OK, faulty AF-540 unable to remove from camera!


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savage2k

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Mar 12, 2006
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my 1+ month old AF540 is really giving me a LOT TROUBLE;(;(

I don't really use it a lot, but last week I suddenly realized it cannot zoom anymore and fixed to 13mm, after I tried on 2 cameras it was still the same, so I sent it to Shriro.

The guys there were really friendly, they fixed it in just a few days and told me the motor was loosen, and they told me the problem should not happy again.

I took it home but the problem happened yesterday again!!!:bheart:

Last night there was a car on fire downstairs, so I grabbed my K10D and went down hope to get some shoots. But the flash was UNABLE TO ZOOM AGAIN, right when I need to use it!!!

After I went home with HUGE disappointment, I was thinking remove the flash and send it back again, but guess what, it could NOT be removed!!! I tried like 10-20 mins but it just won't go off. Great, now I have a faulty flash sticked on my camera:angry:

It's Christmas now and it's definitely sure that even I send them in it will take longer to fix, and I'll be missing a lot great shots.
Not to mention I'll have to send BOTH CAMERA AND FLASH BACK, as I just cannot separate them.

Now I'm seriously starting to consider Canon and Nikon, I need something at least CAN WORK.
 

wow...ur problem is exactly what i mentioned here, i have done some research and found both problems happen to you...
http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=328453

but seems like no one has encounter these problems here...maybe you are the first...
if still got warranty still not so bad...
 

my 1+ month old AF540 is really giving me a LOT TROUBLE;(;(

I don't really use it a lot, but last week I suddenly realized it cannot zoom anymore and fixed to 13mm, after I tried on 2 cameras it was still the same, so I sent it to Shriro.

The guys there were really friendly, they fixed it in just a few days and told me the motor was loosen, and they told me the problem should not happy again.

I took it home but the problem happened yesterday again!!!:bheart:

Last night there was a car on fire downstairs, so I grabbed my K10D and went down hope to get some shoots. But the flash was UNABLE TO ZOOM AGAIN, right when I need to use it!!!

After I went home with HUGE disappointment, I was thinking remove the flash and send it back again, but guess what, it could NOT be removed!!! I tried like 10-20 mins but it just won't go off. Great, now I have a faulty flash sticked on my camera:angry:

It's Christmas now and it's definitely sure that even I send them in it will take longer to fix, and I'll be missing a lot great shots.
Not to mention I'll have to send BOTH CAMERA AND FLASH BACK, as I just cannot separate them.

Now I'm seriously starting to consider Canon and Nikon, I need something at least CAN WORK.

Bro, its sad and rare to see this happen to you.

But becoz of this to jump ship a little not worth it right? Give your dear camera and flash a last chance. :)
 

when I first got the K10D GP edition there were... dead pixels....
So I sent it back and they fixed it.

Then I got AF-540, it... could not zoom....
So I sent it back and they fixed it.

Then the AF-540 is faulty again and... sticked to camera...
So I'll send BOTH back to get them fixed.

This will make both of them travel to service center 2 times within 3 months;(

Not to mention both of them are currently top of the line Pentax products, so I'm disappointed. Anyway I'll give it one last chance, if anything happens again after the third repair, I'll definitely sell the entire system.:confused:
 

Did you try the flash when you just bought it at the store?

When you send it to shiros, they might have thought that your 540 wasn't properly attached to the body (LOOSE connection) .. and they might have make it tight ..
(too tight) I am just making a guess ...

My 540 was slightly modified by myself ... by attaching elastic rubber on the flash shoes, because, out of urgent and panicky situation I had use force to pulled the flash in or out while having the level turned to fix position...

The elastic rubber is round or sqaure or hexigon, depend on what you like cut a hole in the centre, pulled the rubber and push thro the shoe, release it shrink back to it's original size. and it's almost invisible ...

I have not got any problems, except I learn that I did not attached to the body properly when I first learn to use flash...
 

Sorry to hear about that. If you don't want to "missing a lot great shots". Send in your camera and flash to Shriro asap now and get the flash removed. They are nice people, talk to them and they might be able to lend you a flash if they have one.
 

when I first got the K10D GP edition there were... dead pixels....
So I sent it back and they fixed it.

