[derekkite]

That is frustrating. Hope you get it back soon.

I kept a K20 as an inexpensive backup but need the K5 capabilities for live performances so I have two. My routine is wide on one and long on the other. I fill buffers with ballet. Just looked at shutter counts, 32K on the new one bought in Feb and 17K on the Amazon return I bought in May. The only issue I've had is the battery chargers. I routinely put batteries in chargers after every event. What I noticed was unlike the K10/20 charger, if you lost track and put a full K-5 battery back in the charger, the charger didn't sense charge & kept charging for a long time. DC over voltage would cause a lot of weird problems. Had a couple of wild shutter & mirror flops that quit after a little battery use. Never lost a shot though. No problem since July when I quit overcharging batteries. I have 4 Pentax batts, so run 2 down and then swap over to backups. They last a long time. Exhausted batts go on charge and then backup role. Haven't had any problem since.

In any event, I show up with at least 2 of everything. Wouldn't matter if it broke or I dropped it or etc. Same result and I need to get the shot

[mel]

Would that I could afford a 2nd K-5. Still growing my business. Gear is all paid for and then some but there has to be enough "and then some" to invest in that. So for now it's the three bodies I have (of course temporarily minus the now hospitalized K-5)

[hinman]

@Mel, you can visit my DSLR forum thread on Bad luck with 2 dead Pentax bodies. And my 2nd dead Pentax with K20D happens in a span of 12 months from my 1st dead Pentax with K-x.

If you see the thread towards the end, you see some positive report from me regarding changes in Pentax Service and CRIS in taking email/phone in a form to submit to Pentax servicing. It is very important. From my experience, CRIS is quite exceptional in fixing broken gear. The most problems lie in NOT having the parts ready for repair in US and the back-order of parts in my K-x took over 4+ weeks. I hope Pentax USA do stock up the parts for your K5 and before you know it, your K5 will be back in working for you.

Your shutter problem sounds like my problem. I was doing stop-down metering on my K20D and all in a sudden the curtain locks up and the shutter was broken and I do see a metal needle object sticking out on one side of the mirror chamber -- it isn't pretty and I am not sure what it is. And my K20D had a hissing/whining noise that repeats every few seconds. In my case, the CRIS estimate listed replacement on both the shutter and aperture control along with many other things. I am quite confident that CRIS would do a good job for your K5 and my camera K20D. The only thing to watch out is to lower my expectations whenever I call Pentax Service as I did get a high number of very cold responses in both instances of repair.

I may incur flame in saying this out loud: If I shoot professionally, I will try to avoid Pentax as much as I can afford to. But if I have no other sensible choices, I will make damn sure about backup such as your backup with with K7 and K20D. And I will double all the DA* lens to be certain that I have access.

All the best to you,
Hin

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Last edited by hinman; 11-21-2011 at 04:41 PM.

[jamesm007]

Pentax has had PRO service for some time now. This service gives very quick as you would expect help to professional shooters making a living from their camera. All 645D buyers automatically get this service. Others have to apply.

Non-Pros in the USA get consumer service from Pentax who uses CRIS Cameras in Arizona. CRIS can not take a lot of phone questions. Imagine being the tech doing delicate work on cameras. He has your camera and others. Its a military type setup that works. The conditions of what you can do is put in writing. You must communicate with email and use the warranty repair check link at the Pentax site. Then you can in writing ask the tech questions. He will answer them when he can and when he knows the answer! The person taking calls can not go and speak with the techs, I don't think the tech would like that too much if every other second someone comes and asks a question. So there has to be rules. Rule no questions to tech when he is working. And of course the phone person knows very little about your camera except its there and a waiting to be assigned a tech or is with a tech who may or may not be done inspecting it for all problems that need fixing. Tell me what can the phone person tell you? As you found the check warranty repair page is where you can speak to the tech in writing and it works. When the tech has time he writes back and in all my cases its always been the same day. And I have found there prices to be very reasonable!

So to be polite we have to understand when we send something in for service its not we call and ask, its we wait and they tell us what, how much...
And in all honesty CRIS is relatively fast and does communicate well. I remember with other service centers waiting weeks with no info. With CRIS the camera comes in, get checked for marks, dust, scratches, get logged into and waits for a tech. When a tech is assigned it can take time for him/her to find all problems and total cost. Your looking at days. During that time no one can tell you anything, can they? Believe me CRIS is good. Your happy. Other places may have you still waiting. I think we get really attached to our cameras and get emotional over a camera! I know I have done the same.

