K-30 under exposure

I am having a problem with my K-30. When using it for still photography I am getting vastly underexposed pictures (almost black), but in video mode I get normal exposure. I have checked the settings, and have also reset the camera to factory settings. Nothing seems to correct this problem. Has anyone got any ideas?

It could be aperture block failure, if so it needs to go in for repair. Do a search on Google, you can find out a lot more about the symptoms.

Yep, as mentioned above, it's a very well known problem with the K-30 and K-50 models.
The fix is to send to a repair centre, which is covered if you are under warranty. If not, Pentax don't want to know you unfortunately, despite it happening to many owners. I hope you are within your warranty period :

Thanks for your help. Sadly I have discovered this by some research on the web. Not under warranty now (bought in 2013). Pentax used to be very reliable.

Hardware wise they still mostly are, except for this specific faulty component. It really should have been a recall, and probably would have been if they had all failed at once together.

The only other reliability issues I know of are more software based, such as the k-3 mystery mirror flap situation, or my k-30 intervalometer that just stops randomly. I know others have experienced lockups that require the battery to be pulled out, but don't know the specifics around this.

I don't think Pentax are less reliable than any other brands, but it's the putting right that counts, if something does go wrong, that interests me more...

Don't get me wrong, I've been a happy Pentax user since around 1974 when I had my first one (a Spotmatic F). I've had several others, film and digital, that's why I feel very disappointed with the K-30. I need to decide whether it's worth spending the money to have it repaired.

PS. My brother lives in Kerikeri, having just moved from Auckland.