SH K20D

I've been searching for a second hand K20D for a couple of months now. One's come up on ebay within my price range but it was bought Oct 08 and has almost 5,000 shutter actuations.

I'm in two minds. A new one would be around £200 more but give me peace of mind and a warranty. Any thoughts on buying an early K20D with this level of use?

Malcolm

5000 actuations is not a lot with an expected life of 100,000 from the shutter mechanism.

I've sold DSLRs with 6700 or so actauations that have been like new.

However, you need to carefully assess the one on offer, ask any questions that you feel are relevant and then really only you can decide.

Personally, I would buy new if I could afford the difference, from a Pro Dealer so that I had 24 months guarantee. But that's just me.

thanks for your comments. As you say 5,000 actuations is nothing c/w 100,000, I just felt it was a lot in a short life indicating perhaps some heavy usage. Having been looking for a while my heart says buy but I think my head will rule and I'll carry on saving until I can afford a new one with that all important 24 month guarantee. Thanks again.

Malcolm

I have yet to hear of a shutter or sensor failing on a Pentax DSLR.

Canon, yes. But not Pentax.

G

It's not the shutter or sensor life I'd be concerned about when buying second hand, but more how careless the previous owner had been when cleaning the sensor, or whatever else they might have done. Unseen damage can be a problem - for example, the heavy handed user who decides to clean the mirror....and so on.

Having said that, I still buy second hand cameras and lenses, but very selectively and usually for a specific purpose.

I am happy to buy lenses secondhand but generally buy camera bodies new - unless the seller is a member of this forum, of course.

G

I would consider 5000 actuations in a ten month time span as light use. My K20 is 15months old and has 13,000 actuations on it, and i'm no pro,

But as John says, how well did the owner look after it.

You can get some good K20 deals on E-bay, I just picked one up with Kit lens for a buddy, for 400quid and it only has 320 actuations on it. Only issue is I discovered it was a grey market camera when it arrived with a chinese plug on the charger even after messaging the seller beforehand and confirming it was genuine aussie stock and still had warranty on it. So you need to be careful.

That is a concern. Is there any sure fire way to find out? I've read other posts that suggested they only found out when they'd sent their camera to Pentax for repair. I guess a repair, at cost is still then possible, but you've no warranty.

Malcolm

I could have asked the seller for the serial number and contacted Pentax Australia too confirm it, but I took the sellers word for it as he had very good feedback.

The fellow I got it for was quite happy to keep it. so fingers crossed he doesn't have any problems with it.