Is there a need to send our K10D back to service centre for tuning?

[tankmojo]

Just wondering is there a need to send back our K10D to service centre for tuning?

My K10D is about 1yr 4months old, so far not much of technical trouble giving, but i suspect back-focus is easily occurred for both my sigma 70-300 & DA 17-70 lens, even when focusing is locked on a person or a subject.

Any advise ? 

[spyglass]

I do apologize and admit that I do not have any first hand knowledge of your problem. Rather than provide hear say I would rather steer you in what I hope will be the best direction.

Sounds like something that you might what to get from the horses mouth (a sleek race horse named Pentax). If you check out the Pentax links that we provide on the main page you will find several Pentax resources. One of the resources is a live chat support system.

Pentax Live Chat Support

Also read up on the firmware updates and see if they have address any back focusing issues. If you have not updated your firmware I would recommend that you do so first.

Pentax Firmware & Software Updates

To round out the effort I would also suggest that you contact Sigma to get their take on any possible back focus issues with their product & Pentax. If it is not really a Penatx problem but rather a Sigma compatibility issue with those particular lenses Sigma may have a solution that can be performed on their product.
When I am present with a problem I tend to gather as much information as I can to gain more insight into the problem, spread it out on the proverbial table,  and make the most informed decision I can (this approach seems to educate me on the issue and prevent following flawed or unproductive solutions)

Remember questions are free - it is the mistakes that are expensive. 

Hope this helps,

Spyglass

[tcom]

Just wondering is there a need to send back our K10D to service centre for tuning?

My K10D is about 1yr 4months old, so far not much of technical trouble giving, but i suspect back-focus is easily occurred for both my sigma 70-300 & DA 17-70 lens, even when focusing is locked on a person or a subject.

Any advise ? 

In case of problems regarding FF/BF, you will have to send in both camera and lenses (I do however not know if Pentax will do anything about the Sigma). I did it a few times, and Pentax recalibrated the AF of the camera.

[francis lee]

Hi Kent,

I did sent my K10 back to the service cte for 'fine' tuning after having back-focusing problems with the Pentax 16~45mm zoom. It occurs at the tele end even with a setting of f/11 !!!

After calibrating... Lo & behold!!! The 16~45mm f/4 behaves like a 50mm's DOF (guess the technican must have offset too much...) but then again, I'm not complaining.

[mannesty]

In order to adjust the AF focussing mechanism of the Pentax K10D / Samsung GX10 to counteract FF/BF issues it is necessary to put the camera body into 'Debug' mode. This is accomplished in one of two ways, depending on your firmware revision.

With earlier firmware, up to and including 1.1 (I think), it is necessary to use a button sequence during and after power on. With the latest firmware (1.30) the button sequence is disabled and debug mode can only be enabled with the use of some freely available software and your USB cable.

Now to the real problem. The K10D can only store 1 adjustment which will be applied to all lenses mounted to it. If you have one lens that back focusses and another that front focusses, making this adjustment is more or less pointless unless you want one lens to be spot on and confine the other to manual focus. When I tested my lenses I had one, which I think was a Sigma that had FF at one end of the zoom range and BF at the other. AFAIK nothing can be done to resolve that.

The K20D however also can have one adjustment applied to all lenses but it has another option to save individual adjustments for up to 20 or so lenses. This will work great for all Pentax manufactured lenses. Other manufacturers lenses may not be able to be individually recognised and I know that this applies to Sigma, I have no experience of other manufacturers.

If you have more than one Sigma lens, take a look at the EXIF info of images shot with each lens and you will find that all Sigma AF lenses report themselves simply as 'SIGMA'.

The software to enable/disable debug mode can be downloaded from http://dednev.pisem.net/s..._gx10_dmctrl_1.1u_eng.exe At some point you will need a password, which is penta-club.ru

If you haven't  already done so, update your K10D firmware to the latest version (1.30 at the time of writing). You will also need a focus test chart to evaluate the need for, and effectiveness of any adjustment. Google for "focus test chart", you'll find plenty. My own preference is Yvon Bourque's charts on http://www.pentaxdslrs.com

I have used this software and procedure to adjust my own K10D and I can attest to it's effectiveness, however

DISCLAIMER: You download and use this software at your own risk. If your camera doesn't function afterwards, you alone are responsible.

EDIT:

1:The K10D's debug mode enables a number of other possible adjustments. Please don't attempt to change any setting other than the focus adjustment. Doing so could render your camera inoperable.
2: The K20D has a menu setting to enable/disable AF focus adjustment.
3: The software mentioned above is for a PC running the Microsoft Windows operating system. Sorry MAC users.

[Mike Pearson]

Peter,

Many thanks for posting a very clear and comprehensive explanation of the procedure to adjust the AF on the K10D. Although I don't have the K10D the instructions make perfect sense. 

Mike

[spyglass]

Mike are you thinking what I am thinking about Mannesty's post......  I will let you approach him.

Spyglass

[mannesty]

Now you've got me worried, did I do something wrong already?  If so, I apologise unreservedly.

[Mike Pearson]

Peter,

I have sent you a PM. 

Mike

[spyglass]

"Peter please report to the principles office...... Peter to the principles office". 

Sorry if I put you on the spot Peter. I was impressed with the quality and thoroughness of your response in this thread. I felt that your knowledgeable post might be extremely useful to some of the members on the site, both today and in future. Rather than have it fade into the tide of posts, it should find a home in our Learning Center where member can have access to the information. Normally I would have just sent Mike a PM, but I think that some public recognition for extra effort never hurts. 


Well Done, and thank you Peter 

Tim 

[mannesty]

Thanks Tim, you did have me going for a while.

I just read Mike's PM and I'll be happy to re-write it for inclusion in the written articles section. I have some time constraints though and it's not likely I can finish and test it before I return home after my UK visit because my K10D and most of my lenses are not to hand at the moment.

[tankmojo]

Wow.. wow.. I have never thought of this stirring responses from all of you, all your tips & advises are useful! 

Technically, I am not putting in conclusion, there is a need for "some" DSLR to be sent back to service centre to do a service check or tuning. I am not surprise, it's just too Digital..

Adding to the point that i posted, my K10D was updated with 1.3 firmware since 3 months ago; it's a standard procedure to plug-in my new DA17-70. The problem of BF is not since then, it already occurred even before updating, when time I was still using the kit lens and Sigma 70-300. Especially at tail-end just like what happened to Francis. The most obvious occurrance is when taking group or portrait photo, especially when light is soft such as evening hours and under electric lightings, not forgetting motion object in sports too. What puzzled me is, a spot focusing was used!

Well, in layman term, it is between a "Hardware" and the "Software", likelihood is the Hardware that causes it. I hope the servise centre will have a better checking system to deal with it.


"All for 1, and 1 for All!"