----- Original Message ----- From: "Godfrey DiGiorgi" Subject: Re: Don't want to sound too alarmist but...
> On May 22, 2007, at 7:19 AM, William Robb wrote: > >> My older F2s is still working just fine, but I have owned a couple >> of MX >> bodies with flakey meters, both dead from unrepairable electronics, >> not >> mechanical failures. > > Cheap components, usually the resistor used for the K-mount aperture > follower if I recall what my service tech friend told me. I bet > someone could repair it but it isn't cost effective to do so. We've been down this road before, it must have been before you found us. The MX uses some proprietary circuitry for the light meter, and this is the component that failed. It is not the electro-mechanical components in the aperture follower or the ISO resistor. My repair tech trained at Pentax Japan before becoming a boat person, he usually knows what he is talking about. > > Nikon FTn Photomic heads for the F and F2 often have problems with a > similar component. There's a guy who rebuilds them and recalibrates > them for currently available batteries for about $70 a head. The F2 uses S/76 or Dl1/3N lithiums. I think the DP-2 head has better components than the older F Photomic heads. They seem to be pretty bomb proof. > > What all these problems really indicate is how cheap, low-spec most > of the electronic components being used are, even in high-end > cameras. Curiously, my 1966 RCA transistor radio that cost me $20 > (expensive back then!) is still going strong. > Unfortunately, the use of cheap components isn't likely to change in an arena where the consumer will make a decision about purchase based on $$/specification rather than quality of product, and the manufacturer fully expects that the product will be considered obsolete within less than a decade. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
