The dreaded K30 aperture motor failure strikes again

It's not really a very good survey as there were only just over 450 responses out of 5000 enquiries. 4500 people didn't respond, we might assume because they didn't have a problem. If we rejig the analysis based on that assumption we get a very different picture.

Clearly there are failures though and these should be addressed under warranty if at all possible, certainly within the two year warranty period.

Seemed to me a balanced appraisal with some statistical significance. The authors of the survey make clear the limitations. 500 responses out of 5000 is way over the norm as a response rate for this kind of exercise.

But probably it's not a worry to Ricoh compared with the 35 in 2.5 million Galaxy 7s. But they don’t burst into flames.

Pentax have horrible customer service, tooks weeks of backwards and forwards with them to tell me what I already knew, the camera has a fault and they have now told me to deal with Johnsons, so on it goes.

Thus is now a well documented inherent fault. I'd look at what recourse you have under the Sale of Goods Act and via the Small Claims Court process if Ricoh/Johnson's are intransigent.

W.E.F. 1 Oct 2015 the Sale of Goods Act was replaced by the Consumer Rights Act, in case you need to know!

The relevant legislation is dependent upon the purchase date of the goods concerned. Obviously i don't know when the camera was purchased, but being a K30 there's a fair chance it's prior to October 2015.

Fear not my Pentaxian friends, the same problem exists with the K50 also (aperture motor). I've called the repair site Precision (don't read the reviews as you'll run) and Pentax, and they said they take the cost of repair case by case. Read where I poor owner had a K50 3 weeks out of warranty, and was charged 120 euro's.

My wife's K50 has about 1110 shoots on it, and then images came back dark. I found a workaround whereas you put it in sport mode, fire off a few rounds, then the image returns clear and bright, works in any mode after that. leave it off for a few minutes, and you have to repeat the scenario, but if only a minute or so, works fine.

The fix is to take it apart, and sand down the horse shoe shaped magnet so others say.

Well, just to say that my K30 has finally developed this fault. Completely fine since I bought it, then all black on the last day of our holiday in Sicily last week. I'll drop it into SRS in a few days to see what happens. Given that I've had it 5 years and its been everywhere with me, I don't have much hope of a free repair!

If the repair quote is more than £150, I'll seriously think of buying a new camera.

I did this a month or so ago and fixed a K30 that my brother now uses.

My K-S2 is just starting to show symptoms of aperture solenoid failure

I have just bought a DA 16-85mm f 3.5-5.6 from our friends at SRS and went to try it out. Dismayed to get a couple of blank (actually v. v. underex) frames before it started to take photos. I was cursing the lens, thinking it faulty, but then found that another lens (a 35mm macro limited) very occasionally did the same. All symptoms point to aperture block failure, as they clear after a couple of 3-shot bracketing bursts. It seems, at this stage, to be lens-dependent, as my other K-mount lenses seem to work OK. Maybe the diaphragm lever is a bit stiffer on some than on others?

I wonder what the chances are of a free or discounted repair? I bought the K-S2 from SRS just over two years ago, so technically their warranty has expired.

I had my K30 repaired under warranty, then a couple of months ago the aperture fault has happened. Previous fault had a issue with the aperture but also with the mirror and some board, these were all replaced. A 2nd failure makes me think twice about getting it repaired again. Just thought I'd mention that a repair doesn't stop the fault returning.

To those in the UK who have, or might have, suffered the aperture-block problem, you should contact Pramath at Asahi Photo in Brentford (google "Harrow Technical closing" for a link to the thread on this forum and then go to end of the thread for more info!).

You then have 2 choices:
- the standard repair is for them to mod (file) the existing the aperture block green solenoid to get the body working correctly - that costs around £95.
- ask him to source one of the older (film-era) white solenoids which are (it is reported) are pretty much immune from the issue - that will take longer and cost more .

My choice was the second, although I sourced the white solenoid from the US - but it may have cost more than letting Pramath find one.
PS: this also applies to the K-50, K-70 and KS2 - and probably the KS1 as well,

That's an expensive service. Just send the camera to me and I'll buy it off you

Depends on how much the OP wants to keep and use the K30 - sell cheap and get something else, or get it permanently fixed for a lot less than a "new" one of any sort (the latter was my choice, but "each to his own")