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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-10-2010, 05:01 AM
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Just a quick update as my K-x came back from repair shop yesterday.
It took 1 calendar month as apparently they had to wait for spare parts from Pentax and I will try not to include any feelings or experiences I had with Pentax and the repair facility. I have to stop swearing… Facts only.
Issues I described to them as faults to repair facility:
1. Shake reduction not very reliable - causing random blur
2. Random dust removal feature (this is turned off – not set to be activated on start up) - as result camera would randomly vibrate when taking photos
3. Battery problem - not reliable battery indicator
4. Focus “dot” selector – not reliable and “very approximate”
Photopia has replaced PCB in the K-x (not sure what exactly it is but it probably is the camera circuit board), did general clean up of the K-x (cam, mirror and sensor has been clean anyway…) and installed a latest firmware. This made me think as I have installed the latest firmware a couple months ago (I believe it is v1.01 or something like that but as far as I know there was only 1 firmware update so far..). Not sure if they just re-installed some “secret” firmware update or they just re-installed the same version.
I have loaded charged eneloops, set the initial settings again (shutter count has been reset as well – probably as a result of replaced PCB). I had about 2 hours of light last night to test the camera; I took about 100 shots at different settings which is not enough IMHO, so please do not make any conclusions yet and I will probably add more in few weeks time when I test the camera properly. But this is what I came up with last night:
Camera seems to be slightly quicker in terms of auto focusing (only my subjective feeling, have not done any scientifical measuring), buttons are firm as they were before, the body looks as new (well, my gear is always clean and taken care of anyway).
Problems solved?
- Shake reduction – seems like it helped a bit although cannot confirm this yet as some of the photos were sharper with SR OFF, so not sure and cannot make any conclusions so far. I was especially interested in low light with longer exposure, with and without support, slower shutter speeds. I am looking forward to test it further.
- Random dust removal feature – this did not happen again so far but as it happen only a couple of times during about 5-6 months of use I will keep an eye on it.
- Battery problem – I am going to test another brands (GP and Uniross) as well and see what happens. With Eneloops I think the situation has improved (not sure if because some updated “secret” firmware or the replaced PCB) and I think it reads the battery +- accurately. Will see in next few weeks.
- Focus selector - Still a bit disappointing as this is still not very reliable. Especially if I consider that my old Oly SP500UZ point&shoot is showing selected focus point in a viewfinder… I still believe the solution is out there!!! Tried about 20 shots using focus selector – focus missed in about 6-7 of them. I think this feature is useful and really tricky at the same time as I realized it does not take the “dot” as a guide but quite wider area around the actual selected dot. Can anybody confirm this please?
PS The last thing I wanted to say. Last week I started to play with an idea to invest into a proper Pentax 12-24mm lens but this experience somehow made me hesitate which is not great and does not make me happy for various reasons…
If anything new comes up I will post an update for you guys. Hope it helps…
Any feedback / your experience welcome!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-11-2010, 03:30 AM
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Gryphen, I think you might be right! I actually came to the same conclusion! I am thinking the battery problem might be a bigger issue that I/we thought. According to my experience and also if I compare quality of photos (in terms of SR effectivity) before with Energizer Lithiums and with Eneloops, I think there is a difference. So I think the voltage affects SR functioning (I'm only guessing).
Well, after my stay in Italy with K-x, the camera is finally on its way to Photopia UK for a repair... Will give an update as soon I have any. But still... :(
Back to your post - I would not really risk using Ni-Zn batteries. I heard that K-x with Ni-Zn is more responsive as voltage is higher but it might be risky as it is higher voltage than the K-x has been designed for! Apparently, there is a risk of frying the electronics (especially flash) in your camera, but I cannot really confirm that as I did not want to try it myself... But you can google plenty of articles/blogs about that.
BTW, did anybody hear anything about K-5? I caught this rumour but not sure if true?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-30-2010, 01:35 AM
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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.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-29-2010, 07:40 AM
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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!
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-27-2010, 08:01 AM
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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.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-26-2010, 05:31 AM
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Hi guys,
I’ve been watching this forum for months now but my recent problems with my K-x made to post some feedback (my 1st here). So I want to share my experience - I will try to be brief and summarize things.
