[PeterSrsen]

Thanks for your thoughts er1kksen!!! Just a quick update - I have been testing the camera again today. It seems to be working fine today, the only thing I noticed the eneloops were showing half (orange) battery and within 20 seconds went dead and I was only using manual focus...

I also got a reply from Pentax Support -
"What you describe sounds like the dust removal feature. It is possible to
set it up so it will run once when starting the camera, but it should certainly stop after a short moment.
If this is not the case it is possible that the camera has developed a fault, i would suggest to send it
to our repair service so our technicians can take a look at it and repair the camera for you."

Well, not exactly what I have been hoping. To me it just does not sound right to send 3 months old camera to service repair. Also not sure how camera can develop a fault after 3 months and only about 3,000 shutter count... But I guess I will have to do it. I will post more updates as soon I decide what I should do.

[Marc Sabatella]

Then I started to experience problems with blurry images especially in low light conditions and longer exposures. With SR on and off, tripod or without, occasionally I would get a blurry image

Isn't that normal? Slower shutter speeds produce blurrier images?

The other thing was really frustrating with 55-300mm, tripod and timer I was not able to get a crisp shot of Moon – tried longer exposures, aperture, shutter speed, ISO – I was really disappointed here as I am 200% the camera did not move at all.

The camera might not have moved, but the moon does. Or more particularly, the earth does, making the moon appear to move. By more than you'd think enough that you need surprisingly fast shutter speeds to avoid blur. Also, focus is rather tricky - you can't simply set to infinity, as that usually overshoots the target. Check out the various threads in the beginner's forum and the general photographer forum on shooting the moon. It's harder than you might suspect.

It is one of the strongest shutters I have ever experienced and it actually rocks the camera body – which might be the cause of the blurriness.

Well sure, which is why you need a *strong* tripod, combined with mirror lockup and timer to remove all traces of this.

Some of you may say these were all photo technique errors and I agree I am not the best photographer in the world with super steady iron hands. But I tried it and it simply did not work.

Understood, but nothing you've said above *couldn't* be explained completely and totally by technique. Perhaps you could post some images (with EXIF intact) where you feel otherwise.

The SR system inside the camera went completely nuts (I kept the camera in “normal” horizontal level all the time), it felt like there is a heavy ball rolling inside the camera all the time and would not stop. The image was totally useless and FUBAR!

OK, *that* much is obviously not a question of technique. Might have been just a fluke, but if happens again, you should definitely have the camera repaired/replaced.

[henryjing]

I have no problem with SR on my K-x. I have tested my K-x with 50-200m at 200m in low light, f5.6 and 0.8' shutter. With SR on, I got a pretty clear image, no ghosting, no double, no blur...

[philbaum]

The Law of Unintended Consequences or unintended consequences is an adage or epigram that can be defined as follows: "Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but will inevitably create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes".

Law of Unintended Consequences - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To me that's the story of Kx's SR and shutter. Kx had a faster shutter and frame rate than Km, meaning, i think, that they're whipping the mirror around faster with a stronger spring, more energy, more vibration, more unintendend consequences :-)
Could be that with manufacturing tolerances, that there are stronger mirror springs in some cameras than others with resulting more slam in some cameras than other.

With my K20 and K10 for that matter, i've learned not to rely on SR for telescopc lenses, on tripods or monopods, looks like with the Kx, there is also a common limitation with shutter speeds around 1/100. In return Kx owners are getting state of the art performance with regard to high ISO shooting. In this case, i think its not a defect so much as the consequence of the fast rate of bringing new cameras to market. It provides little time to shake out issues like this.

If it was me, i would learn to live with the shake by turning off SR at those speeds. But others may want to return the camera. I plan on buying a Kx when the prices come down a bit. With 2 cameras that still work fine for me, i'm not in a rush to have a 3rd camera at the moment:-)

[gebco]

I have tested and tested again. I see no double images at 16X on the screen nor when pixel peeping on my computer.

[PeterSrsen]

It is quite funny to see some of the comments to be honest. I am not saying that I am a professional photographer as I do not make money from it but I have enough experience to say I am not a beginner. So comments like "oh, yeah, have a look in beginners forum or it all can be end user", I do not know what to think about that. Ah, nevermind.

The only thing I wanted to do was to share my experience (positive and also negative) described as honestly as possible. It seems like some people cannot take that a camera might have a fault or something. And I am not saying it is the one YOU have!!! It is a bit sad.

Just to give you update. The seller does not do replacements apparently, so I will have to send to get it repaired. Wish me a luck!

[kxr4trids]

It is quite funny to see some of the comments to be honest. I am not saying that I am a professional photographer as I do not make money from it but I have enough experience to say I am not a beginner. So comments like "oh, yeah, have a look in beginners forum or it all can be end user", I do not know what to think about that. Ah, nevermind.

The only thing I wanted to do was to share my experience (positive and also negative) described as honestly as possible. It seems like some people cannot take that a camera might have a fault or something. And I am not saying it is the one YOU have!!! It is a bit sad.

Just to give you update. The seller does not do replacements apparently, so I will have to send to get it repaired. Wish me a luck!

