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Sad saga continues with Pentax AF

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dennis tennis said:
I"m not asking for help. I'm posting to say that this is another example of the underwhelming AF abilities of the Pentax system.
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Lets clarify something, your experience is so far off the vast majority of Pentax users that its more than an outlier, its an experience that would just be thrown out of any statistical analysis as its too far off the norm. Therefore obviously it is not normal and anyone coming upon this posting needs to know that it is not normal or even common, or even likely! So you had issues, and instead of taking responsibility you just blame the equipment, you don't offer up any proof but your poor story. No evidence either means you are avoiding the possibility it could be your fault and you don't want to face it or you just don't care... I suspect both are true. I bid you farewell and good luck, we don't need people making mistakes and blaming the camera for it on this forum.
 
MightyMike said:
dennis tennis said:
I"m not asking for help. I'm posting to say that this is another example of the underwhelming AF abilities of the Pentax system.
Click to expand...
Lets clarify something, your experience is so far off the vast majority of Pentax users that its more than an outlier, its an experience that would just be thrown out of any statistical analysis as its too far off the norm. Therefore obviously it is not normal and anyone coming upon this posting needs to know that it is not normal or even common, or even likely! So you had issues, and instead of taking responsibility you just blame the equipment, you don't offer up any proof but your poor story. No evidence either means you are avoiding the possibility it could be your fault and you don't want to face it or you just don't care... I suspect both are true. I bid you farewell and good luck, we don't need people making mistakes and blaming the camera for it on this forum.
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+1

To the OP : the least you could do is post some examples. A thread like yours trashing the AF of Pentax is more than just suspect.

Check other threads on this same page of people shooting F1 cars going at 200 MPH with the K5IIs... how can one believe you?
 
dennis tennis said:
I love Pentax philosophy, I'm nauseous with what just happened.

Look, I don't have any illusions that Pentax AF is good. I'm resigned to this. I have the good lenses but I don't expect Pentax to be able to reliably shoot sports with it but what happened today is just pathetic.

Two weeks ago, I brought my Canon T5 with the 55-250 STM "kit lens" and shot women's soccer. It wasn't too shabby. 7out of 10 acceptable. The Lens is very good but not spectacular IQ-wise. I told myself, this is why soccer-mom buy this thing.

today, I shot the same team, same light level, sunny late afternoon sun. This time, I shot with my K3 with 60-250 f4. Setting: AF-C, focus priority, center AF, high fps. the first 400 frames, maybe 1-10 was spot on. 2-10 decently focus. Here's the sad part, the remaing 390 frames, all , all were blurry, nothing in the frame was in focus. Nothing,.
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I am suspicious to say the least, have you seen the "other forum" for Pentax sports and what about the Montreal Grand Prix which posted just few days ago by another forum member and this one.... hhmmm, what gives.

Loading…

www.dpreview.com

cheers,

Rene
 
This is not in any way in line with my experience with AF on the K3. My keeper rate far exceeds what I was getting with the K5 even on ducks in flight. And for those who might not be aware, ducks are some of the fastest flying birds in the world, far faster that gulls and even faster than raptors.
 
Hi Dennis,

If I were you I would first send the K3 and the lens back to Pentax for testing, as from the experiences from users on this forum what is happening is "not" normal. If it's returned with "no fault found" you will have to look elsewhere for the problem.
 
DarylK said:
Could it be that you had the switch on your lens (or camera body) switched to manual focus? Seems like that is a plausible explanation. If so, the camera would fire regardless of all your other settings, focus priority, etc.
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LOL, this happened to me, before I had my 18-135mm repaired. Sometimes it would just stop auto focusing, and I would perform a raindance that included switching the camera to manual and back to AF-S to get it to auto focus again (not sure why, but it seemed to help). The problem was that a couple of times, I forgot to switch it back from M to AF-S, and I ended up with a bunch of OOF photos.

jm_mac
 
Based on Dennis' last post, he doesn't want any suggestions of what the problem might be and potential solutions. He seems to only wish to unreasonably bash (troll?) Pentax's AF capabilities. Based on the overwhelmingly positive posts on the K3 AF ability, my conclusion of the problem comes down to either operator error (which I tend to believe since Dennis seems to be refusing to post an example with exif which might point to him as the problem) or an individual faulty camera or lens.

Those who refuse to be helped are helpless.

