I noticed a lot of attention to my last blog from fellow Pentax user. and how caring the Pentax community is to its users, after receiving countless feedback and recommendations, from which i learned a lot. Well, I am happy to report I got my Pentax DA* 16-50mm f2.8 lens fixed a couple of days ago, and i am so happy. Truth is I did not have much hope, and having nothing to lose I sent it to be repaired by an old Japanese camera technician who lives in Panama just to see if he could take a look at it. My thinking was: when you feel you lost something, you have nothing to lose, and now I can add… and much to gain. And so it is.

I have kept note of the following pieces of good advice from this last experience:

1. When the camera has it hang ups, either remove the battery and put it back in, or change the battery. In other words, a backup battery has many uses.

2. Bring a backup lens. Make it a light lens so it wouldn't weigh much on your backpack. On that lesson, I bought a copy of the Pentax 18-5mm kit lens, light, weather resistant and with reasonable IQ.

3. This particular lens (DA* 16-50mmm) suffers from SDM failure. If possible convert it to screw drive. Mine still works in SDM AF, and recently tested and by all appearances, it seems it works.

There were other interesting advice about handling the lens in humid weather conditions, but I have to trust the K5 iis ruggedness and this lens WR seal, since this is why I got it for. There is another hike in a couple of weeks, and I intend to put it though its paces, of course, with the added knowledge shared by fellow Pentaxians.

As mentioned before, I tested the lens and the K-5 iis yesterday in a walk-around photo shoot, to see how it performs, and it did very well. I have been pampered by Fuji cameras every time I go to the streets, but I cannot deny it feels good carrying this combo around the streets of my home country, and another excuse to document the times we are living. After 6 long months of quarantine, I am witnessing the impact Covid-19 have made to our lives. It will take a while to get back up, but I trust we Panamanians can do it again, for as long as it takes.