K7 busted sensor strikes production body

falconeye · 08-13-2009, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by rormeister

I believe it was first stated by Mr. Ned Bunnell and confirmed by two of his assistants including Dr. Mark Dimalanta.

At the time, I made Pentax Germany aware that some people maybe even at Pentax may think that fw1.01 brought a fix. They actually complained that I bother them with rumors about what other parts of Pentax may think. :ugh: Clearly, they never thought it was fixed by fw1.01.

nostatic · 08-13-2009, 05:08 PM

A multinational corporation with messed up internal communication? OMG, stop the presses!

We've known for some time that Pentax USA is at best the red-headed step child of the company. Doesn't surprise me that they don't know the details of what is happening wrt tech issues.

If you want a really screwed up company, try to deal with XM Radio. Worst experiences I've ever had with a company.

brecklundin · 08-14-2009, 01:57 AM

Originally posted by Croc

1.01 and it clearly didn't fix the problem.
36C and up in exif start showing line, with odd photo without the line but 37C and up every photo got it and at 39C 2nd line start showing

Will perhaps a non-underwire model would solve the line issue. Or a "C" is a tad too small and a "D" might be in order.

schmik · 08-14-2009, 05:16 PM

Time to eat my hat! Croc is an Aussie user, as am i, got the green line. So i PP'ed his images to exaggerate the line. I used the same PP on my images. The line is very feint (but the image is rather light) but it is there. Previously i had been quite sure that there was no line.

It is winter here in Aus so the temp is quite low but in summer 35-40deg C is frequent. I had intended to use the k7 for sport vid and stills? Will it hold up?

Sure under normal shooting conditions it is ok but what about movie mode and liveview.... have they become useless to me.

BTW, what is the best course of action? send images and unhappy/questioning email to Pentax Aus? to retailer where i got it?

mike

schmik · 08-14-2009, 11:53 PM

Decided to retest with new images.... there is a line. Here are examples. I forwarded the samples to pentax Aus.

mike

brecklundin · 08-15-2009, 12:05 AM

Originally posted by schmik

Time to eat my hat! Croc is an Aussie user, as am i, got the green line. So i PP'ed his images to exaggerate the line. I used the same PP on my images. The line is very feint (but the image is rather light) but it is there. Previously i had been quite sure that there was no line.

It is winter here in Aus so the temp is quite low but in summer 35-40deg C is frequent. I had intended to use the k7 for sport vid and stills? Will it hold up?

Sure under normal shooting conditions it is ok but what about movie mode and liveview.... have they become useless to me.

BTW, what is the best course of action? send images and unhappy/questioning email to Pentax Aus? to retailer where i got it?
mike

Drive a railroad spike through the viewfinder and attach a note that you just not happy with the images but are unaware of any issue with the camera you simply would like to exchange it for another body.

I am sure they will respond well to your request. Anyway, just a thought.

noVICE · 08-17-2009, 12:21 AM

I have not had time to fully test mine, but I assume the inevitable will happen. Question for fellow aussies... should I return the camera to the retailer or pentax australia? It is probably easier to get it to the retailer, but I doubt they will be very receptive. Also, now that pentax recognises this fault do we wait for them to fix the fault before we send them in to be replaced to avoid being given another busted one?

schmik · 08-17-2009, 04:08 AM

I am waiting on their (pentax aus) response. I emailed them over the weekend (with samples) and not surprisingly did not get a response today.

mike

noVICE · 08-17-2009, 04:17 AM

I have been testing my k7 and still cannot get the lines to show. Is there a way using CS4 to find out the temperature in the EXIF data?

sir_bazz · 08-17-2009, 04:29 AM

Originally posted by noVICE

I have been testing my k7 and still cannot get the lines to show. Is there a way using CS4 to find out the temperature in the EXIF data?

Google for the freeware program PhotoME.

It's an exif reader that displays the info you want.

bazz.

noVICE · 08-17-2009, 06:13 AM

I took my camera to 41°C and so far all I noticed was some verticle colour banding, but no "green Line" or defined line. My K7 is from the 3378*** bunch.