Then I got AF-540, it... could not zoom....
So I sent it back and they fixed it.

Then the AF-540 is faulty again and... sticked to camera...
So I'll send BOTH back to get them fixed.

This will make both of them travel to service center 2 times within 3 months;(

Not to mention both of them are currently top of the line Pentax products, so I'm disappointed. Anyway I'll give it one last chance, if anything happens again after the third repair, I'll definitely sell the entire system.:confused:

Understand how you felt. :(

All the best for this last chance. Hope that after this, it will last you till you decided to upgrade :D :thumbsup:
 

Did you try the flash when you just bought it at the store?

When you send it to shiros, they might have thought that your 540 wasn't properly attached to the body (LOOSE connection) .. and they might have make it tight ..
(too tight) I am just making a guess ...

My 540 was slightly modified by myself ... by attaching elastic rubber on the flash shoes, because, out of urgent and panicky situation I had use force to pulled the flash in or out while having the level turned to fix position...

The elastic rubber is round or sqaure or hexigon, depend on what you like cut a hole in the centre, pulled the rubber and push thro the shoe, release it shrink back to it's original size. and it's almost invisible ...

I have not got any problems, except I learn that I did not attached to the body properly when I first learn to use flash...

You have really terrible luck man...
 

when I first got the K10D GP edition there were... dead pixels....
So I sent it back and they fixed it.

Then I got AF-540, it... could not zoom....
So I sent it back and they fixed it.

Then the AF-540 is faulty again and... sticked to camera...
So I'll send BOTH back to get them fixed.

This will make both of them travel to service center 2 times within 3 months;(

Not to mention both of them are currently top of the line Pentax products, so I'm disappointed. Anyway I'll give it one last chance, if anything happens again after the third repair, I'll definitely sell the entire system.:confused:

Really sorry to hear your problem. But to me it still looks like some bad luck, and this kind of problem might happen to you again even you change to another system.

I heard of the stuck flash problem, mostly due to the lock pin stuck in the hold on the flash mount, as flowerpot mentioned in another thread. Actually I might just fill the hole myself just to avoid the same problem happens to me. I've been using my 540 flash for over a year now, seems still working fine.

Hope you'd get problem fixed. And don't lose the faith in Pentax just because of this isolated problem :)

Good luck.
 

After reading about stuck flash on dpreview forum, I removed the metal pin from the flash. Its quite easy to do. Unscrew the screws from the shoe mount and u can access the inside to remove the metal pin and the plastic lever.
 

After reading about stuck flash on dpreview forum, I removed the metal pin from the flash. Its quite easy to do. Unscrew the screws from the shoe mount and u can access the inside to remove the metal pin and the plastic lever.

Good suggestion :) I'll remove the one on mine as well.
 

After reading about stuck flash on dpreview forum, I removed the metal pin from the flash. Its quite easy to do. Unscrew the screws from the shoe mount and u can access the inside to remove the metal pin and the plastic lever.

Good suggestion :) I'll remove the one on mine as well.

confirm can ah...:think: ok Fengwei, u try if it works let us noe ok...:bsmilie: got picture even better...:thumbsup:
 

relax bro

i think it's just bad luck.. even my cheapo $30 flash which should be by logical deduction, very problematic, has never given me such problems before
 

relax bro

i think it's just bad luck.. even my cheapo $30 flash which should be by logical deduction, very problematic, has never given me such problems before

mine's a cheapo one too.. hehe..
and it's working great too..

except, for quite a long while, i thought all flashes are like the cheapo one that i'm using.
i didn't know that flashes with TTL actually ZOOMSSSS and moves by itself.

how silly of me.. :bsmilie:
 

Cheapo $30 flashes? I always thought only two flashes are available! Where u get em? Can u manually adjust settings with those? ;p
 

Cheapo $30 flashes? I always thought only two flashes are available! Where u get em? Can u manually adjust settings with those? ;p

alamak, no la, not official pentax one

some china brand from orient photo, fixed output

works fine with a bounce card but needs getting used to, i guess :) i used mine for butterflies
 

sorry to OT but the Emoblitz one works well. Tilt and swivel.
 

OT a bit more also...
Anyone ever figured out the trigger voltage of the Pentax dSLRs?
I never found a conclusion answer on the web...
 

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