To all who are unhappy with pentax AF.

Hello there. I’m new here. I’m using pentax gear for many years now. There was a time when I used the ist*DL model, and I was one of those unhappy pentax users who saw how slow Pentax AF is compared to Canon. Now I own K20D and I’m completely happy.

So if you think that Pentax AF’s double check sux, and you want it to be as fast as Canons, I would recommend you to think twice.

Since I’m interesting in photography, I know how AF works, so one man gave his Canon (with no warranty) to check (he had almost all of the shots blurred). So I checked, and did the screw ‘adjustment’ witch helped, more details in article here http://www.behind-camera.com/?p=8

After that, I made lots of tests, mostly with Canon 50 1.8. I couldn’t believe, Canons AF is terribly inconsistent! If my FA50 even on ist*DL AF performance would be like Canon 350D + 50 1.8 I would sell it the same day.

When you learn the disadvantages of the competitors gear, you discover that you didn’t saw the advantages of yours.

Cheers!
--
Blog http://www.Behind-Camera.com

I would one day like to see some proper tests on focus consistency. My experience of Canon is that its very dependent on the lens (both speed and accuracy) and I dont know how much influence the camera has in this.

I have also seen a lot of complaints in the Canon fora about focus accuracy in general but usually aimed at specific lenses.

BehindCamera said:

Hello there. I’m new here. I’m using pentax gear for many
years now. There was a time when I used the ist*DL model, and I was
one of those unhappy pentax users who saw how slow Pentax AF is
compared to Canon. Now I own K20D and I’m completely happy.
So if you think that Pentax AF’s double check sux, and you
want it to be as fast as Canons, I would recommend you to think twice.
Since I’m interesting in photography, I know how AF works, so
one man gave his Canon (with no warranty) to check (he had almost all
of the shots blurred). So I checked, and did the screw
‘adjustment’ witch helped, more details in article here
http://www.behind-camera.com/?p=8
After that, I made lots of tests, mostly with Canon 50 1.8. I
couldn’t believe, Canons AF is terribly inconsistent! If my
FA50 even on ist*DL AF performance would be like Canon 350D + 50 1.8
I would sell it the same day.
When you learn the disadvantages of the competitors gear, you
discover that you didn’t saw the advantages of yours.

Cheers!
--
Blog http://www.Behind-Camera.com

Click to expand...

--
Steve

Any fool can take a picture OF something. Its much harder to take a picture ABOUT something.

Well apparently the grass isn't green anywhere, especially here in Oz.
--
Chris.

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/chriside

GMT +9.5

Pentax SLR talk FAQ
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=23161072

AF system in low or normal light that's been made. I love the camera and its IQ, but I always, and I repeat always, MF with this camera. My K20D, on the other hand, has a perfect AF system. Don

BehindCamera said:

Hello there. I’m new here. I’m using pentax gear for many
years now. There was a time when I used the ist*DL model, and I was
one of those unhappy pentax users who saw how slow Pentax AF is
compared to Canon. Now I own K20D and I’m completely happy.
So if you think that Pentax AF’s double check sux, and you
want it to be as fast as Canons, I would recommend you to think twice.
Since I’m interesting in photography, I know how AF works, so
one man gave his Canon (with no warranty) to check (he had almost all
of the shots blurred). So I checked, and did the screw
‘adjustment’ witch helped, more details in article here
http://www.behind-camera.com/?p=8
After that, I made lots of tests, mostly with Canon 50 1.8. I
couldn’t believe, Canons AF is terribly inconsistent! If my
FA50 even on ist*DL AF performance would be like Canon 350D + 50 1.8
I would sell it the same day.
When you learn the disadvantages of the competitors gear, you
discover that you didn’t saw the advantages of yours.

Cheers!
--
Blog http://www.Behind-Camera.com

Click to expand...

--



'Photography is not like painting,' Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. 'There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,'
http://www.dhaphotography.com/index.html

I'm not bashing Pentax. I have an istDS, K10D, and K20D and happy with all three.

But I also have a Canon 20D and 40D. I have never found their AF to be inaccurate or inconsistent regardless of the lens I'm using.

I wouldn't actually say Pentax AF is bad or slow. It's just that relative to my Canon cameras, it's not as good. It's just that there are many photographic situations where that Canon's extra fast AF is very important.

I think the lens and/or camera you tested were defective.

