K7 busted sensor strikes production body

Class A · 10-18-2009, 07:48 PM

Originally posted by brecklundin

That would be good info to be had if you could find the thread.

Might not be the one but here's an example for light entering through the viewfinder (rather long exposure, though).

jeffkrol · 10-18-2009, 08:03 PM

Originally posted by min.t

Hi all,

I've just bought a k7 and have promptly updated to the latest 1.01.xx13 firmware version.

however, to my horror, i have not just a green line, but a green banding halfway through my outing. (after ard 20mins of keeping the camera on. LV was off). Did i get a more serious case of the GLS?

Some points to note:
1) my shots at the start of the night did not have any visible banding.
2) the green banding appears at all high ISO
3) the green banding was only visible in my nightshots of the sky. i didn't note any banding when i shot in slightly brighter situations (at ISO800)
4) when i got home, i tried to shoot in low light and in darkness on dark objects and there was no green band.

Attached is a sample of a photo with the green banding:

Can someone shed some light on the situation? Is a trip to the service center unavoidable?

As suggested here:
Re: Back it goes: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
Bad sensor, send it in......

bentax · 10-19-2009, 02:11 AM

Yeh mate send it in. I wish I'd sent mine back when i noticed the problem. This body seems plagued with glitches. Horizon correction and level is out of whack and Shake Reduction is faulty.

brecklundin · 10-20-2009, 07:15 PM

Originally posted by Class A

Might not be the one but here's an example for light entering through the viewfinder (rather long exposure, though).

THANKS...that thread exposes quite a bit of info and is very illuminating.

deadwolfbones · 10-21-2009, 06:11 PM

Just got my K-7. It came with 1.00 and had obvious green banding issues across the top third of the image. Installed .13 and it immediately went away. Very pleased, though I'll keep an eye on it.

jgredline · 10-21-2009, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by deadwolfbones

Just got my K-7. It came with 1.00 and had obvious green banding issues across the top third of the image. Installed .13 and it immediately went away. Very pleased, though I'll keep an eye on it.

You are going to love it!

paugie · 10-21-2009, 07:23 PM

congrats, Ben, on the K7. so you won't have to be shooting with the K100D now.

deadwolfbones · 10-21-2009, 10:06 PM

Originally posted by paugie

congrats, Ben, on the K7. so you won't have to be shooting with the K100D now.

I was actually enjoying the K100D today and looking forward to using it for the rest of the week. Then I came back from lunch and there was a big ol' box on my desk. Oh well, plans change...

Jadran · 10-28-2009, 11:25 AM

Has anybody with geen banding/line that wasn't solved with .13 firmware tried the new 1.02 firmware? My K-7 is still in Paris for service, I would like to know does the new firmware helps at all?

kittykat46 · 10-28-2009, 07:26 PM

Originally posted by Jadran

Has anybody with geen banding/line that wasn't solved with .13 firmware tried the new 1.02 firmware? My K-7 is still in Paris for service, I would like to know does the new firmware helps at all?

A K-7 user in my locality had a green line problem which persisted right up to V1.01.13 - he was getting really frustrated, but V1.02 seems to have fixed it for good.

Looks like there were K-7 bodies with different extents of the problem. Pentax released successive fixes and the "official" V1.02 may be the final fix.
I suppose anyone who still has the problem after this has an abnormal unit, and should have it repaired.

Jadran · 10-29-2009, 11:45 AM

Originally posted by kittykat46

A K-7 user in my locality had a green line problem which persisted right up to V1.01.13 - he was getting really frustrated, but V1.02 seems to have fixed it for good.

Looks like there were K-7 bodies with different extents of the problem. Pentax released successive fixes and the "official" V1.02 may be the final fix.
I suppose anyone who still has the problem after this has an abnormal unit, and should have it repaired.

Thanks, it sounds encouraging!

cbaytan · 10-29-2009, 12:21 PM

Originally posted by kittykat46

Looks like there were K-7 bodies with different extents of the problem. Pentax released successive fixes and the "official" V1.02 may be the final fix.

Sometimes I am wondering if this green line problem actually is a hardware design flaw (something like low heat tolerance of the sensor) and Pentax is trying to fix that on the software level....

kittykat46 · 10-29-2009, 07:09 PM

Originally posted by cbaytan

Sometimes I am wondering if this green line problem actually is a hardware design flaw (something like low heat tolerance of the sensor) and Pentax is trying to fix that on the software level....

