Shame I didn't have the foresight to go for the 25 year extended warranty, there would still be about 2 years to go

Thans to all for your quick responses. I have contacted Harrow Technical (now Pentax Camera Repairs - Direct) for an estimate of cost.

On reading your replies, I'm suddenly not quite as confident as I was at the thought of changing them. I think I'll leave it to them's what know's.

Cheers.

Oops, I forgot to login.

I've always been happy with my Tamron BBAR MC. K mount I know, but they may have made a screw version.

If you come across a Pentax 'Super Program' its the US version of the Super A (no ME prefix). A brilliant piece of kit and my introduction to Pentax back in 1983 when I bought mine. Happy days . . . we are now sadly parted

Hi again, having inspected this camera more closely it looks as if it may have been dropped. The top of the mode switch is very slightly deformed close to the 'B' marker so I'm guessing something inside is damaged.

Does any of you know if Pentax UK repair these or does it have to go abroad?

Does anybody have any suggestions of an alternative repairer ?

Cheers, Pete.

Hi all,

I have just acquired a broken *istD (knowingly) for not very much money.

The fault:- Turning the mode dial has no effect. The exposure mode is stuck in a useable program mode.

I'm pretty sure that its a 'take it to Pentax for repair' job.

Could I ask you experienced *istD users to confirm that there is no switch or setting that would lock the function of this dial. I have reset all of the menus to default. I've reloaded the firmware (1.12) and removed the main and backup batteries for a short while and short circuited the 2 backup battery contacts to clear any stored data.

Is there a 'Factory Reset' option hidden somewhere ?

The camera functions in every other respect as far as I can tell.

Thanks, Pete.

Can one MZ-S / *ist-D camera control two (or more) X AF360FGZ's in wireless mode ?

I found an entry in the MZ-S manual under the heading Contrast control flash which states not to use the hot shoe grip. I have a feeling 'though that it means with the associated 4P cable, if the flash is connected directly via the F5P cable it shouldn't matter. I can't test any of this yet because my camera, the grip, and the flash are in UK but my cable is in Spain. I'll try and join them all together next week and see what happens.

more later . . .

No, just the 5P. All I'm after really is an off camera flash similar to the AF400T but with a newer head but before I go in search of a 5P cable and hot shoe adapter I'd like to know if there are any likely compatibilty issues between the Hot Shoe Grip (with no cable attached) and the AF500FTZ (with 5P cable connected to flash & camera).

If there are no active electronics in the grip I can't see any problem but if there are, will it interfere with the flash gun. In other words, is the grip electronically 'dumb' enough to ignore the 400/500FTZ that's sitting on top of it and allow the camera and flash to work together as if the flash was mounted on the camera's hot shoe.

I'll take some test shots at the weekend and se what happens.

Regards, Pete.