Croc · 08-17-2009, 03:53 PM

Originally posted by schmik

I am waiting on their (pentax aus) response. I emailed them over the weekend (with samples) and not surprisingly did not get a response today.

mike

i take you managed to find their email address. post it here or on ocau and when i have spare minute i will send them dirty email as well.

schmik · 08-17-2009, 05:43 PM

The best address i could find was sales (at) crkennedy dot com do au.
This is the mail address that the forms go to. I emailed it and attached images and also filled out the form. In both cases I asked them to foward to service / support. For all i know they are busy and haven't got to it yet but i suspect they are sitting there think "WTF do we do about this?" and then waiting for advice from head office.

BTW, i am starting to believe that this probably affects all K7 bodies. Should just have to put it in the right conditions and take the right shots. I often do night shots in summer.... there are heaps of dark areas to ruin with a line in those.... I wonder if 30deg C ambient temp + a heap of 30sec exposures is enough to mess up the pics?

Waiting, waiting, waiting ...............

**Aristophanes** · 08-17-2009, 06:30 PM

Originally posted by C.W Tsorotes

Got some correspondence from Pentax which has confirmed there is an issue they are working on a fix on.

This is a hardware issue. It will require either clever software interpolation (on the fly no less), sensor environmental tolerances increased, or micro-circuitry redesign.

Heat is the bugbear of sensors

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/35557-k20d-vs-cano...tml#post329610

Sadly, I would advise anyone not to buy a K-7 until the Pentax engineers figure this out. It could take months. They can do it, but at what cost and what delay?

Sleepy · 08-19-2009, 02:23 PM

Does the green line issue happen to ALL K-7 after using live-view or video recording for a period of time?
Is there anyone having a K-7 without issue issue?

Hopefully Pentax could find the solution asap and fix this by updating firmware.

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08-13-2009, 04:40 PM	#316
falconeye Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Munich, Alps, Germany Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,871	Originally posted by rormeister I believe it was first stated by Mr. Ned Bunnell and confirmed by two of his assistants including Dr. Mark Dimalanta. At the time, I made Pentax Germany aware that some people maybe even at Pentax may think that fw1.01 brought a fix. They actually complained that I bother them with rumors about what other parts of Pentax may think. :ugh: Clearly, they never thought it was fixed by fw1.01.

08-13-2009, 05:08 PM	#317
nostatic Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: socal Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,575	A multinational corporation with messed up internal communication? OMG, stop the presses! We've known for some time that Pentax USA is at best the red-headed step child of the company. Doesn't surprise me that they don't know the details of what is happening wrt tech issues. If you want a really screwed up company, try to deal with XM Radio. Worst experiences I've ever had with a company.

08-14-2009, 01:57 AM	#318
brecklundin Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Photos: Albums Posts: 1,674	Originally posted by Croc 1.01 and it clearly didn't fix the problem. 36C and up in exif start showing line, with odd photo without the line but 37C and up every photo got it and at 39C 2nd line start showing Will perhaps a non-underwire model would solve the line issue. Or a "C" is a tad too small and a "D" might be in order.

08-14-2009, 05:16 PM	#319
schmik Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Sydney Aus Photos: Gallery Posts: 527	Time to eat my hat! Croc is an Aussie user, as am i, got the green line. So i PP'ed his images to exaggerate the line. I used the same PP on my images. The line is very feint (but the image is rather light) but it is there. Previously i had been quite sure that there was no line. It is winter here in Aus so the temp is quite low but in summer 35-40deg C is frequent. I had intended to use the k7 for sport vid and stills? Will it hold up? Sure under normal shooting conditions it is ok but what about movie mode and liveview.... have they become useless to me. BTW, what is the best course of action? send images and unhappy/questioning email to Pentax Aus? to retailer where i got it? mike

08-14-2009, 11:53 PM	#320
schmik Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Sydney Aus Photos: Gallery Posts: 527	Decided to retest with new images.... there is a line. Here are examples. I forwarded the samples to pentax Aus. mike

