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The dreaded K30 aperture motor failure strikes again

tyronet2000
Posted 03/11/2014 - 07:06 Link
Quote:

The K30 is a fantastic camera apart from this problem. I'm glad mine is home again - I did miss it when it was being fixed

Rather like saying fantastic car except the wheels fall off
Regards
Stan

PPG
jemx99
Posted 03/11/2014 - 19:22 Link
tyronet2000 wrote:
Quote:

The K30 is a fantastic camera apart from this problem. I'm glad mine is home again - I did miss it when it was being fixed

Rather like saying fantastic car except the wheels fall off

The Morris Minor was a great car.....Until a wheel fell off!
richandfleur
Posted 04/11/2014 - 00:22 Link
Deltaart wrote:
What the person on he 'dpreview' site matches exactly with my recent experience. It vastly underexposes with auto lenses but is fine with fixed manual lenses like the 50mm-M.
It was fine the previous week. Gone bad overnight.

sigh... Dissapointed. Is it Cheaper to fix or just buy a new camera?

I detailed my experiences with this quite comprehensively at the time, and even made youtube videos to send to the repair agent to prove their was an issue in case it didn't occur on the day. I've since removed those from youtube.

The worst scenario was when the lens failed to adjust when metering as the camera would calculate a crazy short or long exposure time based on this false information. Even if the lens fired properly after that the resulting picture would be well off the mark.

By all accounts it's a fairly quick fix but by now most of the early K-30's will be out of their original warranty periods. I have heard no reports of this issue on anything after the K-30 models.

Get a quote for the job and evaluate your options from there. If you shoot regularly on manual aperture capable lenses then it's not an issue. I've heard of IR or timelapse users snapping the bodies up cheaply because the in body aperture control is not used by them anyway.

Good luck. Mine was fixed a year ago and is still going strong afterwards, if that helps in any way.
Deltaart
Posted 19/11/2014 - 15:50 Link
Update to my underexposure problem on K30. "Underexposing in auto modes, very high ISO selected in bright conditions"

had the repair quote back... £245 to fix "Mechanical asembly, Shutter mechanism, mirror asembly and sensor clean"
Yeah right.
Is it because I'm out of warranty.

Looks like an early xmas for me. Either a K50 body, with the cashback promo, or a different camera system.
Dave-L
Posted 20/11/2014 - 00:56 Link
Deltaart wrote:
Update to my underexposure problem on K30. "Underexposing in auto modes, very high ISO selected in bright conditions"

had the repair quote back... £245 to fix "Mechanical asembly, Shutter mechanism, mirror asembly and sensor clean"
Yeah right.
Is it because I'm out of warranty.

Looks like an early xmas for me. Either a K50 body, with the cashback promo, or a different camera system.

Have another read of that link earlier in the thread... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8253915.stm

The Sale of Goods Act can save you all or part of the cost of repairs if the camera should not have failed in this way, having been handled normally, after 2 or 3 years. Even up to 6 years but the longer it is, the less you could claim for (the value of normal wear and tear might be deducted).

Manufacturers Guarantees are little more than a duplication of your existing rights in consumer law, and always last for a much shorter length of time than your consumer rights anyway (which are with the retailer). Citizens Advice Bureau would advise.
K3/K5/10-17fisheye/15mmDA Ltd/18-55WR/55-300DA/100DFAMacroWR/50F1.4M/200F4M/DA*200F2.8/DA*300F4/DA*50-135/DA*60-250/Mitsuki 400F5.6/others.
Edited by Dave-L: 20/11/2014 - 01:01
ears
Posted 24/11/2014 - 22:05 Link
Please could someone give me some advice on this?

Recently my K-30 has been starting to underexpose some images. Usually only the first one or two after it switches on, then it starts working correctly. Is this a sign of an aperture motor failure on the cards?

I bought the camera in September 2013 from Currys and believe it had the 2 year warranty. I remember filling in some forms and sending them off to Pentax to get it. I did get an email back from Pentax extranet or something saying welcome and offering me some lens discounts but nothing else.

If I am still under warranty I'll keep monitoring it to see if it gets any worse then if it does, find out where to send it, whether it's under warranty and get it packed off!
K30; DA35 2.4; DA50 1.8; A35-105 3.5; Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 APO DL; M 80-200 F4; 18-55 WR Kit; Sigma 24-70 2.8
richandfleur
Posted 25/11/2014 - 06:29 Link
ears wrote:
Please could someone give me some advice on this?

Recently my K-30 has been starting to underexpose some images. Usually only the first one or two after it switches on, then it starts working correctly. Is this a sign of an aperture motor failure on the cards?

