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K50 pictures completely dark

richandfleur
Posted 20/07/2015 - 22:55 Link
No one's saying the brand's rubbish, but there are certain issues that occur on certain models.
This happens to all manufacturers, across multiple industries.

The Aperture motor failed on mine, it looks to have failed on Yuris, no doubt it will fail on someone elses over time.
Forums at least give you an idea of what's going on and what potential fixes there may be.
A large thread of 'mines working well' isn't particularly useful, other than to new buyers perhaps?

If you haven't had any failures with Pentax, or any other brand of gear then congrats.
Posted 07/05/2016 - 00:59 Link
Same issue ... have my Pentax K-50 for about 1.5 years now and I'm travelling. Always took good care on the camera. Had around 12000 shots so far. Got a little bit wet once but nothing special... Should be able to handle this, that's why I bought this camera.
Used it a couple weeks ago, charged the battery and wanted to use it today. EVERY Picture is dark... reset settings ... tried every mode and every setting ... removed battery, sd-card.... removed lens ... checked inside ... eveyrthing looks fine but it doesnt work at f***** all. This is pretty depressing ... because I'm a backpacker and I choose this camera because of the reviews and because it should be dust and waterproof. Shoul've bought a different Brand.
Any ideas how much it will cost to get this problem fixed ? I'm in NewZealand right now.

Cheers
davidwozhere
Posted 07/05/2016 - 01:25 Link
Nobody has mentioned reloading the firmware yet. Long shot but ...........?
Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

My page on Photocrowd
richandfleur
Posted 07/05/2016 - 02:44 Link
australiabacon wrote:

Any ideas how much it will cost to get this problem fixed ? I'm in NewZealand right now.

Cheers

Two things:

1) Congrats on making it to New Zealand. Whereabouts are you?

2) Do you have any lenses with a manual aperture ring?

IF your problem is the same as mine, then the motor in the body that sets the required aperture on the lens has failed. Meaning you rarely get the correct aperture set on the lens to achieve the right exposure. Hence the dark shots.

Pentax won't do anything to help. I'd expect a recall would have happened if they'd all failed at once, but as it's been a slow trickle there hasn't been much of an uproar in one go.

Mine was luckily sorted under warranty so I'm not sure of the repair price. You won't have to look far to find someone who has had to pay though I suspect.
tsf101
Posted 07/05/2016 - 08:57 Link
Hi AustraliaBacon!
Well, always if you have the same problem... As RichAndFleur had said before and it worked for me Thanks! try this one. And remember that it's temporary fix. I did it in Sport mode, must be quite the same... Finally after I brought it in assistance. But I repeat, as temporary fix You could try this one:

By richandfleur: "One option on the aperture motor is to fire off lots of shots in high speed burst mode. I've heard of some success with this waking it back up.
It's a temporary fix, if it's early days. If it's more serious, like it's failed outright, then this wont change a thing."


richandfleur wrote:
australiabacon wrote:

Any ideas how much it will cost to get this problem fixed ? I'm in NewZealand right now.

Cheers

Two things:

1) Congrats on making it to New Zealand. Whereabouts are you?

2) Do you have any lenses with a manual aperture ring?

IF your problem is the same as mine, then the motor in the body that sets the required aperture on the lens has failed. Meaning you rarely get the correct aperture set on the lens to achieve the right exposure. Hence the dark shots.

Pentax won't do anything to help. I'd expect a recall would have happened if they'd all failed at once, but as it's been a slow trickle there hasn't been much of an uproar in one go.

Mine was luckily sorted under warranty so I'm not sure of the repair price. You won't have to look far to find someone who has had to pay though I suspect.

Posted 21/06/2016 - 13:10 Link
Same issue. My K50 started to take dark pictures (aperture fully closed) after ~10000 shutter count. I read on other forums that the aperture motor won't get enough power from the Li-Ion battery pack. On that forum somebody recommended that I should use the 4 x AA power pack. It gives more energy burst to motors. I tried it and it's working. My last 1000 shots didn't get dark. I hope it solve your problem too.
Comment Image
tsf101
Posted 21/06/2016 - 13:45 Link
davidwozhere wrote:
Nobody has mentioned reloading the firmware yet. Long shot but ...........?

