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Sunday, May 11, 2008

K10D Firmware 1.3 Debug Mode Unleashed

According to the following recent DPR post:-

K10D - GX10 1.30 Firmware Debug menu via usb activation.: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

The poster found a program made by someone called "makc" on the "penta-club.ru" forum.

It is told that the program allows the K10D user to access the debug menu with the firmware version 1.30 installed in their cameras (it is believed that it works for the Samsung GX-10 too). With that utility program, the debug mode can be activated and de-activated via an USB cable and no firmware version downgrade is required.

It is in fact very useful and handy for those K10D users who wish to make their own AF adjustment for any Front Focusing (FF) or Back Focusing (BF) found with any of their lenses on their K10Ds. Indeed, the problem of FF and BF of the K10D has been widely reported and especially different amount of focus inaccuracy (no matter it is FF or BF) would occur with different lenses mounted.

Some people also told that adjustment settings up to four (Pentax?) could be made and stored and those settings would be called automatically upon mounting of a particular lens. If it is really true, it is just a very useful feature to counteract the K10D focus inaccuracy abnormality.

The poster has also compiled a tutorial on a French forum to teach people how to use the Russian program above. The link is as follows: Pentax K10D - K20D - bon anniversaire Julien (Registration and member login is required)

Finally, here is the download link for the program: http://dednev.pisem.net/setup_gx10_dmctrl_1.1.exe
The password for installation is : penta-club.ru

Good luck but bear in mind that YMMV, though. If you do not have the total confidence and cannot bear any potential risk involved, just don't try - my humble advice.

It should be also noted that it has been reported that the program is not Vista compatible. With Vista, the debug mode can be activated but not de-activated. See this post for more details.

Update (25/6):

Here is the good news! The original Russian author of the program, "makc", has just released a new version of the utility in English language. The download link is as below:-
http://dednev.pisem.net/setup_gx10_dmctrl_1.1u_eng.exe

( Password: penta-club.ru )

Happy measurbating and adjusting!