On Apr 23, 2012, at 12:06 PM, Walt Gilbert wrote: > Strange. I've dropped K-x once and completely destroyed my beloved A50/1.7 > lens, and my cat has knocked it off the top of a dresser about 4 feet high > once, directly onto the mounted M 50/2 and the camera has come out better > than the lenses both times.
I suspect that it isn't gross abuse that is doing the cameras in, but rather that they get a lot of fairly rough use. A lot of small bumps and taps rather than a few big ones like being dropped. Having dropped my K20 a couple of times, I can vouch that it is by no means impervious to asphalt. I suspect that what he really needs are the sturdier prosumer (K-5) cameras, unfortunately, the school has an entry level (K-x) budget. > > I guess I can feel a little lucky now that I have another A50/1.7 on the way. > > -- Walt > > On 4/23/2012 1:54 PM, Larry Colen wrote: >> I had a chance to visit with my friend Tom this weekend. I mentioned him >> recently, he is using several K-xs in the high school photo classes that he >> teaches. >> He mentioned that the reliability of the kit lenses is horrible. They break >> very easily. I didn't find the exact failure mode, other than that they are >> flimsy. He did say that once he gets the kids to use primes, (IIRC some >> manual focus era 50mm), the kids quickly seem to much prefer the old primes >> to the zoom lenses. It warms my heart that there does seem to be hope for >> the new generation. >> He also said that he's had problems with at least two LCDs simply stop >> working. The cameras still take pictures, you just can't see anything on >> the LCD. They've been off to Pentax and back for repair. >> >> I have no idea how other brands fare as student cameras, but consistent >> multiple failures is a serious issue. Is there anyone at Pentax I could >> point him to? At the very least, they might find his class a good source of >> "torture testing", as the cameras probably get a lot more usage than the >> vast majority of entry level cameras. His problems are kind of a shame, >> because I think that a big part of the reason that the K1000 was such an >> iconic student camera was its robustness. >> >> >> -- >> Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
