Is there life after aperture block failure?

Oiche wrote:

peterpainter wrote:

Oiche wrote:

peterpainter wrote:

peter_b wrote:

Oiche wrote:

peterpainter wrote:

So it happened. My K50 after nearly 4 years and 4,000 shots has succumbed. I don't think I'll be getting it fixed (or fixing it myself - too clumsy). The K50 was great, a weather-sealed body and lens, important in this climate, at an affordable price. I don't trust a K70 because of the same issue, so what next?

What have other people done?

Does the K-70 have the same problem? Only been a few reported, threads on PF deal with this, every camera model has a failure rate, 6% or something. Both my K-30s were fine regarding aperture failure, a faulty seal allowed water into the LCD and destroyed the first camera, Pentax replaced it free out of warranty after 2.5 years

Pentax only sells 2 APSC models so wait until Black Friday time and get one or the other much cheaper. I got a K-70 with 42% off last year, KP was at least a third cheaper too.

K-70 was a massive upgrade over the K-30, K-50 is the same camera.

Sell your K-50 as described, it will still sell, used to get £120 or so a few years back but working ones go for that now.

I actually have a K-30 that needs to be sold, in excellent condition and has the K-50 firmware installed.

I've just got my K-70 repaired for the aperture block failure, under (2 year) Australian warranty, just before warranty expiry, and I immediately followed up with my K-30 (similar problem), the latter costing A$175 (USD 120??). I don't have much faith that they won't fail again, but at least I've got my favorite cameras back for the moment.

In the case of the K-30, CR Kennedy, the Australian distributors, included the dead diaphragm solenoid when they returned the camera to me (today). It's a very small and unimpressive part! BTW, K-70 failed late last year, and I made do with manual lenses and the 55-300 PLM. The K-30 failed some 3 years ago, at about 12,000 shutter count. I upgraded the firmware to K-50, so was able to use the 55-300 lens on it too.

Peter

Having spent some time looking at what's on the market I'm not ruling out getting the K50 repaired because it would probably the cheapest option to get a working WR camera and lens. Must be getting old, though, because with so much else going on decision-making is becoming very slow! Still using the camera with M42 lenses - it isn't exactly convenient.....

Wex photo in the UK have a few K-30s for cheap with low shutter count and come with 1 year warranty, for the same sort of price as a repair. The € is also strong against the £ in your favour 😉

I've bought 2nd hand lenses from them and they are excellent.

It's a thought - thanks. Will have a look at WEX. (As an aside, , though, my pay comes from the UK in £s, and yes the £ is very weak. A problem at the moment....)

Sorry Peter I didn't realise it was you 😊

I always liked the white Pentax bodies, they have white and blue K-30s. I loaded the K-50 firmware onto mine, works perfectly.

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/search/?q=Pentax+k-30&search_type=All

I have to admit to being tempted by the coloured bodies too.  It was the original publicity for a blue K30 that finally aroused enough interest for me to consider a DSLR.  I've used mostly Pentax SLRs but the price of early DSLRs put me off.

WEX also have a number of others, K3/k5 and with a 1 year guarantee (here 2nd hand is usually guaranteed for 6 months) it's all very tempting.  However, they only deliver in the UK.  There' always a snag;-)