Saying Good-Bye to my Silver Edition K-3

Went to Mexico for a month, used my camera everyday, taking hundreds of photos a day. A wee problem which had happened once or twice since I owned my camera, was now accruing many times a day. My mirror was locked up...with a flapping noise that sounded like a rapid firing gun. My camera would not turn off, (had to remove the battery). White balance became useless, everything was blown out...even if I stopped all the way down...then for the icing on the cake, Auto focus did what ever it wanted to, except focus!

Here in Canada, Pentax cameras are under a two year warranty, I bought mine on the first release, in October 2013. The warranty expires this fall.

So I packed up my beloved silver K-3 , said good bye and sent it off to our one and only repair shop in Canada!

Here I sit broken hearted, and everywhere I look, there is SOMETHING that needs to be photographed.

My daughter says I can use her K-r, if I take the kids for the spring break....I am making the beds in the spare room , right away.......

Wish me the best..(with the camera)..... I can handle the kids, if I can take their photos!

JA

That's bad luck, Judith. I do hope you'll get things sorted out before too long. The K-r should do just fine in the meantime. Keep on shooting... spring's here.

Surely it's au revoir, not goodbye?

Did you have the latest firmware loaded? My K3 mirror slapped on two occasions. I updated to the latest firmware and it has behaved itself ever since.

Best regards

Well yesterday Judith I almost said goodbye to my K3 Silver too. I have never damaged a camera by impact damage in my life and pride myself that all my gear is maintained in mint condition despite exposure to some pretty extreme environments over the years when I lived in the Amazon/ Orinoco region.

However yesterday morning while pottering around in a very old overgrown cemetery in Fulham, for whatever reason my precious K3 equipped with 300mm DA* and HD converter was quite severely whacked agains an old grave.

I recently invested in two of the sling type straps that attach to the foot of the lens ( on bigger lenses) in this case as I stepped over an old gravestone and the whole assembly slipped off my shoulder even though it was laid diagonally across my chest and ended around my knees, as the camera made loud contact with some granite at my feet.

Needless to say I expected the worst and indeed the K3 and drive suffered some severe impact abrasion whilst miraculously the lens didn't even have a scratch.

However, unbelievably the K3 still functions as normal which is surprising given the horrible thud of the impact.

The top plate, mode selector and the side plates are damaged as is the base plate of the drive so I am hoping they can be replaced.

Maybe we should start a new topic " camera whacking stories", although I hope there has not been many such events.

I was wondering this also, although Pentax never claimed to have solved the actual cause of the problem, which I thought was poor. The latest firmware only detects the occurance happening and resets the camera for you, to save you having to pull the battey right out.

It only seems to really effect earlier k-3 models, so maybe it was a hardware issue the improved later on? - like the aperture motor of my K-30 perhaps?

I shall be happy to share the outcome of my plight, especially with my Pentax caretakers!

Poor Daronl, what a unfortunate thing. I will trust that we both have a reasonably okay outcome.

JA:

Yes...of course, that is my hope indeed Steve....sigh


JA

Hi Judith,

My sympatheis are with you regarding your K3 as some time ago I posted an account of a similar problem with my first K3 which I bought at the original launch ( so it was an early one)

Luckily after some long winded appraisal of the K3 and quite a passage of conversation (with Ricoh, the repairers and finally the retailers), the Camera was changed by the retailer.

However the secod time I took out the replacement K3 I had Mirror flap and lock up but consensus advice from forum members regarding upgrading software ( which is the only thing I did) has since seen the camera work faultlessley with heavy use for almost twelve months

The first (early) K3 didn't suffer a mirror flap/ lock up problem but just random focus failure and control problems including the screen freezing and sometimes seemingly switching off.

So potentially you might have two distinct failures as per my first K3 ( random control problems) and as per the second K3 ( mirror flap &. Lock up) either way it's very frustrating given how good a fully functioning K3 is.

I wish you good luck Judith Anne and trust you will get a solution soon.

PS
By the way, I also now understand how the accident happened to my K3 on Sunday last subsequent to my earlier post and would seriously caution all to ensure when using a diagonal ( cross body) rapid sling strap that caution must be excersised when clambering about with a heavy lens/ camera rig; a diagonal strap can slip off your shoulder unbeknown to you, particularly if you are wearing a quilted or padded jacket with a smooth finish.

When you then put the camera back to your hip after shooting the shoulder pad can easily have slipped off your shoulder onto your upper arm when it is not under load ( and the camera is still in your hand ) without you realising it has happened,

It is not something that is obvious and when it is off your shoulder even slightly, the minute you put it under load (with the camera) the strap slides down around you waste (and thighs ); the camera ending at your feet, making contact with whatever you are standing or walikng on.


so Caution to those of us using a diagonal sling strap; fit a small second "underarm strap" to ensure the shoulder pad can't slip off your shoulder even slightly or as I said above the whole thing will end up around your feet when you return the camera to your hip and expect the sling to take the weight.

Nb. On some versions of these types of diagonal straps there is a secondary smaller strap that prevents this happening


Regards

Repaired and returned....so far so good! No cost to me. I bought the camera in October 2013, with the two year Canadian warranty everything was covered.

I love having my camera back!

JA

Great news!

I agree with K10d

I own three variants of the Pentax K3; the first release (literally the second serial number), the silver one as mentioned by the original poster, and also the Gunmetal version. I personally have never run into the issue with either the original release or the silver, but... Do know of two people who have with the silver.

...And as K10d inferred... Yes, updating the firmware properly should solve the issue. Which is also a good part of the reason why the Pentax K3 Gunmetal was shipped with such an update already pre-programmed in.

I had indeed kept my silver K-3 updated.....so somehow the problem came from another internal source. They did replace a switch ......I am very happy that it has been returned and is working great, so far!

Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories and advice.

JA

My K-3 has to go for repair. Slipped off cistern during a lunch break in Cameron, Arizona.

Camera and SA12-24 knocked (not slipped) onto floor from about 3ft - camera and lens work perfectly well but the control dial had a knock, but the button and the bit with the numbers and icons flew off in Venice in February.

I'll still have my K-5 while the K-3 is away