Pentax K-x, bought in July 2010. Don't use it a whole lot, recently maybe once a year (1, 2 or even 3 days) at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and skate (quads) the asphalt road adjacent to the stages snapping hundreds of photos of the throngs traversing from/to whereever. It's a gas, a positively psychedelic experience (I'm undrugged, however).
So, yesterday I was doing this on a perfect day. My eyes were on and off the viewfinder as usual, and came to a speedbump, no problem, I've been street skating for 30 years. But this speedbump is different... on the way down the far side it does a weird thing... it starts going up again for a 2nd bump that's even more pronounced and high. I wasn't expecting that and I went down and the camera bumped the ground. Dang, don't use your camera to break a fall!!!
Camera on-light was off although the switch was still set to on... bad sign. I turn it off and on and the on-light stays off. I do this a couple more times and one time the light goes on! But I get a message on the screen that the batteries are weak, too weak and it turns off. This seems very unlikely, a freshly charged set of 4 AA Eneloops has never failed to complete a day's shooting for me. The camera works some of the time, I take a few shots. I encounter a friend and stop dealing with it. Get it home the batteries test OK, I recharge them, in the morning clean the battery contacts, so far the camera seems to be working.
I hope the lens is undamaged (probably harder to replace than the body, it's a Pentax SMC DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL IF Lens). I can get another camera body if necessary, I figure, either another Pentax K-x or the newer Pentax K-r, or maybe something more recent (I've been out of the loop), but I'm thinking maybe the camera is alright, it just "freaked out." I know, that seems ridiculous... what would cause it to freak out, it's not flesh and blood! Maybe turning it on and off didn't completely reboot the camera's computer, is all I can think. Weird. What do you make of this?
So, yesterday I was doing this on a perfect day. My eyes were on and off the viewfinder as usual, and came to a speedbump, no problem, I've been street skating for 30 years. But this speedbump is different... on the way down the far side it does a weird thing... it starts going up again for a 2nd bump that's even more pronounced and high. I wasn't expecting that and I went down and the camera bumped the ground. Dang, don't use your camera to break a fall!!!
Camera on-light was off although the switch was still set to on... bad sign. I turn it off and on and the on-light stays off. I do this a couple more times and one time the light goes on! But I get a message on the screen that the batteries are weak, too weak and it turns off. This seems very unlikely, a freshly charged set of 4 AA Eneloops has never failed to complete a day's shooting for me. The camera works some of the time, I take a few shots. I encounter a friend and stop dealing with it. Get it home the batteries test OK, I recharge them, in the morning clean the battery contacts, so far the camera seems to be working.
I hope the lens is undamaged (probably harder to replace than the body, it's a Pentax SMC DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL IF Lens). I can get another camera body if necessary, I figure, either another Pentax K-x or the newer Pentax K-r, or maybe something more recent (I've been out of the loop), but I'm thinking maybe the camera is alright, it just "freaked out." I know, that seems ridiculous... what would cause it to freak out, it's not flesh and blood! Maybe turning it on and off didn't completely reboot the camera's computer, is all I can think. Weird. What do you make of this?
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