Is my Q faulty ? Mode Dial help needed.

I keep trying without success to set up the mode dial, after several attempts at trying to understand the manual I went online and thought I'd found some clearer instructions on Pentax Forums which only seem to half work.

I set B&W, High Contrast and Aspect Ratio 1:1, and saved to User 1 then checked it was OK, I then set Reversal Film, Toy Camera and Aspect 4:3 and saved to User 2 only to find User 1 had reverted back to 4:3 Aspect Ratio but retained the other two settings.

I've tried several times with random settings but all with the same results, changing the aspect ratio of any user setting changes them all to the same.

Do you mean the mode dial which is on the top of the camera (P/Tv/Av/M etc.) or the Quick Dial thingy which is on the front of the camera??

Steve

Sorry, I meant the quick dial.

First thing I did was update the firmware

I found the manual confusing, it says you can store up to four settings but then contradicts itself by saying only 1 setting at a time, that's why I searched online.

This was the method I found:
1. set up your camera with the settings you want it to save. If you want it to be b&w, or any other filter, set them up now.
2. press the menu button and press the right arrow key to get to tab 3
3. go down one to Quick Dial
4. press right to edit the quick dial settings
5. choose smart effects
6. Then scroll down to one of the quick dial spaces
7. press left/right until you get the USER 1, 2, or 3 setting in the box
8. press -/+ button to edit the settings
9. choose which user mode you want to save your settings as and hit the green button to manage that user setting
10. choose "save settings"
Now the effects that you chose in the begging are saved as USER 1, 2, or 3. Choose them in the smart dial menu. Now when you change the smart dial, it will cycle through your user settings.

I think I've found the problem with a bit more digging on the internet, it looks like the ability to save an aspect ratio along with other settings was stuffed up in one of the firmware updates, just come across a post from a guy who said he could do it on his original Q but not on a later model.

At least I know the camera is OK albeit "broken" due to a firmware update

OK, I think I understand what you're doing now. First the good(-ish) news - it isn't what I was doing, so ignore what I said about all settings being retained by quick dial. Now the bad (for you) news. User 1, 2 and 3 are for camera settings for what the Q's user manual calls 'Image Finishing Tone' i.e. custom image, digital filter and smart effect. That does not include aspect ratio (that's under 'File Format'). It seems that the quick dial can be used to switch between these settings, or aspect ratio, but not both simultaneously. The easiest way to change both image finishing tone settings and aspect ratio is probably to do the former with the quick dial and the latter by pressing the info button, selecting aspect ratio and changing with the e-dial.

I must admit that user manual isn't as clear as it should be re User 1, 2 and 3. The seem a bit of an afterthough by Pentax, extra functionality but not as well integrated as they could be.

I no longer use quick dial myself, shoot DNG and do everything in post processing seems easier and safer. But then I've never been tempted by fancy things like the toy camera look.

Good luck!

Steve

Having to change camera menu settings and then save to a user seems a rather odd way of doing it, as you have to set up then change back to your prefered usual shooting mode each time you want to set up a specific user mode, it would have been much better to be able to select a user number and then change the menu.

A list of what can be changed would also have been useful, I noticed that white balance is one of them although given the performance of Pentax AWB I doubt I'd ever want to specify anything different for any given mode.