Originally posted by calsan Don't be too upset, the following works far better than dust alert anyway.
Point camera at a nice clear blue bit of sky.
Set aperture to f/22 and take a picture.
Chances are you will find a few dust bunnies this way.
Will look like transparent soft greyish circles or blobs on the otherwise blue photo.
I think they would have removed dust alert from lower model cameras because as far as I could tell, people weren't following the instructions and were getting 'false positives' for 'tonnes of dust'. There's a few posts here where that was the case.
Thanks, but, like I said... I often shoot in extreme conditions, not blue or even under even colored skies and besides, how am I looking at that picture in the field? I'm not lugging a laptop around so I can download the picture and then look it over. Even if I did, I wouldn't have time. It certainly isn't going to show debris at the size of the LCD.
I sometimes have only two or three minutes to make a swap, check the alert to see if any of my surroundings ended up in the camera in spite of all caution (it happens out there) and try to shake it or Rocket Blow it.
I had hoped that there was some setting combination that I am not thinking of that recreates something similar. A dealer (who only repairs but not sells Pentax, of course) told me to bug Pentax about a firmware update to cover it but I doubt they'd do it even if enough others complained.
I actually was not going to go Pentax when I decided to move on from my old Fuji but the reviews and pricepoint leaned me to the Kx... the dust alert pushed me the rest of the way over.
I'm very disapointed that, even though the camera gave me great shots it went to heck mechanically after only 35,000 actuations. I doubt I'll ever buy a camera from NewEgg again as their extended warranty company and repair facility has been a nightmare. Maybe, if I can find another brand at a similar price point that has a similar Alert feature, I'll just unload my lenses and such and go another direction.
It is incredibly poor marketing and PR to offer something at a particular level and then take that away in successive models. One really has to wonder if they have a clear vision of their product path.
Ahhh, wellllll... I might actually see my camera again some day and when it gets here it will be as good as new, but the way NewEgg's partners are going at this point, I doubt it.