It seems that the product life spans of K-5 and K-r have both come near to the end. There are evidence of that K-r has been discontinued and that K-5 replacement should come in the foreseeable near future for its drastical price drops worldwide since fall October.
In fact, I have seen today that K-r in a variety of different colour options are being sold overseas, which is yet the strong sign of that K-r has been discontinued and Pentax is trying to clear the remaining stocks as soon and as far as possible (same phenomenon happened for the K-x right before when the K-r came out).
Now, I know that many Pentaxians are attracted much to buy these lower priced offers, of either the K-5 or K-r. But it is also a good time to sum up the latest issue and bug reports of both cameras, so as to avoid any possible remorses in the near future (no matter how "cheap" it would be for the purchases!):-
1. Let's see the incorrect level indication of the K-5 electronic level meter, of which the (QC?) problem seems to be still common (yes, since day one and up till now, for a year now!):-
http://forum.xitek.com/showthread.php?threadid=938063
(in Chinese, English Here (Google-translated))
http://forum.xitek.com/showthread.php?threadid=941645
(in Chinese, English Here (Google-translated))
http://www.dchome.net/viewthread.php?tid=1074731
(in English, it is reported that the error is in two to three degrees!)
The most mysterious case must be the following. This K-5 user reported that he got a new K-5, programmed/updated to new firmware, then problem arose. Got another brand new replacement unit, no issue at first, then updated the latest firmware, then the same problem appeared again! What? :-o
http://www.dchome.net/viewthread.php?tid=1081952
(in Chinese, English Here (Google-translated))
2. Next, let's look at the persistent and well-known infamous tungsten light front focusing issue of the K-r (which I confirmed on day one with systematic measurements) and here are yet two more example recent user complaints:-
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=39935224
There are various example photos posted in thread. The user regrets much, but he simply didn't know there was such a problem before he decided, although it has been indeed well-proven and well-known. Whilst a number of responders in thread expressed the view that he simply hadn't done his research works adequately and well enough, I think it is basically not his fault, but Pentax is the one whom should be blamed instead, very frankly.
And, here is an angered K-r user because of this annoying K-r issue, which he thinks that it will never be fixed! (Yes, I think he is absolutely right!):-
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=38198477
Nonetheless, I don't think the hope of this K-r user is anything realistic. It is supposed to be a hardware design flaw afterall. So, how can a new firmware cure it? >:-o
Besides, it is once again reported that the K-r also has the double-mirror flipping problem that I found both with my K-x and K-r under a bit colder weather (near about 10 deg. C something):-
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=39951317
The first replier in the above thread has yet another issue with his K-r, which locked up and the mirror got stuck and didn't go down..
Against the K-5 mirror disorder issue, which seems to be caused by higher ambient temperature. Do we still see more of those K-5 mirror flipping reports after Autumn? :-)
After all, I really hope Ricoh should seriously look into these persistent issues and should try every effort to tackle them and remove that specific bugs and latent defects. At least, these should not appear again in the coming replacement models. This is a very critical time IMHO and it should be their last chance to save the reputation of Pentax cameras in system reliability and retain customers!
Related:-
One Will Never Buy a New DSLR or Any Gear IF..
When the Electronic Level Meter is Not Accurate by Itself..
Ten Things that I Want Ricoh to Do for Pentax