This sounds odd. In bright sun the viewfinder indicators does look very faint and harder to read, bu they always have remained bright enought, to be visible when i push my eye to the cup.
Of course it is impossible to read it when moving a little away from the cap on my k100d, but usually this is because some light is reflected off the viewfinder eye piece, and has never been because light inside the penta-mirror box is masking LEDs.
If those leds are modulated, maybe the control system is broken keeping them at dimmest all the time. Wasnt there some sort of setting enabling and disabling this automatic dimming?
Youre saying that it weakens when moving to brighter areas, but seems like its being flooded. To determine if it is a fault, you must find out if it actually gets darker (try putting lens cap in bright light.. other tests), changes intensity at all (dims in lower light) or is just being masked by enviroment light. Best option would be trying another k200d and maybe some other cameras so you can see what to expect in general.
Last edited by ytterbium; 02-23-2009 at 01:43 PM.