Nearly K5

ambient housewife · 2011-08-11T19:29:58+0100

I nearly had a K5. I found a deal on amazon for a K5 body for £773, below my 'buy' threshold of £790. It was listed with a 2 year warranty, but that would have to be back to the seller, in Germany. Buying from Germany is not an issue for me, I have bought before, they are very efficient and you really can get some good bargains online there. As we are all in Europe, no import duty etc. Apart from the persistently high price of the K5, the other thing that puts me off is how Pentax dealt with the sensor stain issue. From the perspective of what was happening in the online communities at the end of last year (with a healthy dose of scepticism about the level of hysteria) I found them slow to react to the problem, but at least they issued their statement about it in January. The fact that there are still cameras turning up with this problem does not instil me with confidence in a pro-active or reputation maintaining response. So, I wasn't ready to shell out for what was almost certainly a dud camera, but I dutifully put a note here in the 'Leads to Deals' and waited for the 'its not from SRS', which seems to be the mantra. Rather than putting me off, that sort of talk is just a red rag to a bull here, so I decided to bite the bullet and see what would happen if I ordered one. I feel safe behind a known German seller, Amazon and my credit card, so I think I was sorting of waiting to have the fears of a dud confirmed. Camera arrived on Monday. All good, box a bit tatty but camera looked as expected. Charged up the battery and fired off a few shots, all good, the K5 is nice to use and an easy transition from the Kx. I like the screen, much easier to check focus than my Kx. I like the mode dial, especially with a proper X and B setting. Love the proper MLU and the fact that it is quieter than the Kx (I use a sigma HSM lens as the noise of the screw drive is annoying - to me at least). I really like the ability to see when the camera is level, that is a real problem for me, and the fact you can see it on the top screen makes it worth having one of those as well. All good, but like I said, I nearly had a K5. It went back today. Postage paid, so not so bad. The reason? This camera was manufactured in SEPTEMBER last year. Initially it looked fine when I took a photo of the sky, long focal length, narrow aperture. Even ramping up the contrast was OK. But against a white background, you can see the dreaded line of dots. It was much fainter than I expected, but it is there and looks like the classic oil on sensor problem. So it went back. You would have thought that Pentax would have mopped up these rogue early cameras by now, if this was a car we would all be dead in a ditch with failed brakes or something! For the moment, I might wait a little longer and see how the K5 moves towards my threshold. Sadly, it did confirm my theory, I was expecting it to be bad and it was (sad state of affairs really). I did talk to Pentax regarding European warranty etc. That is fine, I think they fix it, but they sound like fixing consumers cameras is all just too much, they don't exactly give you a lot of confidence in their service. So I opted to just send it back for the refund. Ho hum, back the Kx.

Pentax Digital SLRsPentax Digital SLRs

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Anvh Anvh

10412 posts
18 years
Dordrecht,
the Netherlands

Posted 25/08/2011 - 21:01 Link

surfseen wrote:
But why should you have to pay extra because the brand has bad quality control.

If only the grass was greener.
This with a top end camera non the less...

Oil Spots on LPF Surface
http://usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/digital_slr...

AF Mirror Adjustment Problem
http://usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/digital_slr...

abnormal mirror operation
http://usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/digital_slr...

accuracy of the AF
http://usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/digital_slr...

Stefan

K10D, K5
DA* 16-50, DA* 50-135, D-FA 100 Macro, DA 40 Ltd, DA 18-55
AF-540FGZ

Edited by Anvh: 25/08/2011 - 21:05

ambient house... ambient housewife

283 posts
18 years
West Sussex,
UK

Posted 26/08/2011 - 19:13 Link

Anvh wrote:
If only the grass was greener.

Yes indeed. Have you seen the state of some of the Nikon d7000 sensor stains? They seem to be much worse than we have had (although they also seem to be more confused by hot pixels or plain old dust).
Take a look on flickr if you are game, take a breath and click on the link. They have not acknowledged it (afaik) but are just quietly and quickly replacing or fixing.

Gwyn Gwyn

10344 posts
20 years
The Netherlands

Posted 26/08/2011 - 19:19 Link

ambient housewife wrote:

Anvh wrote:
If only the grass was greener.

That is what my K-5 looked like I didn't have the classic string of pearls but lots of marks like that which didn't go with wet or dry cleaning.
I hadn't realised the d7000 had the same problem though I am not surprised.

surfseen surfseen

112 posts
17 years
New Zealand

Posted 27/08/2011 - 11:47 Link

Damn, Was looking at the D7000 as my next camera. You get to the stage that you are too scared to buy another camera, for a host of reasons from it may not suit me to its stuffed.

Andrew
KR, Pentax 55-300 DAL, Pentax DA 17-55, Pentax 35-80, Generic grip, Generic remote, Nissin Flash. HISTORY - MZ 50, MZ 60, *istDS, KM, K20D, Nikon F60, Nikon F90. Large assortment of Point and shoot film and Digital, Sigma 70-300 APO DG, Samyang 500mm mirror lens, Sigma lenses of all assortments. K20D now sold. Sad to see it go, but makes room for an eventual upgrade to the K5 or the K4?

Shaky Shaky

455 posts
18 years
London

Posted 28/08/2011 - 19:27 Link

ambient housewife wrote:
the Nikon d7000 sensor stains. . . They have not acknowledged it (afaik) but are just quietly and quickly replacing or fixing.

If that is true, they are doing it so quietly that a Google search for “Nikon D7000 sensor stain” reveals no pertinent hits certainly up to a depth I can be bothered reading to.

Like Gwyn I have never heard that sensor staining is a problem affecting the Nikon D7000, which uses the same sensor as the K5; do you have any source or link supporting your assertion? (the link you posted a) is incomprehensible and b) doesn’t resemble the K5 staining pattern at all)

pentaxanne pentaxanne

559 posts
16 years

Posted 28/08/2011 - 20:05 Link

there were no nikon d7000 with sensor stains as there were no sony a580.
nikon had a few probs with hd video and hot pixel which was sorted via firmware.
and cano as far as i can see has the worst problem for af and mirror pronlems.
the 7d had a load of dodgy one that the af is out and produces soft pics.

and i believe even nikon had a problem with the d700 and the mirror slapping oil on the filter.
which looks like the problem with the d7000.

Edited by pentaxanne: 28/08/2011 - 20:14

Pentaxophile Pentaxophile

6794 posts
17 years
Nottingham

Posted 28/08/2011 - 20:56 Link

That's right Anne. The d7000 issue is totally unrelated to the k5 sensor stain issue. The cause is oil being spattered onto the sensor.

500px

Edited by Pentaxophile: 28/08/2011 - 20:59

pentaxanne pentaxanne

559 posts
16 years

Posted 28/08/2011 - 22:00 Link

heres a case for the d700.
http://www.photography.ca/Forums/f14/grease-spots-nikon-d700-11959.html
and another.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=236687

Edited by pentaxanne: 28/08/2011 - 22:01

giofi giofi

904 posts
16 years
Espoo,
Finland

Posted 04/09/2011 - 09:33 Link

BTW, this is translated from a Finnish photography forum, for sale is a Canon 1D Mark III:

Serial number starting with 55, so this body did not have focusing problems

Giorgio

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