[Christopher M.W.T]

I love the camera but I am taking it BACK............to the Pentax distributor here in Melbourne, show them the problem I am having. It takes photos fine in general however video mode is another story with lines appearing in dark scenes, most noticeably is a thin vertical line thats usually purple on the left hand side, i'm also noticing a finer darker line more to the right of centre, want to get it swapped over for another.

[davidt]

When the temperature reaches 27C, the photos start to show the defect as the two crops below demonstrate:
....
For info, the serial number of my K7 starts with 338XXXX.

Huhh, 27°C and you get the issue - that's really early! Would you mind posting the 4th digit of your serial# 338Xxxx

[Christopher M.W.T]

My serial no. 3378146

[neofito]

Huhh, 27°C and you get the issue - that's really early! Would you mind posting the 4th digit of your serial# 338Xxxx

My K7's SN starts with 3380.

[neofito]

I love the camera but I am taking it BACK............to the Pentax distributor here in Melbourne, show them the problem I am having. It takes photos fine in general however video mode is another story with lines appearing in dark scenes, most noticeably is a thin vertical line thats usually purple on the left hand side, i'm also noticing a finer darker line more to the right of centre, want to get it swapped over for another.

Did you actually go to Pentax Australia? What did they say?

[Christopher M.W.T]

Did you actually go to Pentax Australia? What did they say?

Take it in.

I spoke with a techie on the phone yesterday, he seemed to give me mixed messages, seemed to be indicating there MAY be some issue with some batch of sensors etc, it was really hard as he seemed to be very careful in his wording.

Either way I'll find out on Tuesday the 11th when I go in.

[eva2000]

I am at 33780xx and can't replicate the issue.

I have tried live view for an hour. NO green line but sensor only got to 32deg C. NO temp warning.

Just then I tried video mode until i got temp warning (took approx 15mins) and still got NO green line in stills. Sensor still only got to 33deg C.

So what we know..... video heats it up more than live view. Appears that temp warning comes on at 33deg C.

I have to test mine in higher temps.

mike

I just inspected the RAW files again, all files were between 42 and 44deg C. At various ISOs.

NO GREEN LINE.

If your email accepts 20Mb attachments, let me know and I'll mail you some files if you wish to double check them.

Even in summer.... don't know if I will ever get the camera that hot.

cheers
mike

My serial no. 3378146

You guys have very close serial numbers to mine 337818x - purchased from DCW from very first batch. I checked photome camera info says manufacture date is June, 15, 2009 and so far taken over 1000 photos mainly in RAW and haven't see the Green line as yet ( a few movies taken etc). Most of my photos report between 33-38C temps with highest I've seen around 42C.

[schmik]

I don't know if this is serial number (batch) based. Seems pretty random. If you read the whole thread it seems that there are only a handful of cameras that have the problem. Storm in a teacup!

mike

[Miserere]

Anybody with the green line updated their firmware? Has it solved anything?

[falconeye]

Has it solved anything?

No. Please go back about 100 posts to read more about this.

[falconeye]

According to some dealer in Germany, delivery of K-7 to Pentax Germany (i.e., to all German dealers) has been stopped at the end of July. The interrupt of delivery is expected to stay in effect for about two weeks.

It is pure speculation to think that the interrupted delivery and the green line artifact are correlated. Nothing is known in this direction.

[nostatic]

Doesn't most of Europe go on vacation for August? Maybe they aren't shipping because there will be no one to sign for it ;-)

[Olivier]

The camera is going back to Amazon. Let's hope the replacement works better. I would really hate going back to my K100D after having used the K-7

Got a replacement camera from Amazon and did some testing: The old camera was starting to show green lines at 31°C and the new one starts doing that at 38°C. This was measured by putting the cameras in a warm place for some time and then taking pictures while they slowly cool down.

I also tried Live View: The old one would start showing green lines after a couple minutes of LV, starting at 25°C, while the new one lasts 12 minutes, starting at 23°C (it ended at 28°C). The difference between the LV and ambient temperature experiments seem to indicate that the temperature sensor and the image sensor are not in the same spot.

To be sure that the temperature readings were accurate I left both cameras in the same environment (temperature) for a while and then took some pictures. The reported temperatures were within a degree or less and matched my expectations, so it looks like the temperature sensors are accurate.

It is interesting to note that the green lines are in the exact same spot in both cameras. At higher temperatures two additional lines show up, also in the same spots in both cameras. This points to a design (HW and/or SW) issue, not random sensor defects.

Seeing picture quality degrade starting at 38°C for a camera that is supposed to operate correctly in a 40°C environment is a bit disappointing, but not necessarily a showstopper. Unless some other major issue crops up I plan to keep the new camera.

[Torphoto]

Got a replacement camera from Amazon and did some testing: The old camera was starting to show green lines at 31°C and the new one starts doing that at 38°C. This was measured by putting the cameras in a warm place for some time and then taking pictures while they slowly cool down.

I also tried Live View: The old one would start showing green lines after a couple minutes of LV, starting at 25°C, while the new one lasts 12 minutes, starting at 23°C (it ended at 28°C). The difference between the LV and ambient temperature experiments seem to indicate that the temperature sensor and the image sensor are not in the same spot.

To be sure that the temperature readings were accurate I left both cameras in the same environment (temperature) for a while and then took some pictures. The reported temperatures were within a degree or less and matched my expectations, so it looks like the temperature sensors are accurate.

It is interesting to note that the green lines are in the exact same spot in both cameras. At higher temperatures two additional lines show up, also in the same spots in both cameras. This points to a design (HW and/or SW) issue, not random sensor defects.

Seeing picture quality degrade starting at 38°C for a camera that is supposed to operate correctly in a 40°C environment is a bit disappointing, but not necessarily a showstopper. Unless some other major issue crops up I plan to keep the new camera.

Actually this is a noticeable improvement and hopefully more improvements will follow as things progress.

[brecklundin]

Got a replacement camera from Amazon and did some testing: The old camera was starting to show green lines at 31°C and the new one starts doing that at 38°C. This was measured by putting the cameras in a warm place for some time and then taking pictures while they slowly cool down.

I also tried Live View: The old one would start showing green lines after a couple minutes of LV, starting at 25°C, while the new one lasts 12 minutes, starting at 23°C (it ended at 28°C). The difference between the LV and ambient temperature experiments seem to indicate that the temperature sensor and the image sensor are not in the same spot.

To be sure that the temperature readings were accurate I left both cameras in the same environment (temperature) for a while and then took some pictures. The reported temperatures were within a degree or less and matched my expectations, so it looks like the temperature sensors are accurate.

It is interesting to note that the green lines are in the exact same spot in both cameras. At higher temperatures two additional lines show up, also in the same spots in both cameras. This points to a design (HW and/or SW) issue, not random sensor defects.

Seeing picture quality degrade starting at 38°C for a camera that is supposed to operate correctly in a 40°C environment is a bit disappointing, but not necessarily a showstopper. Unless some other major issue crops up I plan to keep the new camera.

Great info, thanks for the effort!! But really somewhat, no quite disappointing to me. Not many devices publish their absolute tolerances but rather leave significant (5%-20% is not unusual) leeway. While the published Pentax operating max temp is in-line with other DSLR's on the market at the upper end...I never had a problem with other brands in 105F weather...clearly a not insignificant possibility exists that the K7 could fail under the same conditions given the current informal test results posted here. But best to reserve final judgement until we hear back from HoyaTax.