Water Damage to Exposure Meter Locked

Andrew Schwartz wrote:

Hey All,

I bought a K-3 ii for aggressive use about 6 months ago. Had a great time taking it hiking and sailing, but then one day cracked the viewfinder glass while clambering across a rock-face. It took a bit of work to track down a repair company that could actually get Pentax parts, but 2 months and 300$ later it seemed all good.

A week ago, I found myself motoring happily in light rain from Avondale RI to Mystic CT, taking photos using my newly repaired K-3 ii and a 16-85 WR lens. All good, but then the rain picked up and I anchored for a few hours in a sheltered cove. Upon starting up, I thought to take a few photos of the nice cove --- and my camera went bonkers. It took a bit of time to guess what had happened, but then realized that there was condensation on the viewfinder and immediately turned off the camera. After a few days of drying, started everything up and found that the exposure meter doesn't work in viewfinder mode. Everything else seems to work as normal, and in particular the exposure meter works fine in liveview mode.

So in any case, I'm using the camera now to practice the art of manual exposure estimation. Not the end of the world, but kind of painful when just trying to take a quick photo before running aground.

I read statements about how the Pentax zoom lenses, despite being marked as WR lenses, pull water vapor into the camera. Or alternately, the viewfinder fix might have left the camera unsealed (though it wasn't raining that heavily). Does anyone have any other thoughts or ideas?

Happiness,

Andrew

The repair company probably left out a seal and or did not place them properly. I have been using them for a long time now. Not saying this as a fanboy (although I am). But they are pretty reliable. Notice no water got in until the day the camera struck something and needed repair.

Hope all goes well.