K5 Sensor Issues...

lets hope not

could end up with a kr at this rate

Oh dear. I was about to order from SRS tomorrow after I had confirmation of refund, but looks like I am going to have to hold as the Feb 2011 manufactured, 4XXX serial number camera has the stain too. (hopefully that's just an exception)

I wonder if this is a Sony Sensor issue rather than a Pentax issue?

My first K-5 was a 3xxxx job. No sensor stains but had low light AF faults. I got it replaced.the replacement and the 2nd K-5 I bought soon afterwards were both 4xxxx copies and had no sensor stains. they didn't have the AF problems with FW 1l04 afterwards.

I've never heard of a 4xxxx K-5 having sensor stains. Are you a Canikon industrial saboteur?

It's a matter of confidence. If it was a problem, we wouldn't have just bought two K-5 cameras.

If it proves to be a problem, then it will get solved in an appropriate way. If it proves to be fine then we have the use of our K-5s now rather than at some unspecified time in the future.

There will always be potential problems with every marque. With the K20D early samples could have a banding problem. With Canon they had to withdraw an entire lens production. A friend of mine has trouble with his new Nikon D300S because it wouldn't playback images. And so it goes on.

Sieze the moment!

There are a lot of 2011 4xxx K5's out there and only one reported stained - and seeing that thread they clearly are stains. How this one slipped through is a mystery (reused chassis?) However, if the problem had not been solved there would have undoubtedly been more reports by now. I'm sure a poll of K5 owners would return a very satisfied verdict.

[quote:3496ace15f="Smeggypants"][quote:3496ace15f="NikonToPentax"]
My first K-5 was a 3xxxx job. No sensor stains but had low light AF faults. I got it replaced.the replacement and the 2nd K-5 I bought soon afterwards were both 4xxxx copies and had no sensor stains. they didn't have the AF problems with FW 1l04 afterwards.

Is there a firmware 1.4, Smeggy? Can't find any mention of it elsewhere. Perhaps just a typo?

All the best,

Chris

Typo. sorry

I have just got a K5 and the serial number is 393xxxx
how can I be sure that it has no stain?

Date of manufacture?

Sorry but where do I find the date of manufacture?

found it in the exif it's 18/01/2011

Take a picture then look at the exif file using PhotoMe. This gives more information than you could possibly want but buried in it is the date of manufacture. You can also find the number of shutter clicks.

PhotoMe is available for free download. A very useful utility. link

Oh you found it while I was fiddling about looking for the link!

Take an over exposed photo with the higest f-number the lens can be set on.
only clear dark spots you see is either dirt on the sensor or the marks if you've them.

Hi All,

My first post here having bought a Pentax K5 from Novatech 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately I've just been reading up about the sensor stain issue, and having checked my camera it looks like suspect.

100% crop:

[IMG]http://i53.tinypic.com/wsmlft.jpg[/IMG]

Unfortunately having only just found this I'm not sure whether Novatech will simply give me a refund so that I can buy from SRS!

I'm pretty sure this is a stain, but it would be great to have other views.

Thanks!