I think Marc's intent in replying to your post point by point was not to convince you that your camera was fine (note the last point where he acknowledges you do appear to have a real problem), but to prevent unnecessary concern by other owners who have similar symptoms.

If he had stated right off the bat that you clearly have a faulty camera, then anyone who comes in here and reads the first few symptoms and had the same thing, they might conclude that their camera was faulty as well, even absent the SR knocking around like it's gone mad, which is the telling issue in your case.

I'm new here as well, so I hope that's not out of line. I had the same initial response you had to the post, but thought about it and realized Marc wasn't trying to minimize your problem, but prevent others from imagining they had it as well. Good luck with the repair and post back how it turns out.

---

Last edited by kxr4trids; 03-29-2010 at 11:03 AM.

[fotopentax]

Just bought today the Canon 50d and have had Pentax. A tech guy told me this its normal for Pentax. Firmware issues can pose problems with poor battery performance. My KMs going on the Market for cheap! Once Ive sold all the Pentax lenses will join the Canon forum.......

[PeterSrsen]

Dude, :ugh:

I believe K-x would be your dream camera! The images it is making are wonderful! I do not see any reason why you should sell your K-x or K-M if you do not experience any problems with it.

I think you are just panicking - if your camera is taking nice photograps and occassionally you get a blurry image you should be a happy man because you will get that with all other DSLR brands - if not worse. If your camera would be faulty you would notice it.

So take it easy and keep taking photos.

[rawr]

...So take it easy and keep taking photos.

Don't you realise - all one has to do is buy a Canon. Buy a Canon and you will never take a bad picture, ever. Firmware problems, poor exposure, motion blur, and out-of-focus shots are just totally unknown to Canon users.

[er1kksen]

Just bought today the Canon 50d and have had Pentax. A tech guy told me this its normal for Pentax. Firmware issues can pose problems with poor battery performance. My KMs going on the Market for cheap! Once Ive sold all the Pentax lenses will join the Canon forum.......

Just sayin... never trust a "tech guy" in a camera store or anything once they start comparing brands... This issue is not by any means normal to Pentax, and there has been ONE firmware issue that cause poor battery performance, in the K-x only, and it was quickly fixed by an update from Pentax.

Canon? They've had a few faulty-product debacles of their own. Black dots around highlights in the new 5D mkii? Pattern noise at low ISOs in nearly all of their SLRs? AF troubles in the 1D mk iii? You'll love the level of uproar that tends to appear on the various Canon forums whenever these issues are discovered.

Those problems don't indicate that Canon is a bad camera company. Canon is a good camera company. So is Pentax. Don't base your purchase decisions on meaningless FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt).

[gkreth]

fotopentax wrote:

Just bought today the Canon 50d and have had Pentax. A tech guy told me this its normal for Pentax. Firmware issues can pose problems with poor battery performance. My KMs going on the Market for cheap! Once Ive sold all the Pentax lenses will join the Canon forum.......

I'm just wondering if this guy is gonna change his handle to "fotocanon"....

I've noticed he has done nothing but make anti-Pentax posts i nthe very short time he has been a member.

Makes you wonder: Maybe the "fotopentax" handle was a deliberate attempt to appear pro-Pentax and avoid a "troll" label....?

[yeatzee]

fotopentax wrote:


I'm just wondering if this guy is gonna change his handle to "fotocanon"....

I've noticed he has done nothing but make anti-Pentax posts i nthe very short time he has been a member.

Makes you wonder: Maybe the "fotopentax" handle was a deliberate attempt to appear pro-Pentax and avoid a "troll" label....?

Thinking the same thing

[Marc Sabatella]

If he had stated right off the bat that you clearly have a faulty camera, then anyone who comes in here and reads the first few symptoms and had the same thing, they might conclude that their camera was faulty as well, even absent the SR knocking around like it's gone mad, which is the telling issue in your case.

Actually, to be honest, I started responding before reading all the way to the bottom. I was responding point by point and nothing until the end even came close to suggesting a problem. So I'd say the problem described at the very end of the post is real, but it was kind of obscured by the irrelevant things listed first.

[bennettonline]

I have a K-x for 3 months. I totally agree that the K-x got some blurry images at low shutter speeds after I do a vertical 90 CW shot with the same shutter speed.

All I did was set the camera to 1/60 take some perfectly good pictures in normal horzontal position (I call this Step A) - then take one in vertical 90 CW position (Call this Step B). Then THINGS START SCREWING UP!

I will have a blurry images even when I place the camera on a stable surface in the normal position. (Step C)

The ONLY WAY to "fix" this is to turn the drive mode into continuous mode either low or hi speed (Step D). The first picture always blurry, but the seocnd picture and on in the continuous mode is clear (just like Photo A mentioned above). This is a DETERMINISTIC procedure to get to the blurry / mirror slap problem for me, which means when I follow the steps through, I always get the blurry results in Step C. I hope Pentax can fix this. N.B. I have the firmwave update already and I am using Lithium batteries for this test.

After a while, the mirror slap seems to be going away after I repeat step D enough and switch on a off the camera enough. If you are interested, please try as I do, and let me know. If you don't see the same thing, I have a defective k-x. Thanks!