Angelo Alaimo

My K10D on the day I purchased it

Remember in my last post how I mentioned my K10D was a perfectly good camera?

I suppose I should have knocked on wood.

After reaching our final destination, and highest lookout on the afternoon hike within Gowlland Tod Provincial Park, I proceeded to take shots as normal with the camera. I took about 20 shots that I later plan to stitch into a panorama. There was no sign of the impending failure as the camera worked and sounded as it always has.

I then took a picture of an uninteresting tree to test the focus on the camera with the DA* 50-135 f/2.8 attached with no issues; however, when I went to recompose the shot – nothing would happen.

The lens would focus, the confirmation beep would sound, but depressing the shutter button resulted in no response from the camera apart from a slight odd whirring noise.

My first thought after struggling through mild confusion? Great.

My second thought? Looks like I’ll be forced to upgrade after all.

Funny though. Every DSLR I’ve owned so far has broken down a mere month or two before I planned to upgrade. My first DSLR – a Pentax *istDL decided it no longer wanted to raise it’s mirror a couple weeks after the K10D was announced in September 2006.

Fast forward to 2009, less than two weeks after the K-7 announcement, my K10D decides it no longer wants to raise the shutter.

Pentax recently replaced the main circuit board, sensor and lens mount in Dec 2008 and the tail end of the 2 year warranty. Unfortunately, the repairs are only warranted for 90 days which has long ago passed. Shame. I had looked forward to using this camera as a backup, but now I am left with a paper-weight that is likely not worth fixing.