Water Damage to Exposure Meter Locked

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

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.

I believe that your camera was not sealed properly during the repair. Having taken Pentax DSLRs apart for repair, I noted that the seals are small and seem to be greased and are very difficult to reinstall correctly. I can see that it would be easy to get a misalignment of the seals. Getting the repair center to admit this seems a long shot, though you could ask. I used a K-5IIs through a tour of Niagra falls and despite being soaked in the mist, the camera performed, and continues to perform as intended by Pentax.

GPGeneralPhoto wrote:

I believe that your camera was not sealed properly during the repair. Having taken Pentax DSLRs apart for repair, I noted that the seals are small and seem to be greased and are very difficult to reinstall correctly. I can see that it would be easy to get a misalignment of the seals. Getting the repair center to admit this seems a long shot, though you could ask. I used a K-5IIs through a tour of Niagra falls and despite being soaked in the mist, the camera performed, and continues to perform as intended by Pentax.

There is no grease on the seals. The sealing is industry standard foam, silicone and rubber. The tech does not have to align many seals as most are part of the body and structure. Sealing is not a science in the works. Its a well known art if you don't take short cuts. Pentax IMO takes no shortcuts sealing bodies. I have never seen any leaking trend in almost ten years of tracking and sometimes reading in depth this forum. Just do a deep search on each forum to prove to yourself overtime which have done well or not.

arkady_z wrote:

"The cause of the malfunction was the liquid entering the internal components of the camera.
K-3II does not have a design regulated by JIS and / or IP standards, therefore it is not sealed, so it must be protected from rain and splashes.
Based on the above facts, it can be concluded that the malfunctions identified during the diagnosis are not classified as production flaw. Camera repair is not possible under warranty."

What?

Andrew Schwartz wrote:

Everything else seems to work as normal, and in particular the exposure meter works fine in liveview mode.

What specifically do you mean?   Is the metering merely inaccurate?   Severely over or under exposed?

Metering in live view is accomplished by the image data read directly from the sensor.  Metering in TTL is does through a small sensor located approximately above the view finder above and behind the pentaprism.   So water entering around the eye piece could have created a problem,  but as the sensor is a sealed IC package, I have a hard time believing that this did not dry out which would restore function.   Just condensation should not cause permanent damage, IMO.

jamesm007 wrote:

GPGeneralPhoto wrote:

I believe that your camera was not sealed properly during the repair. Having taken Pentax DSLRs apart for repair, I noted that the seals are small and seem to be greased and are very difficult to reinstall correctly. I can see that it would be easy to get a misalignment of the seals. Getting the repair center to admit this seems a long shot, though you could ask. I used a K-5IIs through a tour of Niagra falls and despite being soaked in the mist, the camera performed, and continues to perform as intended by Pentax.

There is no grease on the seals. The sealing is industry standard foam, silicone and rubber. The tech does not have to align many seals as most are part of the body and structure. Sealing is not a science in the works. Its a well known art if you don't take short cuts. Pentax IMO takes no shortcuts sealing bodies. I have never seen any leaking trend in almost ten years of tracking and sometimes reading in depth this forum. Just do a deep search on each forum to prove to yourself overtime which have done well or not.

I worked on a K200D, maybe newer models use different seals, but I remember the greasy seals in the K200D. You can see dust that has stuck to the seal in the pic.

A seal collecting dust is not greasy. There has never been grease applied for weather sealing on any Pentax dSLR camera. I own the K200D brother the K20D. The build concept is the same with both.

I think we might be using the word for different meanings. Grease on a body seal, really any seal would push out the joint and cause a mess. It would collect tremendous amounts of debri. And just isn't needed in non moving parts in a camera. The only place there is grease in Pentax Digital SLRs is the Mirror Box assembly and its gears. Usually small amounts on gears here and there. There is also a very small dab in the edials. Not for weather sealing. But on the little clicking ball bearing to help keep it smooth through the years.

I can believe a seal being sticky, but just sticky not greasy.

Here is a small collection of Pentax service manuals to enjoy. The password is also with the downloads (8639).

http://www.pentax-hack.info/documents/downloads.html