[Tom Woj]

Ah, fair do's. Don't quote me on this but I don't think many sports shooters rely fully on AF-C anyway. Single focus to lock in on a pre-visualized shot, or pre-focus manually. Maybe a few people from https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5-forum/115277-k-5-sports-photography.html could chime in to give you a better idea..

The notion that any camera can be pointed at a moving object and instantly focus to catch a moment is not practical. I shoot a lot of fast moving things in poor light. I use AFS and Single Center Focus and track with the rear AF. That way, I know what I'm focused on and when I press the shutter, there is no delay. While waiting in stores, I've picked up Nikons and focused on non moving things near and far and it takes awhile. There is no magic, it is practice and use. How can a camera know what you want unless you control it? In the attached photos. if your not on the the subject, you're late.



I use Pentax and non Pentax, SDM and Screw drives and speed of focus is a non-issue. I really need a good exposure setting and I need to be paying attention, following the action. I go to a lot of rehearsals to see choreography. I've learned to anticipate action based on the music. Lighting is a bigger issue when it changes a lot quickly. The Dynamic Range on the K-5 is a great help. Making a lot of mistakes and learning is more important. I know what I'm doing and I still delete most of what I shoot.

Good tools are important but they are just tools. I will also tell you that after a number of informal photography lessons with Moms and Dads before rehearsals and performances, they get better pictures with their Nikon and Canon kit lenses. How you use the tools is more important.

[Ex Finn.]

If you can not afford the other brand FF, then stay with Pentax and get the K5. My 2 cents.

[RonHendriks1966]

If you can not afford the other brand FF, then stay with Pentax and get the K5. My 2 cents.

+1 on this. Basicly, buy K-5 and sell K-x and your expensis are very low.

[Popeye.Tom]

If you can not afford the other brand FF, then stay with Pentax and get the K5. My 2 cents.

I have to agree - there are a lot of things that go into the focus determination by the camera's software and hardware. I don't have any experience with the K-x, but the K5 is a super well rounded camera. I'm not sure that you'd get enough (talking about a full order of magnitude) performance to justify the change...body, lenses, flash. This is especially true if you stayed ASP-C, I just doubt you'd see the real difference.

From what I've read, you would likely see an increase in AF performance going to a full frame/Pro from CaNikon, but your cost/benefit ratio would be way off, IMO.

It might be different if you were making a living at it, but then again>The forum member "FullertonImages" is making a living with K5 and in at least some cases is shooting action, and getting results. This is from his thread here >virtually indesctructable<, "The day after that, we were shooting the kayak section of the race from the back of jet skis, and my friend Sam, who also uses a K-5 got dumped by his driver and swam with his K-5 and 18-55WR for about 10 second before he got back on the jet ski. Continued shooting for the rest of the day and the camera still works." I am making assumptions here, but I would imagine he was getting images in focus.

Work and play, read what is in some of the other threads. I agree with what Brook said, experiment, ask, improve your capability with the tool. You might find some use of her AF button makes the existing K-x just fine.

PT

[cmohr]

One thing I found helped was using the AF-C mode, but in the camera setting have AF confirmation set the frame rate priority not Focus confirm priority, that way whilst the camera is following focus, it doe not nessecarially get AF confirm but still takes the shot. This may sound odd, but its not that the subject is actually out of focus, but that the camera isn't waiting for the confirm to release the shutter. I have followed surfers across wave faces as the go not only side to side , but the wave itself moves closer and the AF of the K-5 was able to follow and give in focus shots along the way. If I set the focus confirm priority not frame rate, the camera stalled as the focus AF-C was following the action and the camera would not take a picture, by the time the camera was almost happy with focus the subject had again moved too far and then the camera would just zip all the way to the other end of the focus scale and no pictures would be taken.

cmohr

[felixkh]

I really depends on what you are shooting. I used the DA50-200WR for a school event reently and it turned out ok.

[joe.penn]

Hmmmmm, I don't know - I see some are saying go with the K5, I honestly think you are going to end up with the same issue - actually I am fairly certain you are going to end up with the same issue seeing that another user has recently posted the same problem while shooting sports with the K5 and the Tammy 70~200. The Kx that you have is more than capable of helping you create solid sports photographs - have you had plenty of trial and error with the Kx/Tammy combo with sports shooting yet?

[twitch]

I didn't find the K-5 AF much better if at all than the AF of my K-x. Others clearly found different.

[mattb123]

Mine is improved from a K-x but not drastically. My K-x actually wasn't bad unless I had a slow lens like a DA L 55-300 which can hunt a lot in low light.
But the red dots are nice,

[Ash]

The K-5 is a definite improvement for me, both for tracking as well as for low light speed and accuracy, by virtue of the LED light AF assist. Nevertheless, it's not a revolutionary improvement.