Recently, I was hired to take on a video shoot in Bulacan, where I needed to get the help of a fellow Pentaxian who happened to specialize in video. Due to circumstances my friend couldn't attend the shoot so I took over the role and borrowed his Pentax K-01 for the mission.
Everything was going well until we were shooting in a tight location at the edge of a river, with the house we're in on standing on stilts, and dank, murky water all around us. I did what I could to keep the gear safe, but in that ONE moment I had to put the tripod and camera down, the inevitable accident happened.
The setup fell off-balanced on the WeiFeng tripod it was mounted on, into the water, and took me some time to get it back, probably around 5-6 seconds. Attached to the K-01 was my dear DA* 50-135, and the body was promptly dead, with the lens having some focusing issues afterwards.
Dazed, broken and embarrassed, I went on with the shoot until the job was done. Of course I had to let my friend know his cam was dead, so I promised to replace it with a brand-new one, which I did the next day.
I took the unit and was conclusive the water damage can't be undone, but somehow, hoped for the best and kept it in a drybox with a dehumidifier for three days. It stayed dead for three days...
Here I am gladly telling everybody that the K-01 in question has just... come back to life! Three days in a box with a dehumidifier, then some rice, solved the problem (and landed me another camera body...).
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| The setup |
For some reason even if the K-01 isn't weather-sealed (only the lens attached to it was), no water seeped in from where the lens was attached. The ports were drowned... rubber flaps can't handle even drops I guess.
Here are pics of the items in question, you can still see some residue from the accident though I've already cleaned both well.
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| details - lens and body |
front view
I was lucky most of the fall impact damage was absorbed by the DA* 's tough, tough hood... polarizer window broke and I lost it, and now I can't lock the hood in place anymore facing forward (but backwards for storage, it still locks into place somehow)
hood damage closeup
....and here's the secondary suspect I blame for the incident (primary would of course be me, the user... I shouldn't have left it on the dangerous planks I was standing on!)
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| the suspect... |
here's the specific part that caused the trouble:
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| nasty... |
this locking knob that was supposed to keep the camera in the angle you set it... loosened up perhaps due to the weight of the cam and lens. Never happened to me before when I did long exposures with the K-x and kit lens or the Tamron 17-50 f2.8, but that time, I knew it was the culprit. The setup loosely swung around as I lifted it from the water, and though still attached to the tripod, I know it's no longer safe to use any longer. Might make this a house accessory from here on.
As for the camera and lens... both are working fine now and hopefully will have no hiccups in the future. I'm amazed by how Pentax builds strength into the stuff they make, regardless of whether they're sealed or not. Obviously mine was a lucky case, as no water came into the mirror (?) box of the K-01. Still, I could've shorted the unit when I tried turning it on after wiping it dry... that was another obvious mistake I was lucky enough the camera survived through. There are probably similar stories from Canikonland, but for a "small player" like Pentax, this is enough proof for me to trust the brand.
I would like to thank Pentax for making really tough guns that deserve some appreciation from its users. Bravo!
-Ron
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