I bought the camera in September 2013 from Currys and believe it had the 2 year warranty. I remember filling in some forms and sending them off to Pentax to get it. I did get an email back from Pentax extranet or something saying welcome and offering me some lens discounts but nothing else.

If I am still under warranty I'll keep monitoring it to see if it gets any worse then if it does, find out where to send it, whether it's under warranty and get it packed off!

You can test this if you have an older lens with manual aperture selection. Shoot off a few shots and you shouldn't see any issues. Put it back into auto mode and then the camera body has to set the aperture. If you get any bright white or full dark shots then you have an aperture problem.

If it's near the end of the warranty then I would look hard to make sure that the problem is recorded and lodged with the service agent. The exif data between good and bad shots helps also, showing that the results should be the same but they are not. Don't leave it until after the warranty period.

Personally I'd start the dialogue now, but it is very difficult to convey as it doesn't always happen. In my case it started small and got worse. I was scared of receiving the 'no fault found' reply.
ears
Posted 25/11/2014 - 08:41 Link
Thanks Richard. That makes me pretty certain then that mine's 'starting small' too then! I have a few manual lenses so will have a test.

Thanks again.
K30; DA35 2.4; DA50 1.8; A35-105 3.5; Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 APO DL; M 80-200 F4; 18-55 WR Kit; Sigma 24-70 2.8
Posted 08/02/2016 - 14:51 Link
Hope I am not angering anyone by re-launching this thread, but its the first result when looking for this issue on Google. I also have this issue with my k 30. I called Ricoh and they say unless the main company issues a recall for the product, then we are out of luck getting it covered. Bummer.
richandfleur
Posted 08/02/2016 - 19:15 Link
techblaze wrote:
Hope I am not angering anyone by re-launching this thread, but its the first result when looking for this issue on Google. I also have this issue with my k 30. I called Ricoh and they say unless the main company issues a recall for the product, then we are out of luck getting it covered. Bummer.

No one will be angered by this at all.

Only people who should be angry are customers of Pentax Ricoh who are getting no support from them.

For future reference though, I will add that my K-30 is still going strong after the repair, so Pentax do have a viable method of addressing the problem. Over to individual customers though to determine if it's worth paying for the fix.

At the back of my mind though, I do wonder if they've given me the same component again though, so have essentially just restarted the clock until it fails again. I won't know for sure until it happens again, or doesn't. :
SteveEveritt
Posted 08/02/2016 - 20:00 Link
Take a look through these guys...
Consumer law
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8253915.stm

Shopping abroad
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroad/guarantees/index_e...

Hope it helps and if it does keep us posted.
Steve
Flickr
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" (John Lennon)
Edited by SteveEveritt: 08/02/2016 - 20:00
laurencea
Posted 07/03/2016 - 22:01 Link
very interesting, but, alas, no use to me now as my K30 (bought nov 2012) died a very sudder death at the weekend - right in the middle of the track cycling world championships. the mirror stuck down first of all, i managed to get it to raise by 'pretending' to clean the sensor and it worked fine for several hours. the next morning i took three shots and then it all went dark as the mirror was stuck up. it then refused to turn off, unless you took the battery out, it would also refuse to do anything, no matter what buttons you pressed.

i think i had a few instances of the aperture issue, the odd dark or light shot, but never really paid it much attention.

luckily i had a Super A with me at the cycling and got a few shots with that.
Pentax k1000, MX, ME Super, K5iiD 18-55, Tamron 70-300, Tamron 500 mirror, pentax 10-17, 50 1:4, a manual 28, some extension tubes and a bagful of memory cards. That's all i need... and a load of film cameras too... that's it, honest.
davidtrout
Posted 07/03/2016 - 22:52 Link
Thankfully mine still works perfectly - its light and ideal for street photography. I got it when the K30 was a fairly new model in 2012 as back up for the K5 and its never let me down. I'm sorry some people have suffered faults with theirs but I'm sure there some bad examples of every camera model from every manufacturer.
David
AuraTodd
Posted 09/03/2016 - 18:14 Link
Is there a problem with the K30, coz I have one which is a bit worrying?
davidstorm
Posted 09/03/2016 - 21:44 Link
AuraTodd wrote:
Is there a problem with the K30, coz I have one which is a bit worrying?

Don't worry about something that might never happen Louise. Just enjoy using your camera. Before I bought my current car (Vauxhall Insignia Diesel Estate) I read some reviews on the web that said they weren't well built, weren't reliable etc. I've had it 4 years now and no problems in 60000 miles, it's built like a tank. Same could be said for all of the Pentax DSLR's I think!

Cheers
David
Flickr

Nicola's Apartments, Kassiopi, Corfu

Some cameras, some lenses, some bits 'n' bobs

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