[Asahiflex]

I'm gonna jump my own post. All shown picturs, volleyball and basketball, are great, but they are just single shots from a long or short serie. You can only look and judge the AF-c serie when you can look at the hole bunch and not just the one perfect shot in them.

But this is about AF.C and not the FPS of the K-5. In my case the volleyball shots are just a few from a series of about 125 single pictures, none of them where shot in bursts. For me it is more than enough that 90% of my shots were in focus. In the other 10% of the cases the camera just focused on another contrasty part (which was always sharp).

[dosdan]

You can only look and judge the AF-c serie when you can look at the hole bunch and not just the one perfect shot in them.

Just based on the quality of focus alone, I think in this sequence of 29 shots:

15 have good focus (52%)
7 are passable (24%)
7 are OOF enough not to bother trying to fix them (24%).

85mm FL @ F2 is a severe test for a moving subject, particularly when the rider comes close. Judging the line between good & passable depends on how critical you're being. Also, in some of the "passable" shots where the rider was close to the camera, the coat is in focus, but due to the very shallow DOF, the face isn't. Some of the passable shots could be improved further by a plugin like Focus Magic if you specifically needed to use that shot.

I don't like the level of sharpening the PP has applied. To me, it "cookie-cuts" her face out of the background.

Dan

[RonHendriks1966]

Just based on the quality of focus alone, I think in this sequence of 29 shots:

15 have good focus (52%)
7 are passable (24%)
7 are OOF enough not to bother trying to fix them (24%).

85mm FL @ F2 is a severe test for a moving subject, particularly when the rider comes close. Judging the line between good & passable depends on how critical you're being. Also, in some of the "passable" shots where the rider was close to the camera, the coat is in focus, but due to the very shallow DOF, the face isn't. Some of the passable shots could be improved further by a plugin like Focus Magic if you specifically needed to use that shot.

I don't like the level of sharpening the PP has applied. To me, it "cookie-cuts" her face out of the background.

Dan

Thanks for the calculating. Well the PP was set to autosharpening, batch work, so I didn't do anything on to tweak it to personal tast.

I think one picture she is just out of the AF-aeria (number 20) and a few are focust, but as you said on the coat (not a test with only centre AF-point) wich is still on-focus.

[doc.mark.dimo]

I'm gonna jump my own post. All shown picturs, volleyball and basketball, are great, but they are just single shots from a long or short serie. You can only look and judge the AF-c serie when you can look at the hole bunch and not just the one perfect shot in them.

Hi Ron,

I understand your point and will look for a series of images to post that show a sequence of 3-4 shots.

My only problem is that with my style of shooting I almost never hold down the Shutter for anything longer than 3+ frames. hence, I didn't have too much angst in seeing the original raw burst rate at 8 frames. now that the Raw burst is bumped to 20, the problem is moot.

In my experience, the images remained sharp in the VF while constantly tracking, when I would finally fire, I was pleasantly surprised that the keeper rate was quite high.

I'll do more experiments later, however in low light with a fast player transitioning down the court and coming right at you, I felt the K5 anticipated the position and focused swiftly, far better than any prior pentax SLR.

[dylansalt]

The REAL test for the K5 is shooting the same sequence along with a 7D user - bearing in mind that the 7D is now "significantly" below the K5 in cost.

It would also be nice if lets say a 500 f4 lens @ F4 is used with the subject filling the frame, approaching at speed head on to the camera.

Only then can the K5's keeper af-c rate can be judged.

[dosdan]

The REAL test for the K5 is shooting the same sequence along with a 7D user - bearing in mind that the 7D is now "significantly" below the K5 in cost.

Did you see the thread below? With a car approaching at 50kph, the K-5 did significantly better than the k-7 or K20D (what I've got).

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5-forum/122336-labo-fnac-tests-k...o-focus-c.html

Dan

[dosdan]

What is the reason that a K-5 user would use 5-point over 11-point AF for AF.C? Is is better speed or are you trying to constrain the AF from picking the wrong object?

Dan

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Last edited by dosdan; 11-26-2010 at 01:24 PM.

[Asahiflex]

What is the reason that a K-5 user would use 5-point over 11-point AF for AF.C? Is is better speed or are you try to constrain the AF from picking the wrong object?

Dan

Both. With 5 AF points the area is smaller, and the SAFOX needs less time to determine which point should be in focus.

[vario]

I find now that i get the most keepers being on 5 AF points, and AF-C. On AF-S it seems to be hit or miss, don;t know why.

[doc.mark.dimo]

I find now that i get the most keepers being on 5 AF points, and AF-C. On AF-S it seems to be hit or miss, don;t know why.

I like using AF 5, instead of AF 11 when shooting sports. The points at the perimeter may easily be fooled if a lot of action is going on within the frame.

and like asahiflex has stated, lessening the AF point total may gain an advantage as far as cpu processing.

happy shooting.

[Urkeldaedalus]

I like using AF 5, instead of AF 11 when shooting sports. The points at the perimeter may easily be fooled if a lot of action is going on within the frame.

and like asahiflex has stated, lessening the AF point total may gain an advantage as far as cpu processing.

happy shooting.

Same here Mark. Before I got the K-5, I used the center point for sports shooting. Now I just use the 5 point autofocus in the same fashion, it's just a center square now instead of a center point. Helped me a lot following football action where you want the ball carrier in the middle in focus, not the linemen on the periphery.

[planedriver]

DA 55-300 at 300mm f10 iso 800 five point AF-C, "in focus" rate is very good-I feel that I'm more limited by the lens than the body. Should have used even higher iso..




Andras

[jpzk]

DA 55-300 at 300mm f10 iso 800 five point AF-C, "in focus" rate is very good-I feel that I'm more limited by the lens than the body. Should have used even higher iso..

Andras

Good shot, Andras.

You mention using the five-points AF with your K5, and it seems more people are also using it.
I take it that the K5 would actually perform better for BIF than with using the single point AF?
Which AF option did you use - focus priority?

JP

[alexeyga]

Good stuff... now that Pentax has a sports-capable camera, it would be a good idea to produce some sports-capable glass:



Seriously though, being used to CaNikon's 200/2-ish and 300/2.8-ish look of sporting shots, pics from K5 do seem to have too much DOF... It depends a lot on the sport and the point of view of course... but it would be nice to see that 120-300/2.8 from Sigma in K mount... at least.... because at the current rate, Pentax is too busy solving the stains issues to make any long and fast glass....

[dreamfoto]

flying dauphins attack SC