Why do my Pentax K-50 e-dials sometimes stop changing settings, and bracketing only takes two shots?
Asked 10/30/2016
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On my Pentax K-50, the front and rear e-dials sometimes seem to stop working: aperture or shutter speed won’t change even though I turn the dials. Switching to another mode and back usually restores normal operation.
I also noticed that when exposure bracketing is enabled, the camera sometimes captures only the first two frames even if I keep the shutter button pressed. This happens with multiple lenses, so I’m trying to determine whether the camera body needs repair or whether this is normal behavior caused by a setting.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
9y ago
2 Answers
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Finally, I figured this out. My camera is not broken, and it was indeed something I was doing wrong. I'll describe it here in case it helps others in the future.
I use exposure bracketing a lot, and I had "one-push bracketing" turned off in the settings. I thought that what this meant was that if I pressed the shutter release it would take a single exposure, whereas if I held it down it would take three, so that I wouldn't have to worry about turning bracketing off and on again all the time. However, that's not quite the full story. As the manual says,
When you take your finger off the shutter release button during Exposure Bracketing, the exposure setting will remain effective for twice the amount of the meter operating time (p.97) (default setting is about 20 seconds) and you can take a picture at the next compensation value. After about twice the amount of the meter operating time elapses, the camera returns to settings for taking the first image.
What this means is that pressing the shutter release once doesn't just take a single shot, it takes the first of three bracketed exposures. It won't let you change the exposure settings before taking the other two shots. This explains both the "controls locking up" problem and the "only takes two bracketed exposures" problem (since the camera thinks those are the last two out of three). It also explains why I thought the metering on this camera was so horribly inconsistent, which I hadn't realised was part of the same issue.
To resolve it, I guess I have no choice but to fiddle around in the menus turning bracketing on and off again all the time after all, which is a bit sad. I could change the "meter operating time", but this can't be set lower than 3 seconds, so I'd still have to wait six seconds in between shots if I don't want this to happen. You can set the Raw/FX button to exposure bracketing, but that just takes you into the menu, so you still have to fiddle around a bit to turn it off. I'm not sure why the camera doesn't offer the behaviour I originally thought it had.
Originally by user56937. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user56937
9y ago
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This is most likely normal behavior, not a hardware fault.
The key is the K-50’s exposure bracketing settings. If one-push bracketing is turned off, the camera does not always fire the full bracket sequence the way you might expect. Releasing the shutter button during the sequence can leave the camera in an active bracketing state for a short time, based on the meter timeout. While that bracket is still pending, the camera may appear to ignore the e-dials or behave oddly until the sequence/state is cleared.
That also explains why switching modes temporarily fixes it: changing modes cancels or resets the current shooting state.
So the likely solution is to review the bracketing options in the menu, especially one-push bracketing, and make sure the shutter-button behavior matches how you shoot. If you frequently use bracketing, enabling one-push bracketing is likely the simplest fix.
Because the same behavior occurs with multiple lenses, it points to camera settings rather than a lens issue.
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