More stuff and pastes - a bit of a rambling jumble I'm afraid. Anton said:
'A final thought: After twenty odd years, Pentax MUST know about this, don't you think. William said: 'One would think so, but then, this is Pentax we are talking about...... They sometimes work in strange ways. Did they actually tell you there was no problem? Or did they tell you the camera was working within normal parameters?' Anton replies: Actually the Pentax response was a little strange. On the phone the Technical Supervisor kept repeating that the camera was working to specification, we then went round in circles as I tried to establish that he'd actually witnessed what I was talking about. He didn't admit that he had and went on about working to spec again. He then - rather oddly I thought - offered to send me a letter confirming this. Why would I want that? The letter's not going to magic the camera into working 'properly' - perhaps he was hinting that I should sell the camera, recently CLA'd and up to spec along with the note from Pentax to prove it. I wouldn't do that, but even if I did I'd unwittingly go buy another, put it on 1600 or 3200 and... be back to square one - except this other would probably have a sticky mirror as well!!). I finished by saying I would visit and demonstrate the fault to him. I backed this up by letter saying that if I demonstrated this fault successfully to the Technical Supervisor then I would expect either a refund or the camera to be properly repaired. All this took place before the PDML folk revealed that it's not just my camera but seemingly so far, every single one. I'm inclined now to let it rest though I would like to visit just to see what he says as my camera fires off a couple of 1/2000 when it should be 1 Sec. His response would be interesting. Might just do it. Anton And the next one please... There is another similar 'bug' which you should be aware of, I believe the ME Super has it too. Set the camera up as before but any ISO will do. Make sure you select an aperture that causes a slow speed so you can HEAR what's happening. Keep your eye on the LED's and fire repeatedly. You will notice that every time the LED's extinguish just prior to firing the shutter, that exposure will be about 1/3 faster. Unfortunately keeping pressing the shutter button to keep the meter activated doesn't work because each press doesn't extend the timer. The only way round it that I've discovered is to notice when the meter switches off and then switch it back on again, pause and then fire the shutter - but I can't be doing with this in the heat of the fray. This isn't so bad as it only results in 1/3 to 1/2 half stop under exposure. Some slide film users might argue that this is unacceptable in a pro camera. Print film users like me scarcely notice. What we need to know: Does the first (and more major) 'fault' happen only at 3200 & 1600 - I've had some at 800 and slower, so I guess I've answered that one. Does it only happen on slow speeds - I can only HEAR it on slow speed but then everything faster than 1/60-ish sounds very similar, a test machine is needed. Perhaps someone should put info on a web page so we can organise our work-arounds? Anton _______________________________________________________________________ Freeserve AnyTime, only �13.99 per month with one month's FREE trial! For more information visit http://www.freeserve.com/time/ or call free on 0800 970 8890
