Hi, you saved me. It works very well with a Pentax K-S2. I just set it to Display mode and press the RAW button. Maybe sometimes. I see the picture becomes lighter after pressing this button, when it works - and the picture becomes a little bit unsharp. This means that it is opened now. Best regards. I hope it will be working for some time. I have a sticky Pentax K30 where it does not work, but I use this only for manual lenses.
Hi Bernd, thanks for the nice feedback and always glad to help others. If you are brave, these cameras are actually very easy to open up and fix with simple tools. One can get to the aperture solenoid fairly quickly and just sand it with a very fine sandpaper slightly and it will worklike new. I have fixed many K-30 and even a couple K-s2's. One of which I still have but I properly replaced it with a Japanese solenoid from a donor camera (Pentax K-x) but this requires soldering which is also fairly easy. Anyways, this is a good workaround and it will work and the camera may even get slightly better when regularly "opened up". I have a video somewhere I need to edit and upload but there are also others already here in UA-cam. If in case you are in Germany, I can actually fix your K-30 and K-s2 for free. It literally takes me 20 minutes to fix one. :)
Ich danke herzlich für das Angebot. Im Moment habe ich 4 Pentax, 2 sind ok, eine K30, eine Pentax *ist, beide sehr gut. Ich werde aber die *ist nicht zerstören, um ein Solenoid zu bekommen. Ich benutze die defekten Kameras für manuelle Objektive, meist selbstgebaute. Das funktioniert sehr gut. Mit deinem Video kann ich die Pentax K-S2 nun auch mit den üblichen Automatikobjektiven verwenden. Die andere K30 funktioniert nicht mit Automatikobjektiven. Der Fehler ist alt und ich habe einen "neuen" Solenoid, allerdings aus China, baute ihn aber nicht ein wegen der manuellen Objektive, die wirklich seltsam sind und mit sehr schönem Bokeh. Sie haben manuelle Blenden. Es ist aber schön, die K-S2 wieder voll verwenden zu können. Thank you very much. Right now I have 4 Pentax, 2 are working properly, a K30, a Pentax *ist, very good. I am not going to destroy the *ist to get a solenoid. I use the broken cameras for manual lenses, mostly homemade. That works very well. With your video, I can now use the Pentax K-S2 with the usual automatic lenses. The other K30 does not work with automatic lenses. The bug is old and I have a "new" magnet but didn't need it because of the manual lenses which are really weird with nice bokeh. They have manual apertures. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Is it starting to stick again after filing it? Afaik, best to file or sand it until the edges are visibly smooth and rounded. I use alcohol to clean it up afterwards.
@@ShutterKnack I've been taking astro photos and full moon pictures and video even in very low light with tripod and the aperture fix that I done thanks to you works so far. I seen somewhere on line that you could permanently damage some gearing mechanism if you remove too much material and make the forks not the same resulting with gear torque and snapping the housing and ruining the camera. I would rather start small and have to do the process twice rather than taking off too much material
@@bobjohnson9597nah, the solenoid works with magnets. It is not connected with any gear whatsoever. The magnet moves the part that needs to be filed in and out. The only thing I can think about that will wear overtime is the green plastic housing but we're talking about years here. If the filing method gives another 5-10 years of life then I think it's worth it.
Hi Christopher, I doubt it. If it won't budge, the best and cheapest way is to open it up and file the solenoid. I just did one just now. It's very easy to do.
Burst mode is NOT a good option. The issue is a non-use issue mostly The reason for the aperture block are the magnetic properties of the solenoid, Pentax changed the used solenoid during the K70 production time at least twice, so the late K70s do NOT have that problem anymore and the KF also DONT have that problem so far. Read the article "History of the Solenoid " in the Pentax Forum. Best solution is a japanese solenoid or the acxtual solenoid used in the KF Another worse method is the filing method.
@@tomsun3159 I have done ALL methods aforementioned. I know about the solenoid history but thanks anyway. What you've said about the K-70 is not true. I have seen a couple with aperture block failure albeit a lot less than the K-50 and K-30. What exactly is wrong with the filing method? If you know what you are doing then you don't change the magnetic properties enough to affect anything. That's why I recommend a fine sandpaper instead of a file. I am yet to see this method fail.
@@ShutterKnack You have to look at the production date of the K70, the first k70 had a solenoid similar to the K50, the last a differentone equivalent to the one used in the KF, and as far as i know there was a version in between. The filing method does not change the magnetic properties of the material used in the solenoid, and it destroys the surface of the solenoid, same as filing the colour of your car down to the bare metal and wondering it corrodes afterwards. The author of the article explains it in detail what changed (original article was in german and can be found in the pentaxians forum "Die Geschichte des Solenoids") The article is quite long but its worth to reread it once or twice to understand the details, he explains also the problems with the filing method. The major question is what do you want to achieve, get it work for a few weeks just for selling it, or get it work for a long time for using it yourself. The root cause seems to be longer periods of non-use (regular used cameras seems to have that issue seldom while cameras with a low shutter count (which implies used not very often) more often do have that issue.
@@tomsun3159 I have a fixed one here on my desk. Fixed way back in 2018-2019. Still working. Solenoid is not rusty. Of course the Japanese solenoid is the best option. However I would really argue that the filing method is a viable option from experience.
Thank you very much,
your video saved my vacation!
Thanks for the comment! This made my day. :)
Button customization worked like a champ. Thank you for posting this video!!
Glad it helped!
Hi, you saved me. It works very well with a Pentax K-S2. I just set it to Display mode and press the RAW button. Maybe sometimes. I see the picture becomes lighter after pressing this button, when it works - and the picture becomes a little bit unsharp. This means that it is opened now.