08-15-2009, 12:05 AM	#321
brecklundin Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Photos: Albums Posts: 1,674	Originally posted by schmik Time to eat my hat! Croc is an Aussie user, as am i, got the green line. So i PP'ed his images to exaggerate the line. I used the same PP on my images. The line is very feint (but the image is rather light) but it is there. Previously i had been quite sure that there was no line. It is winter here in Aus so the temp is quite low but in summer 35-40deg C is frequent. I had intended to use the k7 for sport vid and stills? Will it hold up? Sure under normal shooting conditions it is ok but what about movie mode and liveview.... have they become useless to me. BTW, what is the best course of action? send images and unhappy/questioning email to Pentax Aus? to retailer where i got it? mike Drive a railroad spike through the viewfinder and attach a note that you just not happy with the images but are unaware of any issue with the camera you simply would like to exchange it for another body. I am sure they will respond well to your request. Anyway, just a thought.

08-17-2009, 12:21 AM	#322
noVICE Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Brisbane Photos: Gallery Posts: 164	I have not had time to fully test mine, but I assume the inevitable will happen. Question for fellow aussies... should I return the camera to the retailer or pentax australia? It is probably easier to get it to the retailer, but I doubt they will be very receptive. Also, now that pentax recognises this fault do we wait for them to fix the fault before we send them in to be replaced to avoid being given another busted one?

08-17-2009, 04:08 AM	#323
schmik Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Sydney Aus Photos: Gallery Posts: 527	I am waiting on their (pentax aus) response. I emailed them over the weekend (with samples) and not surprisingly did not get a response today. mike

08-17-2009, 04:17 AM	#324
noVICE Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Brisbane Photos: Gallery Posts: 164	I have been testing my k7 and still cannot get the lines to show. Is there a way using CS4 to find out the temperature in the EXIF data?

08-17-2009, 04:29 AM	#325
sir_bazz Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 184	Originally posted by noVICE I have been testing my k7 and still cannot get the lines to show. Is there a way using CS4 to find out the temperature in the EXIF data? Google for the freeware program PhotoME. It's an exif reader that displays the info you want. bazz.

08-17-2009, 06:13 AM	#326
noVICE Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Brisbane Photos: Gallery Posts: 164	I took my camera to 41°C and so far all I noticed was some verticle colour banding, but no "green Line" or defined line. My K7 is from the 3378*** bunch.

08-17-2009, 03:53 PM	#327
Croc Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Moon Posts: 87	Originally posted by schmik I am waiting on their (pentax aus) response. I emailed them over the weekend (with samples) and not surprisingly did not get a response today. mike i take you managed to find their email address. post it here or on ocau and when i have spare minute i will send them dirty email as well.

08-17-2009, 05:43 PM	#328
schmik Veteran Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Sydney Aus Photos: Gallery Posts: 527	The best address i could find was sales (at) crkennedy dot com do au. This is the mail address that the forms go to. I emailed it and attached images and also filled out the form. In both cases I asked them to foward to service / support. For all i know they are busy and haven't got to it yet but i suspect they are sitting there think "WTF do we do about this?" and then waiting for advice from head office. BTW, i am starting to believe that this probably affects all K7 bodies. Should just have to put it in the right conditions and take the right shots. I often do night shots in summer.... there are heaps of dark areas to ruin with a line in those.... I wonder if 30deg C ambient temp + a heap of 30sec exposures is enough to mess up the pics? Waiting, waiting, waiting ...............

08-17-2009, 06:30 PM	#329
Aristophanes Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Photos: Albums Posts: 3,948	Originally posted by C.W Tsorotes Got some correspondence from Pentax which has confirmed there is an issue they are working on a fix on. This is a hardware issue. It will require either clever software interpolation (on the fly no less), sensor environmental tolerances increased, or micro-circuitry redesign. Heat is the bugbear of sensors https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/35557-k20d-vs-cano...tml#post329610 Sadly, I would advise anyone not to buy a K-7 until the Pentax engineers figure this out. It could take months. They can do it, but at what cost and what delay?

08-19-2009, 02:23 PM	#330
Sleepy Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Miami Photos: Gallery Posts: 133	Does the green line issue happen to ALL K-7 after using live-view or video recording for a period of time? Is there anyone having a K-7 without issue issue? Hopefully Pentax could find the solution asap and fix this by updating firmware.