--
Allan in Colorado, USA

Don Allison said:

AF system in low or normal light that's been made. I love the camera
and its IQ, but I always, and I repeat always, MF with this camera.
My K20D, on the other hand, has a perfect AF system. Don

Click to expand...

Your K10D was defective. My K20D performs exactly the same as the K10D I had (except for AF-C which sems a bit better on the newer camera).

--
Manu



http://flickr.com/photos/ensh/
Pentax forums: http://tr.im/grmh

My PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/home#section=ARTIST&subSection=1312871&subSubSection=3929608

Yes AF kicks ass on my K20D and 50-135mm just because of my shooting style. I don't know how it'll perform with sports though.
--
K20D
Metz 58 AF-1, 54-MZ3
Pentax 12-24mm, Pentax DA* 50-135mm

I've owned my K10 for a little over 2yrs now (I really enjoy using it.....a lot). I have no experience with the newer K20 model so I cannot comment on any improvements that this model's AFl may or may not encompass, however, I have read from various sources that it was tweaked a little which provided some improvement. My primary gripe with the K10D camera's AF is not the speed, it's simply it's indecisiveness to lock focus. The speed of the AF module is plenty fast in my opinion, it simply lacks the ability to stay locked onto something before quickly trying to re-adjust. I've lost many shots because of this! I'd rather get semi-blurry OOF shots than no shots at all...(Indeed, I do resort to manual focus every now and then). I'm really looking forward to the improved AF in the next Pentax model, whatever/whenever that may be.

BehindCamera said:

Hello there. I’m new here. I’m using pentax gear for many
years now. There was a time when I used the ist*DL model, and I was
one of those unhappy pentax users who saw how slow Pentax AF is
compared to Canon. Now I own K20D and I’m completely happy.
So if you think that Pentax AF’s double check sux, and you
want it to be as fast as Canons, I would recommend you to think twice.
Since I’m interesting in photography, I know how AF works, so
one man gave his Canon (with no warranty) to check (he had almost all
of the shots blurred). So I checked, and did the screw
‘adjustment’ witch helped, more details in article here
http://www.behind-camera.com/?p=8
After that, I made lots of tests, mostly with Canon 50 1.8. I
couldn’t believe, Canons AF is terribly inconsistent! If my
FA50 even on ist*DL AF performance would be like Canon 350D + 50 1.8
I would sell it the same day.
When you learn the disadvantages of the competitors gear, you
discover that you didn’t saw the advantages of yours.

Cheers!
--
Blog http://www.Behind-Camera.com

Click to expand...

To be fair, the Canon 350D isn't known for its focus accuracy. If I were to compare the AF performance of different brands, I'd look at the flagship camera body. For example Pentax K20D vs Canon 50D vs Nikon D300.

My experience is interesting in that I find AF performance to be impacted as much by the lens as the K10D.

When the DA16-45 is mounted focussing is like I have an Irish dancing troupe in the lens. Mounting the Tamron 28-75 using exactly the same camera settings delivers a fast and snappy focus. This is in fair to good light and where the camera measures the Aperture, shutter speed and ISO exactly the same in each image.

For sport (motorsport) I use the Sigma 70-200 f2.8 HSM and find that AF-C works well and AF is consistent.
--
Cheers

Gordon
Perth, Western Australia
K10D

http://www.flashpixx.net
http://www.pbase.com/gordonhaywood/

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/home#section=ARTIST&subSection=123519&subSubSection=0&language=EN

i love my k20 but it seem op is trying to compare af performace against FAULTY canon?

kIdFrY said:

because of this! I'd rather get semi-blurry OOF shots than no shots
at all...(Indeed, I do resort to manual focus every now and then).

Click to expand...

Try AF-C mode...it'll give you semi-blurry OOF shots in those situations...

The 50 f/1.8 is arguably the least accurate AF lens Canon makes. No wonder too, as it's made out of plastic (even the mount!) and costs $90. Glad you're happy with AF on the K20D, but let's not jump to conclusions over a 350D (old and not that great AF either) + 50 f/1.8.

Yes, the Rebel with a 50/1.8 focuses pretty bad. I had that kit for a while. Maybe if I had used a 40D with 50/1.4 USM I would think more highly of Canon. Certainly it's unfair to judge a system by its older and lesser performing models.

Don Allison said:

AF system in low or normal light that's been made.

