2 month old pentax in for repair

[Stefano]

Hi guys
I'm a working photographer and the Pentax k10d is my second DSLR and the first Pentax camera I've ever owned. I recently had all my Olympus E1 gear stolen and due to the age of that system I opted to go with the K10d.

Now I've always been one for the underdog in terms of camera gear, as I think they just make better cameras, they have to. I bought my camera back in December and despite all the reviews about image quality I've found my images to be crisp and with good colour. At the time of buying the K10d it was the best bang for my buck from a well respected company and I bought with confidence.

I have owned many cameras in my days, many of which have been Auto focus 35mm cameras and a couple of MF systems. My Olympus gear was great, my E1 was my first Olympus and it was a shame they could not offer me a camera of that grade with some more resolution at the time of buying my pentax.

Now I've been shooting in Studio since I purchased my K10d and have been impressed with it until I brought it outside and noticed my focus is off. This is when I started to get concerned. My focus problems were only brought to my attention when shooting wide open with my 50 macro. I hadn't noticed at f8/f11 in the studio. This focus problem brought me back to when I used to test various lenses for sharpness and it's not fun.

If having doubts about focus during a shoot isn't bad enough, I had my hot-shoe stop working twice now, once during a shoot. Back in my film days I wouldn't have freaked out as I would have many cameras to choose from, but with digital my overhead has gone up and I can't afford a back up digital SLR just yet. This hot-shoe problem brought my day to a premature end.

I have never experienced a hot-shoe problem with any camera I've ever owned. I have cameras that are 50 years old that have working hot-shoes. Mind you it only quits  on me randomly which is even more scary.  I've also never experienced any focus problem with past cameras. I've owned the first auto focus camera and it had better focus than my K10d.

I've sent my camera into Pentax today to have both problems looked at. I hope they can fix my auto focus problem without some silly lens to camera calibration.

My concerns now is, will Pentax just use the Debug option to fix my focus problems?
I want to be able to buy many more lenses for my new system but I'm worried that I might be in the same boat down the road. I understand my hot-shoe can be replaced with a new working one and since it doesn't seem like a common problem I'm not too concerned.

I was very excited about the new pentax lenses and cameras to come. Now after owning a pentax for two months and it being in the shop and having to postpone all my shoots I am feeling uneasy.

I would appreciate your comments in regards to the issues I've been having. Please no trashing. I use a my camera daily and I don't have any brand loyalty, if it works for me I use it, if it doesn't I don't. I would really just like to hear what other people that have experience with cameras have to say about these quality issues.

Thanks

[AndrewShirley]

http://www.popphoto.com/l...w-to-pimp-your-flash.html

Check point number 3 about the Hot Shoe Safe Sync.   If you're using an old flash, that could be the culprit.

HTH

- Andrew

[manual_focus]

Can you describe your AF technique that is causing you issues?  AF-S or AF-C, Auto, Select or Center?

[Stefano]

I’m using AF-S and keeping the focus select on center. My focus is off in general shooting. I use this new camera the same way I’ve always used auto focus cameras in the past. I’ve also conducted some focus accuracy test using the whole 45% method with unsatisfactory results. I have also looked into having a burned-out sync circuit, but ruled it out due to the hot-shoe coming back to life after 20 frames or so.

Thanks guys for your help

Stefano

[KhoKing]

Nice colourful frog!

I have replied on the other thread on the focus issue with other companies. In short, all brands (Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony...etc.) have focus OFF issue in their DSLR. Depending on your luck...

[dayalan86]

Sorry to hear about your camera, hope everything will be fine after this.

[KhoKing]

I have previously used the 45 degree angle test for my lenses, and finally I concluded that the method itself is not accurate as it mainly depends on the exact location of the focus sensor in your camera body. Some DSLR will have their focus sensor OFF from the exact center location, resulting an OFF focus in the focus test chart and gave wrong information to tester that the lens or camera are front or back focus.

I have developed a new method to test focus accuracy myself, though not 100% accurate but give a better idea and more consistant / confident result to me

(will share it when I have the time...)

[lock]

Some DSLR will have their focus sensor OFF from the exact center location, resulting an OFF focus in the focus test chart and

If this would be the major problem, we should be able to confirm the out of center sensor by choosing one of the other 10 focus points. Or Am I wrong ?
If this could be confirmed, Pentax would know what to do..

[AndrewShirley]

We should be able to confirm the edge of the sensor points by using Continuous focus and moving the camera so an object comes into focus near one.  We would then have a good idea of where the actual focus point is and its boundaries.  If the point is big enough, then using small apertures could be causing an apparent focus issue due to DOF.  It could be the difference between focusing on a nose or a cheek.

- Andrew