[mel]

So apparently the culprit was the mirror motor assembly? And now we wait for parts. Arg.

[RonHendriks1966]

Well good luck on that fast return. It's the first that I read about that mallfunction, so it is just a one-out-of-a-million error.

[Frogfish]

Sounds almost identical to the issue I had ... main CPU gone. Back with shiny new parts after just 4-5 days. I love the K5 so much I've just bought a brother for it .

[mel]

4-5 days? Wow. It's going to take two weeks just for the part to arrive.

[pentup]

It's the first that I read about that mallfunction, so it is just a one-out-of-a-million error.

Wow, have they really sold a million K-5s? That's something!

Sounds almost identical to the issue I had ...

So, they must have sold two million. Yay Pentax! :ugh:

[hinman]

4-5 days? Wow. It's going to take two weeks just for the part to arrive.

If parts are back-ordered from Japan to US, it may take longer than 2 weeks and in my case with K-x last year, it took 4+ weeks just to get the parts shipped from Japan to CRIS. The most aggravating fact or mystery that I've learned in that process is that the parts are shipped in sea route and NOT through air by plane. I couldn't get a clear explanation from the Pentax service reps that I have talked to. Your best aid is to lower your expectations on the timing.

[update] Please note that if the repair are in Asia countries close to Japan, that will be a different timing.

@Frogfish, please clarify your location of Pentax repair service.

Cheers,
Hin

[Frogfish]

If parts are back-ordered from Japan to US, it may take longer than 2 weeks and in my case with K-x last year, it took 4+ weeks just to get the parts shipped from Japan to CRIS. The most aggravating fact or mystery that I've learned in that process is that the parts are shipped in sea route and NOT through air by plane. I couldn't get a clear explanation from the Pentax service reps that I have talked to. Your best aid is to lower your expectations on the timing.

[update] Please note that if the repair are in Asia countries close to Japan, that will be a different timing.

@Frogfish, please clarify your location of Pentax repair service.

Cheers,
Hin

Hin - As it says under my Avatar - Shanghai Just gave it back to the shop where I bought it and Viola !

Also ships take 6 weeks to go from Asia to the USA so if you were told a 4 week delay was for shipping then they were telling you porky pies - unless Japan has a new bullet freighter !

[jbinpg]

I used to work on car-carrying freighters between Japan and the west coast of N. America. Our sailing times varied from 7 days on the shortest northern routes to 9 days on the longer southern ones. No way it would take any decent ship 6 weeks to cross the Pacific. Maybe 6 weeks to get the sea containers opened and distributed but shipping time is a very small part of that.

Jack

[Frogfish]

I used to work on car-carrying freighters between Japan and the west coast of N. America. Our sailing times varied from 7 days on the shortest northern routes to 9 days on the longer southern ones. No way it would take any decent ship 6 weeks to cross the Pacific. Maybe 6 weeks to get the sea containers opened and distributed but shipping time is a very small part of that.

Jack

Yes Jack - total time. Goods stuck dockside or in customs are no good to us consumers

We handle hundreds of expats arriving in China every year with their personal effects / household goods (all using different shipping agents) ..... 6 weeks is the lead time (private or consolidated) from the USA (packing / dockside / customs / loading / sailing time ... and repeat at the other end). I imagine you are talking Ro/Ro which is going to be much faster. Here's a list of times (including the list of procedures to navigate I gave above) from Australia (Japan to USA / Europe has very similar steaming times).

[hinman]

My K20D repair comes back from CRIS in about three weeks since I sent my K20D in. My repair was out of warranty and CRIS charged nominally for $152 shipped for the repair that involved replacing the shutter and aperture control. I am quite happy with my repair experience with CRIS which did an excellent job in restoring my K20D to working order. I truly hope you get similar positive experience.

Kudos to CRIS for its outstanding work in my repair. The only gripe that I can think about is in the handling of calls with the Pentax Service department. I talk to some reps who are friendly and supportive while I also talk to someone who is not helpful and with cold responses to request for help. On the other hand, the CRIS website with a repair work-order number and member ID helps greatly as I can check online with CRIS on the repair status.

Cheers,
Hin