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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
07-14-2023, 11:52 AM
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Bought a brand new DA* 2.8/16-50 and somehow got the front lens scratched. Yes, I know, always put a filter on....ugh. Well, it's a deep scratch and wondering if the one-year factory warranty covers repair of this and if so how do I go about getting this process started, is there a page on the site that walks me through it?
Thanks!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-10-2023, 06:14 PM
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I thought you could gently press the trigger not all the way and that would lock in the current settings like speed, aperture, and focus...? That way you could have the single point right on your target, press halfway to focus and set everything, then swing the camera slightly to the side and finish depressing the button to take the shot. Isn't that how it works? Or does it not hold the focus, just the other settings at half mast?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-10-2023, 07:13 AM
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A huge purchase but my K30 died from the dreaded aperture solenoid death so needed a new camera and went for the gold. I also bought the guide available here for the camera, but it is pretty dense and I was hoping it had a TL;DR page with two or three sample setups for the camera as a kind of quick start (hint, hint). I have already updated to v1.70 firmware.
Wondering if anyone has a source for that or perhaps what they did when they got this camera/lens to set it up properly? I made the focus a single center point due to reading somewhere that it makes it easier for the lens to focus that way, but there are SO many options it's easy to quickly get overwhelmed. Any help is appreciated!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-03-2023, 08:01 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
01-03-2023, 07:53 AM
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Necro..yeah yeah. But I just found this thread as the top result via google and think the thread either needs to be updated since I too am wondering about the stripe colors on Pentax lenses and perhaps there needs to be another post that describes the updates since nine years ago...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
12-04-2022, 03:26 PM
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No the forum resized them. Originals are 14MB in size. These new originals are 11MB in size. I viewed them at 100% in irfanview and then used Windows snipping tool to grab a portion near the center of each. Same lens as before. Image #2 was taken through the front window and appears to have focused on the falling snowflakes instead of the intended kids...
EDIT: added 100% crop of previous tree image also.
Image #1 is 1/60@f/2.5, ISO 640
Image #2 is 1/320@f/2.8, ISO 100
Image #3 is 1/60@f/2.5, ISO 1000
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
12-04-2022, 12:16 PM
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So I just unboxed my new K-3 Mark III and updated the firmware from it's 1.41 to the current 1.70 and went outside and took these pictures. I used the default camera settings and JPEG so if the forum software doesn't strip out the EXIF data you can see the lens and camera settings. When viewed in irfanview at 100% on my PC the images look slightly blurry compared to images my old K-30 took before its untimely demise due to the dreaded aperture solenoid debacle. These are the 1st and 2nd pictures taken with the new camera. Would like some opinions...
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-23-2022, 11:31 AM
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So someone mentioned the GPS above. I thought the latest firmware for the K3 III made it able to do Astro-shots without using the external GPS unit (which I have for my K-30)? Somehow it magically uses..magnetism..or something...
For everyone asking here are my lenses, hope I listed them correctly. Not many but used them all a lot:
(Can't find my K-1000 with it's manual lenses but they're from the late 70's/early 80's)
SMC Pentax DAL 18-55 AL3.5-5.6 kit lens
SMC Pentax DAL 50-200 ED 4-5.6 kit lens
SMC Pentax DA 55-300 ED 4-5.8
Sigma 18-35 DC 1.8
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-22-2022, 07:23 PM
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So to use my K-30 in pure "manual" mode to avoid the aperture solenoid issue, do I just put the selector on "M" and manually set the exposure and aperture myself for each shot? or do I have to change things in the menu also? Perhaps a link to where I can read up is better to keep thread from getting cluttered...
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-22-2022, 07:05 PM
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Jeez, tons of info to read through. Well okay then. Looks like I might want to move down to the K-3 Mark III instead. I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to use the entire sensor area with my older lenses and buying new full frame lenses is quite a big investment for a hobby. The problem I see with the K-3 III is lack of built-in flash. Not sure why they left that out, the pop-up worked great in my K-30.
I never fully read the manual so will need to learn about the "green dot" button I suppose, at least it would allow me to keep taking pictures until I buy a new camera. I still have my first camera, a K-1000 bought mail order through a Jafco catalog as a kid, but dreaded having to do everything manually again lol.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-22-2022, 10:57 AM
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YAY!! Thank you so much for the quick answers. Looking forward to finding a good deal on that puppy...amazon days coming up soon. I've been missing taking pictures and this body should make beautiful pics. Wonder how my APS-C lenses will do, does it give a black halo or something? Guess I need to start reading up on it...
EDIT: I also have an old K2000 and wonder if it also suffers from that. I think it still works but haven't used it in close to a decade.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-22-2022, 09:38 AM
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I'm very sad that my K-30 after only 5 years or so got the dreaded aperture solenoid failure. I'm not going to do surgery on it so AFAIK it is a pile of junk to be thrown away. Shame on Pentax for knowing about this and not replacing it for free for their loyal customers.
Anyway, I'm looking at the Pentax K-1 Mark II DSLR as a replacement, but won't buy it if it also uses these crappy bits. Can someone tell me if it also uses this same solenoid that fails? Maybe it's time to sell off my lens collection and just move to another brand, but really not happy about that. :-(
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
12-27-2021, 06:09 AM
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Sorry to necro this post, but to stay on topic, I'm thinking of just buying the new K-1 Mk II and wondering if it also suffers from a dying aperture solenoid before I plunk down $two grand? Was thinking about repairing my K-30 but not sure about it now that I've read on how many different sized screws there are and how everything must be put back together exactly the same, I'm sure I would sneeze or something and get everything messed up. My old K1000 still does everything it's supposed to lol... :-(
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
06-16-2021, 03:26 PM
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I have a K-30 and no matter which lens I use all of my pictures are too dark. It feels like the exposure meter is broken or something. I played with ISO settings, and then tried manual settings using TV/AV/TaV and all are too dark on "normal" settings. Fully-charged batteries. Even the "Auto" picture is too dark. Any ideas how to intelligently troubleshoot this? Hoping I don't have to ship it to my nearest authorized repair center...ugh...perhaps there is a master factory reset I can try first?
