Strange K5 Fault

Yesterday I was out taking pics (used K5 and 55-300), of friends running a half marathon. Found a good spot and took about 15 test pics to get lighting and angles right before my lot rumbled into view.

Got them in frame, pressed the shutter and nothing happened. Quickly turned off and on again and still nothing fired. Friends rumbled past.

Turned K5 off again but the top LCD stayed lit complete with data showing. Eventually had to take battery out to clear the display

Thought it must be a one-off so drove to another part of the course. Repeated test shots all ok. Friends rumbled into view and the bl**dy thing locked again. Again had to remove battery to clear it.

Has anyone else had this? It was a bit chilly but can’t think cold enough to cause the malfunction, specially when Gwyn nearly froze to death using her K5 in the Arctic.

IIRC the instruction books say that if the camera locks up, remove the battery for a while then reinsert and if all is OK a repair is not necessary. Equivalent of rebooting a computer I guess.

I'm assuming the battery was OK? And that the lens contacts were clean and the lens mounted firmly in position?

If the fault repeats and/or persists then it looks as though a repair may be necessary.

Hi John, what I don't understand is that, on both occaisions, everything was working perfectly in the previous few seconds. so yes, battery etc were all ok.

Did the camera have a problem locking focus with the fast moving subjects? The camera won't fire unless in focus.

No problem focussing, in fact I had it on centre spot and the runners were coming towards me. It snapped into focus all the time - nice lense the 55 -300. Anyway that would not account for the LCD staying on after turn off.

... no problems here using a K5 in -30....

Bret

Are you in APSC mode, with speed / FPS prority enabled? In FPS priority the camera will keep shooting in 'machine gun mode' whether the focus is perfect or not. Perhaps the buffer was full - have you turned in-camera corrections off?

Happened to my K5 once, AF/C, continuous shooting in focus priority, buffer wasn't full as it took one shot before locking. Hasn't happened/haven't been able to reproduce it since. I was using a cheap battery grip at the time, which is rarely on the camera. Did you have one of those mounted?

It has happened to me once as well.....

Hi Guys. No not in continuous mode, buffer not full,had some ev compensation on and a non pentax grip - but with no battery in it
Just tried to emulate conditions but everything seems to work ok. (Mind you not standing outside - too wet).

Happened to me as well.

Mine was due to low battery power.

Hmmm, also had cheap grip on .. pattern emerging here?

Still a mystery I think, because have just reeled off another 36 shots - battery ok but not doing my shutter count much good

could be low battery power as i think it was the same with mine

Mine has just froze lcd showing last photo taken top screen showing how many shots remaining turned off no change had to remove and replace battery. Battery fully charged and no grip fitted not sure if it happened when i switched to spot metering or just coincidence

Um - one to watch