possible.

For many of these people there was no warning - it just stopped working correctly (*) .... sometimes the warranty period had just run out, so part of the reason some people react so emotionally to this issue is that they don't want to replace the camera just after the warranty has run out - but that is the only way for a user to truly 'protect' him/her-self {other than my solution of lugging manual lenses around all the time}.

(*) My using AA batteries may have stretched the timeline out some.

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Last edited by reh321; 10-30-2018 at 05:21 PM.

[kernos]

The quiet shutter comes with the K-3(ii), a significant improvement over the K-5 series.


Steve

Steve I will tell you that the K5iis is dramatically more quiet than the K30 and K50.

[stillshot2]

$250 for 8,000 images is 3 cents an image. A little more than you'd like for digital but still not a complete waste of money.

Can't even imagine how much 8,000 shots on film to be with developed and get prints! So yep still a bargain.

[normhead]

I will not ship my camera off for repair, because my experience is that it would cost me more than I paid for this camera for them to even touch it. Right now, I'm experimenting with solutions. Eventually I'll just purchase a replacement.

Beginning with my first rangefinder camera in 1969, this is my 9th primary camera. The average for the first 8 is just over 5 years per camera; two, one that lasted 9 months until I decided it didn't meet my needs, and one that died after 20 months, I have declared to be "failures" - so I recently declared 40 months {2*20} to be the dividing line between "failure" and "success". The first dark images occurred at the end of month 36 for this camera, but I have continued to use it because I wanted it to qualify as "successful" .... it is about to start month #42, so it now does qualify as a "success", but with my fully manual lenses I don't see any reason to purchase its replacement until I'm convinced {12 months limit on this} that the KP is the best Pentax is going to offer me.

we dropped a K-x once. We picked one up second hand for less than the repair cost would have been. It's still going. I'm actually visiting it right now, it's on the kitchen counter at my step son's. You definitely have to check before you repair, The guy we bought from never figured out how to use it. I suppose I could have pointed him to the forum and told him to keep the camera, but hey, I'd already driven 100 mikes to get it.) There were less than 800 actuations. We actually gained about 10,000 actuations in the process. I did repair the 21 ltd. that was on the front of it when the wind blew over it's tripod on a campsite.

That sounds like a patentable formula. The reh321 method for determining successful camera purchases. Buy the way, my K-3 has roughly 100,000 actuations (probably more like 120,000 but I'm not going to look it up. That comes to 1.4 cents per image, and if I actually get my 200,000 actuations, it will be .7 cents per image. With the higher price of the K-1 that will be a lot harder to achieve. I wonder, is there a better deal in terms of cost per image than APS-c bodies?

[Rondec]

My daughter's KS-1 had aperture block failure and I had it repaired by a place in California for 100 dollars. It has been fine in the year and a half since. Obviously I would prefer not to have to fix the camera, but knowing there is a relatively cheap fix for it helps.

As far as Pentax making a statement about it, they have never made statements about anything except for the string of pearls sensor defects on the K5. They certainly never admitted any issues with SDM lenses and on questioning would always say comments that indicated that "failure rates are in the expected range for these lenses" or something similar. I just think it is unlikely Pentax is going to make some sort of statement about this -- particularly not from the salesmen that are at shows.

[reh321]

My daughter's KS-1 had aperture block failure and I had it repaired by a place in California for 100 dollars. It has been fine in the year and a half since. Obviously I would prefer not to have to fix the camera, but knowing there is a relatively cheap fix for it helps.

As far as Pentax making a statement about it, they have never made statements about anything except for the string of pearls sensor defects on the K5. They certainly never admitted any issues with SDM lenses and on questioning would always say comments that indicated that "failure rates are in the expected range for these lenses" or something similar. I just think it is unlikely Pentax is going to make some sort of statement about this -- particularly not from the salesmen that are at shows.

The SDM lenses is probably a good example of how they handle things - and the result of that. When I first joined here, I was surprised by the resistance to in-lens AF motors .... that had been a Canon staple for many years, giving good quiet service, so to me, getting rid of the noisy in-body AF motor (*) was a 'no brainer'. Having seen how they have handled the Aperture Control issue - and my reaction to that - I understand the in-lens issue so much better.


(*) My K-30 was kitted with a DA 18-55 lens. After just a few days of using that noisy thing, I purchased a DA18-135. As recently as two weeks ago my wife complained about the noise made by my DA 55-300, and I promised to get the PLM variant as soon as I have a camera that can use it.

[psoo]

My daughter's KS-1 had aperture block failure and I had it repaired by a place in California for 100 dollars. It has been fine in the year and a half since. Obviously I would prefer not to have to fix the camera, but knowing there is a relatively cheap fix for it helps.

As far as Pentax making a statement about it, they have never made statements about anything except for the string of pearls sensor defects on the K5. They certainly never admitted any issues with SDM lenses and on questioning would always say comments that indicated that "failure rates are in the expected range for these lenses" or something similar. I just think it is unlikely Pentax is going to make some sort of statement about this -- particularly not from the salesmen that are at shows.

Hi Rondec, as I said in my original post I had my K50 repaired by a person in California for $100. Must be the same guy you used. Because I was in a hurry he fixed the camera in a day or so and returned it . He gave a year's warranty. The camera is still working perfectly.

[iheiramo]

It's not problem. It's a blessing that guide newbies to the wonderfull world of manual vintage lenses

I do have a K30 with failure and due to it I'm not only more active, but also much better photographer and own a lovely collection of inspiring old lenses. Without failure I'd still be full auto holiday shooter

[reh321]

It's not problem. It's a blessing that guide newbies to the wonderfull world of manual vintage lenses

I do have a K30 with failure and due to it I'm not only more active, but also much better photographer and own a lovely collection of inspiring old lenses. Without failure I'd still be full auto holiday shooter

If I took photos only on holidays, I'd shoot nothing next month. Our older daughter is engaged to a guy whose family makes a big deal of holidays, especially Thanksgiving. Our younger daughter is assistant manager of a retail store. The result is that we'll see neither of them for Thanksgiving - in fact, we'll see neither of them in November at all - but I expect my exposure total to be close to my usual average.