Weather Sealing Failure

I was very sad to discover that after some light rain my new K-5 failed to turn on. It had the 18-135 mounted but the lens was not zoomed in the rain as it does pull air into the lens.

The lens had no signs of water ingress and was completely dry inside. There was no water ingress at the lens mount on the camera.

After drying the outside of the K-5 I opened all the ports to check for water ingress. I saw no signs of this. Under the flash mechanism was very wet but I can't see anywhere water would have gotten in.

The mode dial was wet to touch and when I placed some paper towel against it loads of water was drawn out from the lock button and edges of the wheel. I left the camera on some cloth after drying the outside and came back to a very wet cloth.

Seems to me that at least the mode select dial may be leaking and possibly some seals on the bottom of the camera as that is where the water seems to have come out of onto the cloth.

I never had any problems with my K10D in any level of rain or humidity. I even used the built in flash in a torrential downpour for more than 20 minutes.

Needless to say I am disappointed and it will have to go back. It shouldn't be a repair job, it should be a replacement as the future reliability of the body may be affected by the ingress of water.

Sadly I don't have my K10D any more as I traded it in and someone bought it as soon as it went on display at LCE in Plymouth.

It is really annoying that this has happened but I guess better to find out sooner rather than later.

Anyone else had faulty seals? I've only seen one other person report it with any Pentax camera. Sadly, just my luck.

The camera has enough seals by design. If, due to poor QC one or more is not installed correctly then it might as well have none. This is the first case that has come to light. Best of luck with the claim.

Best regards

It's very disappointing for you. I guess the potential is always there that a seal may fail or not be properly sealing from the outset. It might have to be a replacement, because once water gets in that could be bad news.

I have heard of very few seal leaks from any manufacturer, although I seem to recall that Canon have had a recognisable problem, but I'm not sure of the details.

Happens to all manufacturers, have seen D3, D700, 5DMkii and other failures in greater numbers than Pentax ones.

I'll have to see what stance they take. It does state Weatherproof construction in all the marketing material for the camera and it isn't the lens that failed.

Yes, just one seal being out of place, damaged, etc. is as little as it takes to compromise the camera.

I'll let everyone know how I get on later in the week.

Good news everybody!

/Professor Farnsworth

Nice chap at LCE had one to swap out with. Faulty camera being returned to Pentax.



Very happy. Only time will tell though as I am not sticking the camera in the shower. I amsure this being the UK it will rain soon enough.

I remember the GX-10 being thrown in under a running tap with the DA* attached to it, so I'm thinking what you got was a lemon in terms of the K5 considering that the K5 is several generations newer. Nice to hear you're back on track!