Shot yesterday in very contrasting conditions, North Coast v South Coast, about 10 miles apart

North Coast




South Coast

My understanding from reading similar issues on this and other forums, and I've not had a camera suffer this issue, is what your seeing is the start of the failure.

Sounds like a sticky solenoid issue which the K200D is known for, unfortunately the issue will only get worse.

Check out the link, others on PU may be able to elaborate

Sort of opposite Plymouth Hoe and to the left, you can see the lighthouse on image 3 far right midway up

There are options on fleabay particularly a boxed QS1

A day off last week, with a trip on the train to Penzance.

All K1 with a multitude of lenses, 24 - 70 / 70 - 200 / Sigma 85mm / Samyang 15mm

Thanks Bill, a reference also with a comment when I posted the same image on Ephotozine

A clump of trees on the top of a hill westbound A30 Cornwall, no close place to shoot from, so the K3iii plus the 150 - 450 from a layby about 1/2 a mile away and a crop. Have been looking at these for a while ,just waiting for a semi decent sky, there's a single tree eastbound that's more difficult to shoot as there's defiantly no stopping place anywhere near, but I will find a way

1/640 sec - F5.6 @ 310mm - 100 ISO

Use the code Pentax 30120 to search for a genuine one, a quick google shows £35 ish on fleabay and £50 ish new from Wex.

If its on every image since your lens change, its certainly on the sensor, easy to clone out thou.

A DIY wet sensor clean isn't something to worry about, easy to do, purchase the right size of swab and the cleaning fluid, dampen the swab slightly, wipe in one direction ONLY, turn the swab over and wipe again, then discard.

Other than really stubborn marks, you should now have a clean sensor, if not repeat the process.

You'll need the camera powered up as you'll have to raise the mirror and make sure your battery is ideally fully charged, you don't want the mirror coming down whilst your using the swab.

I change lenses quite a bit whist out and about, dust can be minimised by always turning the camera off before removing a lens, facing the camera downwards for the change and doing it as quickly as poss, by doing this, I rarely need a wet clean, just an occasional wipe across the sensor with a " visible dust " but I'm not sure these are available in the UK anymore.