Best regards.
I hope it will be working for some time.
I have a sticky Pentax K30 where it does not work, but I use this only for manual lenses.
Hi Bernd, thanks for the nice feedback and always glad to help others. If you are brave, these cameras are actually very easy to open up and fix with simple tools. One can get to the aperture solenoid fairly quickly and just sand it with a very fine sandpaper slightly and it will worklike new. I have fixed many K-30 and even a couple K-s2's. One of which I still have but I properly replaced it with a Japanese solenoid from a donor camera (Pentax K-x) but this requires soldering which is also fairly easy.
Anyways, this is a good workaround and it will work and the camera may even get slightly better when regularly "opened up".
I have a video somewhere I need to edit and upload but there are also others already here in UA-cam.
If in case you are in Germany, I can actually fix your K-30 and K-s2 for free. It literally takes me 20 minutes to fix one. :)
Ich danke herzlich für das Angebot. Im Moment habe ich 4 Pentax, 2 sind ok, eine K30, eine Pentax *ist, beide sehr gut. Ich werde aber die *ist nicht zerstören, um ein Solenoid zu bekommen. Ich benutze die defekten Kameras für manuelle Objektive, meist selbstgebaute. Das funktioniert sehr gut. Mit deinem Video kann ich die Pentax K-S2 nun auch mit den üblichen Automatikobjektiven verwenden. Die andere K30 funktioniert nicht mit Automatikobjektiven. Der Fehler ist alt und ich habe einen "neuen" Solenoid, allerdings aus China, baute ihn aber nicht ein wegen der manuellen Objektive, die wirklich seltsam sind und mit sehr schönem Bokeh. Sie haben manuelle Blenden. Es ist aber schön, die K-S2 wieder voll verwenden zu können.
Thank you very much. Right now I have 4 Pentax, 2 are working properly, a K30, a Pentax *ist, very good. I am not going to destroy the *ist to get a solenoid. I use the broken cameras for manual lenses, mostly homemade. That works very well. With your video, I can now use the Pentax K-S2 with the usual automatic lenses. The other K30 does not work with automatic lenses. The bug is old and I have a "new" magnet but didn't need it because of the manual lenses which are really weird with nice bokeh. They have manual apertures.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Well done ShutterKnack, I will pass this on
Glad to help! Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. This method works if the aperture problem has just started.
If you want to go straight to the fix, feel free to go to 3:48. Cheers!
Makes me feel better i just read after i bid on a k50... it has issues lol. Now i know.
It's so easy to easy even if you have to open it up. It's a good excuse to buy a very cheap yet perfectly capable camera. :)
I fixed mine 10 months ago but filed the horseshoe legs very lightly. I wonder if contact cleaner will work since you said it gets sticky
Is it starting to stick again after filing it? Afaik, best to file or sand it until the edges are visibly smooth and rounded. I use alcohol to clean it up afterwards.
@@ShutterKnack I've been taking astro photos and full moon pictures and video even in very low light with tripod and the aperture fix that I done thanks to you works so far. I seen somewhere on line that you could permanently damage some gearing mechanism if you remove too much material and make the forks not the same resulting with gear torque and snapping the housing and ruining the camera. I would rather start small and have to do the process twice rather than taking off too much material
@@bobjohnson9597nah, the solenoid works with magnets. It is not connected with any gear whatsoever. The magnet moves the part that needs to be filed in and out. The only thing I can think about that will wear overtime is the green plastic housing but we're talking about years here. If the filing method gives another 5-10 years of life then I think it's worth it.
Will contact cleaner work...?
Hi Christopher, I doubt it. If it won't budge, the best and cheapest way is to open it up and file the solenoid. I just did one just now. It's very easy to do.
Burst mode is NOT a good option.
The issue is a non-use issue mostly
The reason for the aperture block are the magnetic properties of the solenoid, Pentax changed the used solenoid during the K70 production time at least twice, so the late K70s do NOT have that problem anymore and the KF also DONT have that problem so far. Read the article "History of the Solenoid " in the Pentax Forum.
Best solution is a japanese solenoid or the acxtual solenoid used in the KF
Another worse method is the filing method.
@@tomsun3159 I have done ALL methods aforementioned. I know about the solenoid history but thanks anyway.
What you've said about the K-70 is not true. I have seen a couple with aperture block failure albeit a lot less than the K-50 and K-30.
What exactly is wrong with the filing method? If you know what you are doing then you don't change the magnetic properties enough to affect anything. That's why I recommend a fine sandpaper instead of a file. I am yet to see this method fail.
@@ShutterKnack You have to look at the production date of the K70, the first k70 had a solenoid similar to the K50, the last a differentone equivalent to the one used in the KF, and as far as i know there was a version in between.
The filing method does not change the magnetic properties of the material used in the solenoid, and it destroys the surface of the solenoid, same as filing the colour of your car down to the bare metal and wondering it corrodes afterwards. The author of the article explains it in detail what changed (original article was in german and can be found in the pentaxians forum "Die Geschichte des Solenoids") The article is quite long but its worth to reread it once or twice to understand the details, he explains also the problems with the filing method.
The major question is what do you want to achieve, get it work for a few weeks just for selling it, or get it work for a long time for using it yourself.
The root cause seems to be longer periods of non-use (regular used cameras seems to have that issue seldom while cameras with a low shutter count (which implies used not very often) more often do have that issue.
@@tomsun3159 I have a fixed one here on my desk. Fixed way back in 2018-2019. Still working. Solenoid is not rusty.
Of course the Japanese solenoid is the best option. However I would really argue that the filing method is a viable option from experience.