Don't Forget Your Extended Warranty!

Three-year protection for just $19.95

By PF Staff in Articles and Tips on Nov 8, 2012

Since the recent debut of the Pentax K-5 II and K-5 IIs, many of you have decided to upgrade your Pentax DSLR, whether it be to the latest K-5 II for those with the original K-5, or the original K-5 (now only $799) for those with older cameras.

In the US, Pentax DSLRs normally come with one year of manufacturer's warranty, which is fairly standard in the industry.  Pentax is a bit more generous in Canada and Europe by offering a 2-year warranty as standard. 

For those in the US, assuming that you didn't buy one of the expensive third-party wear-and-tear warranties together with your camera, however, after one year you'll have to pay for any repairs that might become necessary yourself- and it's often the case that things don't start breaking until just after your warranty period expires!

Fortunately, Pentax has a nice solution for this: for under $20, you can get an extended warranty for your camera which extends the manufacturer's coverage by two years, to a total of three.  The warranty must be purchased within 30 days of your original purchase, and it only applies to cameras purchased from US authorized retailers.  It's valid for the K-5 IIs, K-5 II, K-5, K-30, and K-r: basically all the Pentax cameras that you can buy new.  In addition to extended service coverage, the warranty also includes one free cleaning and calibration should you want one.  Considering that Pentax's warranty service process is much less painful than that of third parties (mostly because they are unfamiliar with Pentax), we find the extended warranty to be a must-have for any Pentax DSLR owner.

Not many stores carry this warranty, but you can get yours from B&H or Adorama even if you didn't buy your camera from them.  We hope that this post saves you a lot of trouble later down the road!  $19.95 will protect your DSLR investment for three years- it's a steal compared to the hundreds that Nikon charges for ESC.