Daryl

--

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Great photography is largely a matter of perspective, both visually and mentally - Daryl Kottwitz (but probably said before :) )
My gallery: http://darylkottwitzphoto.smugmug.com
My shots on PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/darylkottwitz
 
Ha! It unfortunately has happened to me as well...that's why it seems so plausible to me. Sometimes we as humans make stupid mistakes. The key is to be willing to acknowledge our mistakes and learn from them rather than laying blame where it doesn't belong.

Daryl
 
I'm going to guess either the camera is faulty, or you dont know how to use it. Even my old K20D would have been around an85% + keeper rate.

I dont mean to be harsh, but 10 shots out of 400 is simply not normal for any camera on the market today.
 
I had a K7 which was subject to missing focus. I sent it in for service and they replaced what they called the focus block. I have had no trouble in getting good cycling pictures with the K5 and K5iis. Some filters can cause problems of this sort. Last year I tried to use a polarising filter with my newly acquired DA 18-135 and I could not get a sharp shot until I removed it.
 
Dave Luttmann said:
I'm going to guess either the camera is faulty, or you dont know how to use it. Even my old K20D would have been around an85% + keeper rate.

I dont mean to be harsh, but 10 shots out of 400 is simply not normal for any camera on the market today.
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Just to add to that, I'd have stopped shooting long before i hit 390 bad photos and would have done everything i could think of to determine what was going wrong including checking all the custom settings and trying different techniques... Some people mock others for chimping, but those who chimp don't end up with 390 bad photos in a session.
 
It's the AFC. It shoots whether the shot is in focus or not. Experimented with it. Never use it.
 
Dear Dennis Tennis,

Okay so i understand your check the first ' 400 ' images, and 1 out of 10, or 2 in 10 in perfect focus? Then you take another batch, none of which are in focus. Did you not review these? If after the first few images i thought the focus was off i would recheck all my settings. Yet you managed to take 400 images with barely a sharp image in them and weren't concerned enough?

Thanks

Broken Hill
 
miles500 said:
Some filters can cause problems of this sort. Last year I tried to use a polarising filter with my newly acquired DA 18-135 and I could not get a sharp shot until I removed it.
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Ah, polarizing filters... I had been wondering for a long time why my images were all of a sudden all blurry when I found out that they would be tack sharp with the filter removed. It wasn't the cheapest filter, either.

(and yes, the filter was clean!)

(oh, and the lens was also a DA 18-135)
 
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AF of moving subjects is tricky and is a lot more complicated than pointing the camera at the subject and hoping that the objects are in focus. Even between the K5IIs and K3 I need to change how I shoot so since you shoot with different brands doesn't mean that user error is not involved. That seems like the likely explanation.

Dale
 
MightyMike said:
Just so you know focus priority in AF-C has never really worked on any Pentax, its a joke really, a bad one! however for that much failure as you describe the only logical conclusions are poor photographic technique which could be a wide range of things including not know how the camera responds which is pretty obvious with you thinking focus priority in AF-C works. other possibilities have been posted and there are even more things this issue can be... Another issue with SR is if you are too trigger happy and fire before it spools up you can ruin the who burst of photos, when not panning the SR takes approx 0.6 sec to spool, it only takes an estimated 0.07 sec for the average person to press the trigger if the subject looks in focus. now despite the many possible user errors there is one other issue and that is either your lens or your camera are faulty. My bet is on user error, likely something you just didn't know about.
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You left SR on didn't you Dennis?

You would have been stop/start Panning following the action, the SR would have been turning on and off spooling up spooling down everything was in focus but you have massive blurr from a sensor going out of its mind.

SR is only for when you are holding the camera steady! ie slow shutter & long lenses.

--

Regards Dean - Capturing Creation
N.B. All my Images are Protected by Copyright
 
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Broken Hill said:
Dear Dennis Tennis,

Okay so i understand your check the first ' 400 ' images, and 1 out of 10, or 2 in 10 in perfect focus? Then you take another batch, none of which are in focus. Did you not review these? If after the first few images i thought the focus was off i would recheck all my settings. Yet you managed to take 400 images with barely a sharp image in them and weren't concerned enough?

Thanks

Broken Hill
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I don't find the rear LCD good enough for focus checking. that's me.

You do realize that I've taken pictures before right?
 
Wanganuilad said:
dennis tennis said:
I love Pentax philosophy, I'm nauseous with what just happened. etc
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Still no pics like numerous helpful posters have mentioned...

so you can get help...

You seem to be having a dreadful run at the moment.... your B&H problem now this :)

K-5 K-01 Q some Len
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Yes, the B&H Billngham bag problem is still unresolved :( Still, waiting for them to send the missing insert.

I bought the K3 from them just recently, the special was too tempting.
 
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