How reliable are the Pentax flashes?

[heycosta]

I am about to take in for a repair my Pentax AF50FGZ II flash. If you know these flashes, they are not cheap. I have not used it very much at all but it has stopped working. When I turn it on, nothing happens. A few moths I dropped and hit the floor fairly hard but continued to work OK. Since then I used maybe 2 -3 times.

I would normally just put it down to bad luck but the reason I got this flash was that the earlier model that I owned stopped working and was sent to Japan for repairs. That cost me $150 but after a few moths after it was returned to me it stopped working again. The Pentax Distributor offered me the new model for a substantial discount which I thought was a good price. Now three years later (but used very rarely) it is dead as a dead parrot. I suspect it will have to go to Japan for another $150+.

What is the experience of other Pentax flash users. Are they unreliable OR is just that the bad-luck-lightning stuck me twice?

[K10D]

Never had one fail on me. It does seem you've had a bad experience with the two issues.

[ricktas]

Any dropped electronic item can fail. I would not expect Pentax to have to fix something for nothing, that I had dropped.

And if I recall, your first flash was purchased second hand, so you have no idea how it was looked after prior to you purchasing it.

Any gear can fail, mostly not due to manufacturing fault. The most common cause of failure is items being dropped and damaged.

[Mark L]

Someone here might be able to answer your question ..... https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/

mmmmmmm.