Before Christmas I was looking for a new mid-range DSLR. 2 cameras made it to my top 2: Pentax K-x and Nikon D90. After a real struggle I have decided to go with Pentax K-x (18-55 and 55-300mm combo). I thought with Nikon you are paying extra just for the brand, it does not have body but lens stabilization so you need to pay more for lens etc although I thought the images and HDR from D90 was more contrasty and sharp. It is quite difficult to explain but they look a bit more appealing for some reason (my subjective opinion).
To cut it short – my k-x combo arrived and I was in heaven. The camera has perfect design, it is very small but handling is great, size is great for traveling as well, it is well built, has fantastic features, makes great images.
At first I have used lithium Energizers supplied with it and it worked like a dream, the camera was really responsive and been taking great crisp images. I mean the images were something I have not been expecting. They were brilliant! Low light was like a butter on hot toast! :)
I was excited about AAs in the K-x as I think when you are in a forest in Bolivia, on top of Acropolis, shooting waterfalls or simply walking down the street it is much easier to get AAs than new or freshly charged battery pack. Plus, many people have loads of rechargeable nimh AA batteries at home.
In terms of battery I have realized that even if during shooting the battery showed low status (orange), when I turned the camera again it was green again… But who cares if you can take images with showing empty battery and when you carry a spare pack, right? Eventually, as recommended by dpreview, pentax japan, number of blogs, etc. I have updated a firmware hoping it will fix it (new release by Pentax Japan which should fix the battery problem). It did not and I still have this problem to this day.
In terms of battery drainage – no concerns here, the initial lithium took about 2000 images and with eneloops about 700 (average number, I actually think it is around 800).
With the package I have also received Sanyo Eneloops with original charger. So after I have depleted the lithiums I have used the eneloops (I have bought another pack of the same eneloops to have a spare on the road). I think that is where the whole thing started.
With Eneloops I started to realize the AF of the lenses is a bit slower (still I have not used a stopwatch to be honest) and it takes a while when the lens is going back and forth to finally come back to the correct focus point. But that would not be a problem as I can live with that. (For K-x users I tried to select Battery type “Auto” and also “Ni-Mh” – it made no difference)
I still enjoyed the camera very much. I have bought additional SMC A50 f1.7 lens and I was even more happy (God, I love this lens so much!!!) and also used M50 f1.7 as well. It is absolutely fantastic you can use old K mount Pentax lenses with new DSLR!!!
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 (usually the brightest one with longest exposure) and I was not really happy especially if it ruins HDR composed from auto-bracketed images.
I spoke to Pentax support people and they gave me a number of advices what to do (all of them were advices in terms of photo technique and avoiding user errors). 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.
I noticed that with long exposure the shutter is reaaaally strong (I do not mind the loud sound of it). 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.
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.
Well, I still thought I should go through the manual one more time at least and still, it is a new camera so I need to get used to it more.
Last night I was playing with my SMC A50mm f1.7 – manual focus and took about 4-5 images, eneloops were on +-50%, when it started. 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! I turned the camera off waited a while and turned it on again.
Tried to take a shot and the camera started to vibrate very violently (it was a same vibration type as when the sensor shake is removing dust from a sensor). I can confirm that my lenses and also sensor are always super clean, so I cannot find any explanation here.
I sent a query to Pentax today and waiting for some feedback.
Summary:
As some of the web reviews say: “K-x is a great little camera with issues.” I could not agree more.
I will wait if there is some firmware update or if Pentax will be able to help/advise. But I can honestly say I did not spend over £600 for my new toy to have this kind of problems.
I mean at the moment I love and hate it at the same time, I just do not trust the camera anymore and that is probably the worst thing.
I am really hoping that there will be a firmware update fixing the blurry images/mirror slap or brutal shutter/ or whatever it is very soon.
IMO, the idea that somebody expects me to use lithiums only all the time is totally retarded and absolutely environment-non-friendly, so they could fix the battery issue again if possible. :mad:
So if I would be a manager in Pentax I would look into these issues really quick, otherwise I am ready to return the camera and sell all my lenses without a hesitation.
And yes, I would probably end up with D90 even if I will need to pay for new lenses and more for the body.
But I still love my K-x very much… Am I crazy? :confused:
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