Click to expand...

It's better than the k100d..!

kenyee said:

kIdFrY said:

because of this! I'd rather get semi-blurry OOF shots than no shots
at all...(Indeed, I do resort to manual focus every now and then).

Click to expand...

Try AF-C mode...it'll give you semi-blurry OOF shots in those
situations...

Click to expand...

Did that in your face fast shots with DA*200mm & K20D AF-C.
The only thing that I did was to fire in burst and followed the subject.











http://photo.net/pentax-camera-forum/00SO2b

Needless to say I was hesitant initially relying on the AF-c as I only did manual focus even for fast bif shots.

Daniel, Toronto
http://www.pbase.com/danieltong

kIdFrY said:

My primary gripe with the K10D camera's AF is not the speed, it's simply it's > indecisiveness to lock focus. The speed of the AF module is plenty fast in my > opinion, it simply lacks the ability to stay locked onto something before quickly > trying to re-adjust

Click to expand...

Agree, with my K20 in some situations I switch to manual. Like trying to get bird shots with my DA55-300mm, it can be work because if you move the lens just a little while its AF and there is background around the bird you can forget it, it keeps locking on everything but. Funny my last GX10 was not as sensitive to this, it could be an adjustment someplace? Maybe on how sensitive the AF point is or something. The AF point on the K20 is fast and accurate for sure, but as you say when it does that double check and if you moved a little...
--
jamesm007,
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z77/jamesm700/
WSSA member 266PX

All AF systems, I believe, chose focus according to contrast, so they're all going to work fine if you have a clearly defined subject in the foregrund, such as those taken with the DA* 200mm posted here.

I happen to have this lens, too, and it is a dandy, but most of my shooting is of wildlife in wooded areas, so I use it most of the time on MF. Otherwise, it often focuses on a branch or a blade of grass in front of my intended subject. It's very sensetive, and has more focus points than I think are needed. I think it's just too complicated and gets confused sometimes, so I keep it on spot focus most of the time.

My subject often are moving, too, and this can keep the shutter from releasing, because the focus can't lock. I've tried AF-C, but I do find that unreliable, so I don't use it. If I do happen to find myself with a moving subject when set on AF-S, I fine tune to focus by hand, and the shutter releases just fine, but the truth is, by the time I use AF, decide it's just a hair off and fine tune it by hand, I can probably get there with MF just as fast, or faster.

When I have used the 200 on AF, or my other lenses for that matter, on simple, defined shots, I have found it very quiet, extremely fast and tack sharp. IF lenses tend to be faster than those that rely on the in-camera focus, however, but I guess that's to be expected.

I'm not familiar with Canon's or Nikon's speeds, but they would have to be almost instantanious to beat my K20D with IF lenses. They very well may be faster than this body's in-camera AF. I just don't know. We're talking about fractions of a second here. Is it really that big a deal?

For the poster who asked about "adjustments," you can set the AF focal range on a K20D to make it find focus even faster, which some might find useful with the longer focal lengths at predictible distances. But I've always been afraid that my unpredictable subjects would pop up inside or outside of that range. Besides, as I said, I use it most of the time on AF.
--

In the end, the only things that matter are the people we help and the people we hurt.

BehindCamera said:

BehindCamera wrote:

Click to expand...

yes, really why stop @ 350D vs K20D ? make it D30 vs K20D

===
Pentax dSLR (K20D/*istDL) + Panasonic P&S (LX3)

--

I love my K100d and antishake. With some lenses it focuses quite fast...even in low light (Tamron 17-35 2.8-4 for example....also with the 1.7x afa) but afs means taking one shot at a time and having to push the shutter button each time.

I have been using my IST*D the last week ortwo (after about a year being unloved on a shelf), and forgotten just how much I love this camera (if it had K100d jpegs/iq tweaks and anti shake and lcd and it is all I want....ok maybe 8mp).

With both cameras I tend to use afs and love using them with trap focus.

I had forgotten the IST*D can actually use AFS and either multiple shots or single shot with single press...so in good light for instance you keep your finger on the button and as long as in focus it will shoot until the (small) buffer is full.
edit...by using the auto bracketing I think it is.

My question is do the K10d and K20d or K200d or K2000d do this? I would expect the K10d and K20d but have only played with them briefly.

I am thinking I should get a new camera soon and it is a nice feature I would like.

neil