There is no evidence of any degradation of Image Quality with the successive firmware fixes - plenty of people have pixel-peeped. So I'm pretty confident the solution wasn't done by "covering up" any sensor problem via software.

Given that different bodies seem to have different extents of the problem (or none at all) there certainly seems to be some circuitry tolerance involved, but it may not be the sensor at all.

It sounds to me like some defect caused by the way the firmware controls the data readout from the sensor, exacerbated by tolerances in the physical circuitry (or no problem at all, with many users, myself included).

When I was involved with high-end computer graphics cards years ago, some models exhibited a Green or Red vertical line under certain conditions. It was a circuitry clocking problem, with some parts of the circuit not working at the same speed. A firmware update fixed the problems out in the field, and the design engineers tightened the tolerances on a few components.

Probably what Pentax is doing in this case.

LeDave · 10-29-2009, 10:36 PM

When I bought my K-7 and it had about 230 actuations, 1.00 firmware, and no green banding. I was very pleased with it, I guess not all units are affected by the green banding with 1.00.

falconeye · 10-30-2009, 02:47 AM

Originally posted by LeDave

When I bought my K-7 and it had about 230 actuations, 1.00 firmware, and no green banding. I was very pleased with it, I guess not all units are affected by the green banding with 1.00.

Firmware 1.00 has the green line fix applied starting at version 1.00.00.08. New units shipping with 1.00 have no green line artefact as they are tested against.

The minor versions (I've seen 00, 04, 05, 08, 09, 13, 14 now) may be a more accurate way to quote the firmware version. E.g., 14 is 1.02.00.14.

10-28-2009, 07:26 PM	#520
kittykat46 Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 923	Originally posted by Jadran Has anybody with geen banding/line that wasn't solved with .13 firmware tried the new 1.02 firmware? My K-7 is still in Paris for service, I would like to know does the new firmware helps at all? A K-7 user in my locality had a green line problem which persisted right up to V1.01.13 - he was getting really frustrated, but V1.02 seems to have fixed it for good. Looks like there were K-7 bodies with different extents of the problem. Pentax released successive fixes and the "official" V1.02 may be the final fix. I suppose anyone who still has the problem after this has an abnormal unit, and should have it repaired. Last edited by kittykat46; 10-28-2009 at 07:32 PM.

10-29-2009, 07:09 PM	#523
kittykat46 Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 923	Originally posted by cbaytan Sometimes I am wondering if this green line problem actually is a hardware design flaw (something like low heat tolerance of the sensor) and Pentax is trying to fix that on the software level.... There is no evidence of any degradation of Image Quality with the successive firmware fixes - plenty of people have pixel-peeped. So I'm pretty confident the solution wasn't done by "covering up" any sensor problem via software. Given that different bodies seem to have different extents of the problem (or none at all) there certainly seems to be some circuitry tolerance involved, but it may not be the sensor at all. It sounds to me like some defect caused by the way the firmware controls the data readout from the sensor, exacerbated by tolerances in the physical circuitry (or no problem at all, with many users, myself included). When I was involved with high-end computer graphics cards years ago, some models exhibited a Green or Red vertical line under certain conditions. It was a circuitry clocking problem, with some parts of the circuit not working at the same speed. A firmware update fixed the problems out in the field, and the design engineers tightened the tolerances on a few components. Probably what Pentax is doing in this case. Last edited by kittykat46; 10-29-2009 at 10:40 PM.

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10-18-2009, 07:48 PM	#511
Class A Pentaxian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Wellington, New Zealand Posts: 11,251	Originally posted by brecklundin That would be good info to be had if you could find the thread. Might not be the one but here's an example for light entering through the viewfinder (rather long exposure, though).

