On 11/3/2010 7:23 AM, Joseph McAllister wrote:
Given that the K10, 20 , 7, 5 all have a factory lifetime on their shutters (mechanism, or supporting hardware, firmware?) might I suggest that if the camera(s) are working for you now, they will continue to work in the future if they need a replacement shutter, lever, circuit board, etc.. In almost all cases it would be less expensive to fix these bodies than to scrap them (they're broken, right?) until such time as the repair cost approaches the cost of a new body, or a clean used body. At that time you are enabled to move up, or move on.
Joseph, you're quite right, but it depends on the specific country. Just recently I submitted my MZ-6 for CLA to Pentax Israel. Good folks as they are, they informed me that my focusing screen had few dots that they couldn't clean (as I specifically asked to clean the focusing screen). So, they said, we will look up for you a replacement screen, but no promises. And they did not find one at the end. Of course I can live with these few dots in the focusing screen, it is no big deal, but it strikes me as odd that such an item (which, as I understand was the same or virtually the same between several (mass produced) MZ cameras) is not there.
In fact, I can tell you that the first thing good folks of Pentax Israel did when I gave them my camera is that they informed me that they (as a company) don't have spare parts for anything that is 3 years past its discontinuation... It is in direct contradiction with factory lifetime on DSLR shutters, which may or may not be valid in Israel.
I am thinking, without disrespect, that if I lived in United States (which is probable), I wouldn't have been as worried or concerned as I am now. Israel is a tiny speck (very much like those on my MZ-6's focusing screen) on the map of Pentax affairs. I am in fact relieved and pleasantly surprised that all (and there have been at least half dozen already) my dealings with Pentax Israel were to my complete satisfaction.
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