K-30 random exposure failure issue

citizens advice office will know how to contact them i imagine

Hi all,

I have a K30 and it's just started suffering this problem. Thing is I've now moved to Australia and I bought my K30 in the UK years ago now so well out of warranty. I did however find a fix, albeit temporary, on another dpreview: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3742443. Check the last post on the first page (flat view) - user Anirut J

To summarise, stick it in hi burst mode, shoot at something for a while and it will get itself working again (ymmv). It's almost as if it needs a bit of a wake up. With mine, if I turn it off for 30 minutes it will need waking up again, but it's not too much of a problem, as long as you remember - and mine is usually moving again by the time the buffer is filled.

It's not a permanent fix but it'll do the job till it either dies completely, I can afford to send it off for repairs or I get my K3. I'm currently on about 10000 actuations so it's not been overly used but that might be the reason it's died - so go shoot more!

That's a temporary 'fix' sorry.
It's failing.

What's weird/disgusting is Pentax are still selling these new today. For the lucky ones this fails within the 2 year warranty period.

Disinformation here, the K30 is no longer produced but a very small number being sold by retailers at hyped prices probably old stock.

I sense another Hitler parody LINK

John

K-50, same issue, and practically the same camera.

That's how they make their money by selling a rubbish camera.

Hitler changes brand then looses the war, let that be a lesson to anyone thinking of jumping ship!

Best laugh I have had for years!

Sad to say I've just jumped ship and bought a Canon. I've had enough of the issues with the k-30, and not impressed with Pentax. It developed a fault still under warranty, got sent back to Pentax, they took 2 months to fix even though it was only a problem with the LCD screen. No communication other than through the shop I bought it from and all they could tell me was Pentax are moving premises, it will take another couple of weeks. A couple of weeks would go by, they're waiting for a part, another couple of weeks, another excuse, and so on. Then I started having issues with exposure. At first I thought it was me doing something wrong but I soon realised it wasn't me. Pain in the proverbial. A number of ruined holiday shots later and I've had enough, it's going. Almost made me give up photography.

Hi and welcome (and goodbye?) to the forum. You should have insisted on your consumer rights. It is the retailer who must either repair or replace faulty goods 'within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience', It's not Pentax's fault you failed to insist on your consumer rights. What makes you believe getting a Canon camera would be any different should it go wrong if you do not insist on your rights?

'It's not Pentax's fault you failed to insist on your consumer rights.'

It's not the consumers fault either that any repairs under warranty cant be resolved in timely manner because Pentax was moving premises in this case.
If then the retailer on top of that fails to provide the consumer with a solution 'within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience' it's causes frustration. If then the same product fails with another issue... more frustration. I don't think anyone would genuinely believe that other brands and their services are absolutely faultless but I can see why someone would give up and start investing in another system before frustration takes the joy out of their hobby.

Sadly I have to agree, so I've moved to Nikon and I've also found a company who can insure my camera incase anything goes wrong. No camera is invincible, but then none go as wrong as much as Pentax do.

I have only owned Pentax cameras and have never had one go wrong, apart from the sensor staining which was swiftly dealt with by SRS. I don't think you can say that none go wrong as much as Pentax do.
Canon customer service, in the Netherlands at least, stinks, and I have heard from Nkon users that it isn't any better.
But the grass is always greener...

No camera company is the be all and end all, it's just I've never had so much go faulty as I did with the Pentax.