My K5 wouldn't come out of PC mode tonight after I'd finished downloading some pics. I had disconnected the USB cable but the camera display still showed a PC connection. switching it off and on made no difference. The only way I could eliminate it was by removing the battery. I common problem?

Solved!

I noticed in the ad for the card on the Japanese site that it said it supported exFAT and that when i had previously tried to format the card (from the PC whilst it was in the K5) it had tried (but failed) to format it using exFAT. I'd only ever seen FAT32 mentioned when formatting previous cards so did a Google for the differences between FAT32 and exFAT. Once I'd understood that (exFAT seems better for larger file sizes and larger storage cards - and is only used on memory cards) I then did a Google for exFAT and Windows XP and it seems exFAT is supported on XP but with this patch. So I applied that - rebooted - and hey presto, the 64GB card is recognised in the camera! The camera even shows up now as K-5 in My Computer.

Thanks for all your suggestions Steven. I only read your last post after I had tried the above patch so didn't try your FAT32 format - although it sounds as though i wouldn't have been able to...

i don't have a card slot on this PC (that's why i had to use my son's laptop - it read the card okay, which suggests the card is okay).

I always just hook the camera up direct.

if i put my old Sandisk 4GB card back in the K5 the PC reads that okay.

The 64GB card is a Winten

Thanks Steven. the only place I can see the camera mentioned in Device Manager is under Disk Drives - it's listed as a Pentax DSC_K-5 USB Device.

I did try and delete it and let Windows find and install it again. I can see the drive under My Computer but it thinks the card is not formatted.

I have a K5 on v1.14 firmware and I can't get my PC to recognise my new 64GB SD XC card. When I connect to the K5 the PC says card not formatted, do you want to format it now. I got the pics off the card by putting it into my sons laptop and then transferring them by memory stick. That process all went very smoothly. Any ideas on how I can get the PC to pull the pics off the card whilst still in the K5?

I was sometimes surprised with some of my pics that were accepted, equally I was occasionally disappointed. I will own up to waiting a few months and resubmitting a couple of my 'rejects' which were then accepted. Every picture I have on 500px (except the one not taken with a Pentax!) has been submitted at some point to the PPG so you can see how many I have had rejected...

Thanks for highlighting this. When it first loaded up and I saw it was 30+ minutes long I didn't think I'd last the length but I was hooked - great memories and a fantastic set of images. Thanks

The same seller on ebay is also selling a D-BG4 which I was interested in... The K-5 was removed from sale a few days after I posted my original post and originally the D-BG4 was advertised at £139 (with battery and SD card) but then it too was removed from sale.

A few days later it re-appeared and as far as I could see the ad was exactly the same. Today the seller has lost my interest by upping the minimum starting bid price to... Wait for it... £209!!

Hi Richard, I'm just back from 3 weeks of touring the North Island and sifting my way through a couple of thousand images. My cousin's from Stratford but we managed a complete circuit of the island (missed Palmerston North though). It was our second trip to NZ - last time visited the South Island and our other relatives in Christchurch.

quick update. I 'changed' the Camera Manufacturer and Model with Pentax and Pentax K20D using AnalogExif and then uploaded to PPG. Photo was accepted this time. To look at the Exif data before and after looks exactly the same. I can't recall what processing I did with the photo but maybe it added some extra unseen characters??