---------- Post added 06-16-21 at 03:43 PM ----------
So I guess I answered my own question...google is your friend. I found this post:
And of course when I set my camera to M mode and fixed ISO and aperture at F4.0 and watched the lens when I took a picture, I saw the teeny tiny aperture almost completely closed. After taking many pics and changing some of the settings I went back to M mode and tried it again at F4.0 and lo-and-behold the aperture was nice and wide open this time! And a few test pictures show it was working fine now. So guess that solenoid thingy is bad on mine as well.
/sad
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-28-2014, 10:41 AM
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This recently started happening to me also on my K-30. It was after I went on a long road trip on my motorcycle, so I figured the dampness (it was very humid) plus jostling around in my backpack might have caused some kind of partial disconnect of wires or an internal switch. Glad to hear (erm, not so glad, actually) that others are experiencing this as well.
Even with a fresh battery pack I flip the switch and sometimes it does not power on. Sometimes I gently whack the side or bottom and that seems to bring it back alive, other times not. It has only recently started doing this, never had before. Same SD card as I've always used. Doesn't matter if I'm using the black sealed battery pack or the 4-AA adapter with Eneloops.
Wondering if perhaps the SD card is getting "worn out" (if that's even possible) and maybe I can buy another one and try it out--never a waste to have an extra SD card!
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
07-28-2014, 09:42 AM
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My seven-month backorder finally arrived a few weeks ago, and it was worth the wait!
It is a very well-crafted lens, quite heavy though, which is the only drawback I've seen so far. It works great on my K-30. Now I am no longer going to use my kit lenses at all--this and my Pentax DA 55-300 4/5.8 zoom are the two lenses I will carry. So far the pictures the 18-35 takes are fantastic. I have not experienced any of the front/back focus issues the other camera bodies have been complaining about, only time will tell. I will be entering some of my compositions in the local fairs, gonna pull in big bucks with those $5 blue ribbon prizes! :)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-04-2013, 12:27 PM
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I didn't see anyone mention the lens filter. If you have another lens, swap lenses and take the same picture and see if they show up in the same place. I had something that looked exactly the same as that but only on my wide-angle kit lens, my other lenses were clean.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
06-04-2013, 12:00 PM
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Sorry for the bump on old post but I think it will be helpful for future Googlers.
I just pulled everything out and took a look on the back of my computer and found that the K-30 is not compatible with USB 2.0 because it will only copy a few files before locking up. When I plugged it into a USB 3.0 port it works great, I'm ten minutes into copying 5.6GB of images off my camera from a week long trip.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-06-2013, 10:29 PM
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It was already set to "MSC" in the camera settings (thank you) and the first thing i did was upgrade the firmware to the newest 1.04 version.
:( :( :(
It is simply weird, I can drop to a DOS window and do a COPY command and individually it works just fine but if I try to use a wildcard it copies four files and then locks up. Every time.
So I tried an experiment, just now I tried to copy an 85MB file to the camera from my computer...it copied for a while and then locked up. So now I think the card is at fault perhaps in its buffering or something...?
Is the camera USB 3 compatible? Perhaps I can try a different USB port on my computer...
YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS but I just swapped the cord to use another USB port on the back of my computer and NOW IT WORKS GREAT! I'm in the middle of copying all the files using wildcards in a DOS window and no lockups yet after about 50 images! Yay! I don't know what the difference is between those two ports, will need to pull it out and grab a flashlight, etc, etc, but that's for a rainy day I think. Thanks everyone for your suggestions :)
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-06-2013, 09:17 PM
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Trying my new K-30 and now I want to copy the images from it onto my computer. So I hook up the USB cord (same one I used for my K-2000 btw) and my computer (windows 7 64-bit) recognizes the camera as a drive letter. Then I go to copy all the pictures from the camera to my computer and.....after four images it locks up. Solid. Every time. I turned camera off, rebooted computer, tried again. Same results.
Any ideas? Searching the forum shows a few hits but nothing that seems to be definitive. My K-2000 never had a problem, I could copy all the images from it all night long, this one simply stops and locks up the camera after copying four images.
I am using a Sandisk 16GB Extreme SDHC Class 10 U1 45MB/s card. Perhaps that card isn't "fully" compatible with my new K-30 camera? What would cause the lock up in the middle of copying files to my computer? Help!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-14-2013, 03:23 PM
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Hello. I have a white K-2000 (my stormtrooper) and I really need a normal zoom at the wide end. I've been reading reviews on the DA* 16-50mm and Sigma, Tamron equivalents. My question is related to chromatic aberration issues, which every review has said is particularly bad in the Pentax lens. As well, perhaps it's also time for me to upgrade my body. I'm liking the K-5 II and K-30 (nice distortion correction also) and see that the K-30 has CA adjustment built in.
1. Does the K-5 II also have CA correction and distortion correction built in?
2. The K-5 II was released after the K-30, so doesn't that mean it has a few more "features" that are better than its sibling?
3. Which body would be a better investment for me (amateur)?
4. Finally, which zoom lens in the above category would you recommend, keeping an eye on the lower-light scenarios (Tacoma,WA area; always cloudy & gray)
Thanks for any input!
Tim
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