[vimlr007]

Gosh, that stinks.
Now, not to make light of your situation, but I used to be a Landrover owner. That is a whole other level of hurt.

Enough said? LOL :-)

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[Rondec]

I'm sorry to here about your bad luck. I still have a K-1 that was pre-ordered and arrived in May of 2016 and K3 that my daughter uses that was purchased a couple of years before that. They both seem to work fine.

The only bad experience I had was my daughter's K-S1 that got aperture block issues. If I had had your luck with Pentax, I would seriously think about switching -- if just to try to change that streak of camera gear breaking.

[Joe Dusel]

LOL, I have almost 102,000 shutter counts on my K-1. No wonder my back-focus button fell off. It really sucks for the original poster having problems with multiple cameras. What I most dislike about using Pentax cameras in the U.S. is that Ricoh does not really seem to care about service with just one authorized repair center in the U.S. . Ricoh won't sell parts to anyone except Precision, and Precision won't sell users parts unless they do the repair at their facility. That really sucks when you have a broken camera or lens with an easily replaceable part and they want to charge a fortune to fix it (plus shipping). Don't tell anyone, but I use my Pentax K-1 and K-3 cameras professionally for events and portrait sessions. LOL, people come up to me and comment on my nice equipment, but they would be appalled to know that it was not actually professional.

[OrchidJulie]

What I most dislike about using Pentax cameras in the U.S. is that Ricoh does not really seem to care about service with just one authorized repair center in the U.S. .

Not precisely true...there's only one warranty repair outfit, Precision. Out of warranty repairs can be done by a number of other outfits. Just one example, Southern Photo Technical in Miami is an "authorized" Pentax repair shop, just not for warranty work. I have had repairs done there, no problem getting parts.

Pentax Repair Facilities (Wordwide listing) - PentaxForums.com

[MarkJerling]

Enough said? LOL :-)

Commiserations mate.

[robgski]

Bad luck in both cases. I took a K-5 to Iraq in a rucksack for some hard travel, no issues. My K-1 regularly gets tossed about in a padded holster, no issues. Hope you get lucky with your next purchase.

[Ian Stuart Forsyth]

Most modern cameras can survive a great deal of abuse, while all it takes is a single small impact that can cause damage to the camera, this damage may not even show up in day to day usage for sometime until it does.
One of my K5 I had broke the strap lug I found I damaged in the camera bag that was stored in a hard box

[normhead]

Most modern cameras can survive a great deal of abuse, while all it takes is a single small impact that can cause damage to the camera, this damage may not even show up in day to day usage for sometime until it does.
One of my K5 I had broke the strap lug I found I damaged in the camera bag that was stored in a hard box

Our K-5 is now 12 years old and has been hauled all over Algonquin Park, carried on miles of portages, sometimes as much as 50 miles on one trip in Pelican cases and waterproof bags. It's still in perfect functional condition )maybe little aesthetically scarred) despite almost 100,000 clicks. My K-3 has been dropped enough to damage the lenses on it 3 times, one of those sling shotted into the ground by it's strap breaking my DA 55-300 in half, and yet still functions perfectly after 160,000 clicks. So you can also have a lot of really hard knocks, with no damage at all. Based on my experience, that's a lot more common than what you describe.

[clackers]

LOL, I have almost 102,000 shutter counts on my K-1. No wonder my back-focus button fell off. It really sucks for the original poster having problems with multiple cameras. What I most dislike about using Pentax cameras in the U.S. is that Ricoh does not really seem to care about service with just one authorized repair center in the U.S. . Ricoh won't sell parts to anyone except Precision, and Precision won't sell users parts unless they do the repair at their facility. That really sucks when you have a broken camera or lens with an easily replaceable part and they want to charge a fortune to fix it (plus shipping).

Pretty much the same deal with Sony, right? They use Precision, too, AFAIK.

[UncleVanya]

Pretty much the same deal with Sony, right? They use Precision, too, AFAIK.

Sony will sell parts to consumers or others. It’s simple and easy to obtain repair parts if you are inclined to diy. As for warranty work, as far as I know they use Precision also in the USA. I thought they had some additional warranty shops but I can’t locate a list right now.

[gatorguy]

Sony will sell parts to consumers or others. It’s simple and easy to obtain repair parts if you are inclined to diy. As for warranty work, as far as I know they use Precision also in the USA. I thought they had some additional warranty shops but I can’t locate a list right now.

There is no "list" AFAICT. Sony lists only one other Authorized Warranty Repair Center, for the New York area, but that might be for specific Sony video products. I'm not sure about that one.

EDIT: On a very related note, did Nikon really discontinue all their authorized repair center agreements a couple of years ago and everything now needs to go to Nikon itself for repair? That's what I'm reading.

[luftfluss]

EDIT: On a very related note, did Nikon really discontinue all their authorized repair center agreements a couple of years ago and everything now needs to go to Nikon itself for repair? That's what I'm reading.

I recall reading that, too. Probably more economical for them.

[mikesbike]

EDIT: On a very related note, did Nikon really discontinue all their authorized repair center agreements a couple of years ago and everything now needs to go to Nikon itself for repair? That's what I'm reading.

Sounds like an additional profitable business! In ye olden days of Pentax being a whole company, their USA division was located in Colorado, as I recall, and had its official repair center there as well. It was very good and was reasonable.

[AgentL]

I don't consider 25,000 count on a rated 300,000 count camera excessive.

Agree -- but having something go wrong and need a repair is not the same as a shutter failing early. I don't think there are many cameras out there which have made it to 300K shutter actuations without having gone into the shop for repair. Professionals get their cameras fixed and overhauled as they go. This is reality.

[sebberry]

I had two AF540FGZ flashes (one to replace the first) that both failed - the zooming on the flash broke - it wouldn't know where flash was and would keep driving it once it reached the end of the range making a god awful noise. I bought a Godox 860v3 with the wireless trigger for my K3-3 and it's been a great flash and the lithium ion battery is a nice touch.

I've had my 50-135 SDM motor repaired twice and it's seized yet again. It'll remain converted to screw drive until either they release a PLM version or I switch systems. Same with my 16-50 - optically it's good enough that I don't need the PLM version of that. I feel like the failure rate of my camera gear has been higher than most everything else I've owned.