Hi. It didn't worked for me. It was mechanical problem. Regards.
paolo11
Posted 26/12/2016 - 22:45 Link
K50 dark images. Tried sport mode and it worked after a few shots, now in AV mode works fine. Someone mentioned that you need the battery pack as the lit/ion doesn't have enough power to run the aperture motor, but my battery was 1/2 down, and it took photos okay.

I bought a new K1 a month ago, and I have a K5 (k50 is my wife's camera), so i won't bother getting it repaired, let her use my K5. I see deals from bestbuy on Nikon/Canon for 500 - 600 with a two lens kit, so this might be my next camera for her.

I dare say I can't trust the K70 as it's probably just another upgrade from the K50 (like the K30).
johnriley
Posted 26/12/2016 - 23:44 Link
If there was a problem with a batch of parts for the K30 or even K50, then I would think it would make sense for the K70 to have addressed that. If it's just a batch of parts that has long since worked its way out of the system, then there would be little to fear.

Given that all marques have a failure rate, and Pentax one of the lowest failure rates, the the grass may well not be greener elsewhere.
Best regards, John
paolo11
Posted 27/12/2016 - 13:18 Link
Thanks for your reply, but it still doesn't take away the fact that this is/was an existing problem, and perhaps a recall would have been in order to correct the problem. The k50 is about 1.5 yrs. old, and failed after 1050 or so shots which seems to be the norm for failure.

I've been using Pentax for 30 yrs. My recent Pentax is a K1, and the Pentax Utility 5 doesn't work correctly even with the update. I've called Pentax a couple of times in Atlanta, about registering the product, and their data base isn't working, sorry, but Pentax needs to get their act together. So far, really disappointing.

I would like to see your data about Pentax having the lowest failure rate though they don't sell much over here.
johnriley
Posted 27/12/2016 - 14:25 Link
The data mentioned is linked to somewhere on this forum, but where I can't say, it will need to be searched out again.

But failure at 1000 or so exposures cannot be the norm for all of the models made, or mayhem would have ensued. Only a percentage of anything will fail, and then we tend to hear about those. We don't generally hear a peep from owners of cameras that don't fail.
Best regards, John
JAK
Posted 27/12/2016 - 14:27 Link
paolo11 wrote:
The k50 is about 1.5 yrs. old, and failed after 1050 or so shots which seems to be the norm for failure.

Where did you purchase your K50 from? Some Pentax dealers offer a two year guarantee which should cover it at a year and a half. But didn't you add it now works fine which might prove hard proving a fault?
John K
paolo11
Posted 27/12/2016 - 14:40 Link
Thanks for you reply. No, it's not working fine. What I've found is that if I take a bunch of rapid shots, it starts to work. Turn it off, have dark image problem. Rapid fire, it works in other modes.

I don't understand my wife's filing system, so have to wait to find receipt. I'm not to begin trying to take the horse-shoe shaped magnet out, and file it down. Pentax should have issued a recall and fix for this as it's a K30/K50 problem.

If I can get more info will reply.


thanks again.
davidruane
Posted 27/12/2016 - 17:05 Link
My K-50 was just out of warranty (by three weeks). Problem was diagnosed as the aperture motor and duly replaced. Much as I would have liked to attempt to do it myself - I`m not that brave. Cost for repair was Euro 120, and a week...

The camera has worked fine so far.

David
Today is a great day - they always are if you wake up
paolo11
Posted 27/12/2016 - 20:22 Link
Thanks David,
Answers my question about mailing it out for repair as it seems Pentax won't own up to the fact it has a problem related to the aperture motor. I did call both the repair center and Pentax, and I was told they take it per case whether they will repair it and not charge, not sure how you handled it.

If this had happen before I bought my K1, I wouldn't have bought it, as it is, can't even get an answer whether they have my registration in their data base. You make out the form, send it out, don't get a reply from Pentax, but when you call, they have no data on it. Keep telling me they will get back to me, never do.

With the amount of problems with the K30/50 that's been reported on this site, I can only guess at the breath of the problem world wide.

For now, I'll live with the work-around I have on the K50 till it dies and buy my wife another brand.

Paul

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