K5 AF and warranty

i bought a K5 from a forum member a while ago and did not have much time to use it fully. i have now made more use of it and i feel the focus is out at distant (infinity), i will try and explain- if i take a photo across the roof tops to the distant trees it all appears in focus up to a point but then drifts out of focus to the far distance. have tried various lenses with the same result, the further back into the picture the further out of focus it becomes. the camera was purchased from Park in january 2011 (i have the original reciept) so over 12 months old but is it covered by european 2yr warranty as i feel Pentax should bear the cost rather than me if it is .if not then will bite the bullet and send to johnsons for af calibration check. any advice welcome

Best to eliminate the various possibilities first.

Check the dioptre setting on the viewfinder - point the camera at a blank wall and adjust until the etched lines in the viewfinder are sharpest. Whatever you are looking at is best out of focus as you are looking for your eye feeling relaxed and actually focusing on the screen, not the scene.

Then find a nice architectural subject, use the lens wide open and take some shots at various distances. See if they are sharp. Try AF and MF as well. Try LiveView also if you feel inclined to see if the different focusing system shows any errors up.

If there's an error, then think about calibrating lenses or sending the camera for warranty repair.

There was something similar a while back where a member purchased a K-5 off Ebay which turned out to have a stain and the seller refused to refund. He had the receipt and Johnsons replaced it for a brand new one so presumably they will also do repairs under the same conditions.

Worth sending it in with the receipt for a warranty repair I would have thought .. if they charge then it was worth a punt.

Otherwise cannot the person you bought it off handle the warranty claim (at your cost re postage etc)?

It would be interesting to know what aperture(s?)you were using with the various lenses.Obviously the wider the setting the narrower the DoF.

thanks John ,have set dioptre ,as a specs wearer i had to, have done lens calibration and adjusted settings as required.
thanks Gary a mixture from f8 to f16, shutter speeds from 1/50 to 1/400, DA40 ,DA55-300, DA16-50, 10-17 fish eye.
thanks Mike that sounds like a good suggestion. i think i will have to give it a go just for peace of mind, if they do not find anything will have to look at the operator. all the lenses i had with my K7 ,except the DA*16-50, and had no problem with them on that so fingers crossed they find something.
once again thanks to one and all

This may sound like a silly question but have you taken test pics in both landscape and portrait orientation- if so are the results the same? Now,it's late and I have probably been hit with a stupid stick but ,ho,ho- have you tried taking same test pics with the camera upside down or with the focus point in different positions ? What's that? No, I have'nt touched a drop!.....I just find it really interesting as to how and why this is happening- could it be a misaligned sensor or lens mount? is that possible? Are the photos displaying the same fault no matter what they are viewed on- camera, monitor etc. Jeez, clutching at straws here....
Cheers,
Gary

Have you tried using the hypo-focal distance on all of your lenses,using different apertures will not have every thing in focus, to achieve this you will have to set it up to hypo-focal distance for each lens.

The apparent sharpness of distant objects may have nothing to do with your camera, lenses, or your technique.

Atmospheric contamination can easily cause very distant objects to look less than pin sharp.

Q: Try taking 2 images of the same scene, 1 using AF, and MF for the other. Compare the results.