10-18-2009, 08:03 PM	#512
jeffkrol Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Wisconsin USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 8,434	Originally posted by min.t Hi all, I've just bought a k7 and have promptly updated to the latest 1.01.xx13 firmware version. however, to my horror, i have not just a green line, but a green banding halfway through my outing. (after ard 20mins of keeping the camera on. LV was off). Did i get a more serious case of the GLS? Some points to note: 1) my shots at the start of the night did not have any visible banding. 2) the green banding appears at all high ISO 3) the green banding was only visible in my nightshots of the sky. i didn't note any banding when i shot in slightly brighter situations (at ISO800) 4) when i got home, i tried to shoot in low light and in darkness on dark objects and there was no green band. Attached is a sample of a photo with the green banding: Can someone shed some light on the situation? Is a trip to the service center unavoidable? As suggested here: Re: Back it goes: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review Bad sensor, send it in......

10-19-2009, 02:11 AM	#513
bentax Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: West Australia Posts: 190 Original Poster	Yeh mate send it in. I wish I'd sent mine back when i noticed the problem. This body seems plagued with glitches. Horizon correction and level is out of whack and Shake Reduction is faulty.

10-20-2009, 07:15 PM	#514
brecklundin Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Photos: Albums Posts: 1,674	Originally posted by Class A Might not be the one but here's an example for light entering through the viewfinder (rather long exposure, though). THANKS...that thread exposes quite a bit of info and is very illuminating.

10-21-2009, 06:11 PM	#515
deadwolfbones Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: La Crescenta, CA Posts: 7,450	Just got my K-7. It came with 1.00 and had obvious green banding issues across the top third of the image. Installed .13 and it immediately went away. Very pleased, though I'll keep an eye on it.

10-21-2009, 06:16 PM	#516
jgredline Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: LosAngeles, Ca. Photos: Albums Posts: 10,628	Originally posted by deadwolfbones Just got my K-7. It came with 1.00 and had obvious green banding issues across the top third of the image. Installed .13 and it immediately went away. Very pleased, though I'll keep an eye on it. You are going to love it!

10-21-2009, 07:23 PM	#517
paugie Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Quezon City, Philippines Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 168	congrats, Ben, on the K7. so you won't have to be shooting with the K100D now.

10-21-2009, 10:06 PM	#518
deadwolfbones Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: La Crescenta, CA Posts: 7,450	Originally posted by paugie congrats, Ben, on the K7. so you won't have to be shooting with the K100D now. I was actually enjoying the K100D today and looking forward to using it for the rest of the week. Then I came back from lunch and there was a big ol' box on my desk. Oh well, plans change...

10-28-2009, 11:25 AM	#519
Jadran Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Zagreb Photos: Albums Posts: 105	Has anybody with geen banding/line that wasn't solved with .13 firmware tried the new 1.02 firmware? My K-7 is still in Paris for service, I would like to know does the new firmware helps at all?

10-29-2009, 11:45 AM	#521
Jadran Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Zagreb Photos: Albums Posts: 105	Originally posted by kittykat46 A K-7 user in my locality had a green line problem which persisted right up to V1.01.13 - he was getting really frustrated, but V1.02 seems to have fixed it for good. Looks like there were K-7 bodies with different extents of the problem. Pentax released successive fixes and the "official" V1.02 may be the final fix. I suppose anyone who still has the problem after this has an abnormal unit, and should have it repaired. Thanks, it sounds encouraging!

10-29-2009, 12:21 PM	#522
cbaytan Inactive Account Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Trabzon/Turkey Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,010	Originally posted by kittykat46 Looks like there were K-7 bodies with different extents of the problem. Pentax released successive fixes and the "official" V1.02 may be the final fix. Sometimes I am wondering if this green line problem actually is a hardware design flaw (something like low heat tolerance of the sensor) and Pentax is trying to fix that on the software level....

10-29-2009, 10:36 PM	#524
LeDave Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Minneapolis - St. Paul Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,067	When I bought my K-7 and it had about 230 actuations, 1.00 firmware, and no green banding. I was very pleased with it, I guess not all units are affected by the green banding with 1.00.

10-30-2009, 02:47 AM	#525
falconeye Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Munich, Alps, Germany Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,871	Originally posted by LeDave When I bought my K-7 and it had about 230 actuations, 1.00 firmware, and no green banding. I was very pleased with it, I guess not all units are affected by the green banding with 1.00. Firmware 1.00 has the green line fix applied starting at version 1.00.00.08. New units shipping with 1.00 have no green line artefact as they are tested against. The minor versions (I've seen 00, 04, 05, 08, 09, 13, 14 now) may be a more accurate way to quote the firmware version. E.g., 14 is 1.02.00.14.