Hi,
Wanting a K100D I asked around for procedures when I would hit a lemon with the early battery low shutdown problem. I went for a local shop which will allow me to test the camera first and waiting for it.

I know this issue is discussed a lot here and there seems to be a kind of consensus on "It comes with the camera, just use special batteries, like eneloops". I simply could not accept that.
A camera designed for AA's should simply work with normal modern Ni-Mh AA batteries, like any other digital camera out there. It would be plain stupid if Pentax did design this camera to be *the exception* to the general rule and this would really hurt their reputation with consumers. And there simply is no technical need or advantage to build a camera which needs voltages (just) 0,1 - 0,3 higher than normal, this would only qualify as a big design error (knowing this makes normal batteries useless).

So I asked the Pentax Netherlands importeur about this. He was not aware of the problem yet (very busy selling K10D's :) and I pointed him towards the many conflicting reports in the reviews and discussions at the forums. He seemed really concerned.

Since repairs are done at Pentax Belgium, he gave me his contact over there. This salesman told me he knew about the issue and asked one of his technicians about it. Getting back to me he confirmed:

1. One is aware of the problem, K100D's with the problem can be send in for repair (calibration of the battery low voltage I guess).
2. It's an issue with certain batches of the camera.
3. It could be there will be new firmware to solve this issue (he was unsure about this).

Now all this for what it's worth, don't shoot the piano player :)
These 3 points are in fact conflicting: an issue with batches (2) points to a (mechanical) hardware calibration, which can be adjusted (1), like a potentiometer on a print.
But new firmware means solving the issue in software ... Could be Pentax builds a firmware with some intelligence which detects some settings and only corrects wrong battery low settings, but personally I don't think this will be the case ;-)

Anyway, IMHO this all confirms: K100D's with the early battery low warning simply are lemons. (And even contribute to climate change by not using batteries efficiently :)
I don't say this to bash the K100D, I want one too! But I think none of use should accept a sample which does not work normally with normal Ni-Mh's in good condition.