Originally posted by snogglethorpe I'm not sure how you can really draw that conclusion from this though...
Modern digital cameras are immensely complicated beasts, and while this green line thing is surely annoying for some people, it's quite subtle, and since it only occurs in certain circumstances, is exactly the sort of issue which can slip by testing and get discovered only in wide release.
Remember the Canon highlights-have-black-spots thing? Man, people were freaking out about that...
I agree with ya 10000%...it is going to take time. But everything is in how the issue is handled by HoyaTax to back up the hard work by the Pentax part of the biz...
To me though, the thing is if this is a situation, and I agree it has to be a strange alignment of the hardware stars for some unlucky folks...but if this is a component level issue, what is to say ALL of the units produced so far have the potential, at some time, to see this green line syndrome. Plus what will it mean to the functioning lifespan of the body? What if some have the component which just stops ever so short of the failure where the line becomes visible...that means it is going to run hotter all the time and it will have a shorter lifespan. That part if a fact for electronic components which run hotter...the live shorter lives.
I am not saying that to be hard on Pentax, it's a good, maybe even a great body. If HoyaTax does not own up to it fully disclosing the problem, and bodies begin dropping like flies after the warranty expires, what will those folks feel like? I especially mean those who were never even aware of the issue as it exists today?
My sense is the old guard Pentax hold-overs will win out in a battle of ethics and people will eventually be told for certain what the problem is...it might just be the sort of thing that is very difficult to nail down.
It is OT but here is an example of a similar scenario I experienced around 1991 or so. I was once working as the assistant IT Director and head programmer (means I did everything but scrub toilets...hehehe) for an environmental engineering corp. The companies Analytical lab was running QNX OS for their NOS...we had an issue where some end of the day staff work was not showing up in the system the following day.
First we assumed the person who's job it was had been blowing it off...because when I entered the data the next day to try and troubleshoot the issue, nothing it worked fine...and some days when she entered the data no problems at all...we checked the code a hundred times over, the hardware, everything...then after a couple months of frustration I spent a week everyday with her entering data in the afternoon...then one day I finally figured it out, mind you this was after I got them to switch over to Netware because it was all just too weird for a mission critical app...what I figured out was we had the workstations setup to use 7 virtual screens, no biggie, but the thing was, for the database we were using the buffer was never written out if you did not log out from screen the screen running the app...if you only exited the app back the the menu, returned to another screen and then logged out, the buffer never emptied so nothing really was sent to the DB even if the app said it was...and it was by complete accident I found the problem. And myself and the rest of the IT staff spend 100s of hours trying to figure out not just what was going on, but why, even the developers of the DB as well as the QNX folks themselves could not offer any help. One day while working with her those stars aligned and *poof* the answer was obvious, hell there was nothing else left...you shudda seen the Lab Director's face when I "casually" mentioned "...oh, btw, I solved the DB issue..." as I scuttled past him at the end of that day....hehehehe...even he thought it was funny, then again he never knew what to make of us anyway...that is another story. Fun times...
I have a sense this thing with the K7 is like that...it's going to take patience from both Pentax and us as customers. It stinks because I know it is going to stop me from buying one , even if the price drops sooner. But I am waiting until the issue is found, fixed and all users are happy.
I have a feeling also there is a lot of frustration for the good folks in the Pentax side of HoyaTax...obviously they put a LOT of effort into building a great bit of gear, enough to grab my fancy (then again I like shiny objects anyway...hehehehe) I just don't want to see this issue "sink their battleship". I mean I FINALLY find a camera line I LIKE and don't feel weird about and, dang it, something goes wrong...hey, maybe it is MY FAULT?
I mean it's because of a couple of Falk's reviews that I made the switch to being with...and I gave him full blame right away...so perhaps it was my Pocket Murphy Field Generator I often seem to carry around...
BTW, mine is made an marketed by
Ron Popeil. Heck, i still have a Pocket Fisherman in my pickup...because on of these days I will actually catch a fish with the danged thing!!