All the best with that Smeggy.
I've been fortunate.
A pre-stain fixed model with no stains (yet).
Didn't have noticeable FF in low light in v1.02
No FF problem in any light and for all focal distances (low white fluoro and tungsten lights included) with v1.03
Hard to know if there was any change with the firmware update - all seems to be in order for me.

Thanks Ash. keeping my fingers crossed

ash

do you have the 16-50 DA ?..if so could you test it at 16mm...my sigma 17-50 still refuses to get a good focus until 35 mm in low light..from 35 mm its fine..any thing under that..not fine

Sold that one away last year Tommo and decided to keep on with the Tamron 28-75.
You mean to say the Sigma front-focuses on your K-5 in low lighting?
You have the v1.03 firmware I assume...
And this problem persisted despite the update?
I will do a quick and dirty check with my 12-24 and get back to you on that one...

cheers Ash

as I say it might very well be my 17-50 thats the issue....be nice to see others at that FL having no probs, then I can sort the lens if its that

Just received my replacement K-5. It's a 4xxxxxx serial number built in January this year.

It arrived with V1.01 installed. A quick test shows it's front focussing @ EV2 like my original copy, but perhaps not as much. I'll install 1.03 and do some proper tests after I've woke up a bit.

Fingers crossed Smeggy.

I'm interested as well since my K5 still FF with wider lenses.

After loading 1.03 the AF at EV2 is much better than my old K-5. In fact sometimes it's spot on.

What is notable though is that the AF is inconsistent with 1.03. Whereas with 1.01 it was FFing consistently at EV2 it now varies between spot on and not as much FF as 1.01.

I also noticed that the AF was a bit inconsistent in daylight too with 1.03. I'm certainly much happier, but I feel pentax need to continue to try and improve the AF performance. Falk's latest tests would confirm this I think.

I'll try and get some proper tests done soon with my new Body. I'm also intending on buying a 2nd K-5 this week so that will be an interesting comparison

Why not just get the LensAlign?

Seems to have the best of both worlds....flat/parallel focusing target combined with the angled ruler.

Terry

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And that just may be as good as it gets with this iteration of the Pentax AF module. It sounds like it shows the same behavior as the Canon 40D, but maybe a bit more consistent than the 40D even.

If you want the best low-light AF on the planet, get the D700 - otherwise, I wonder if the K-5 might actually match most other aps-c-level models out there now.

That's my main concern with Falk's tests - There isn't really much to fault technically, but the big underlying problem with the whole thing is that he does not test the 60D, 7-D, D90, D300, D7000, etc, and it may be that this 'AF problem' isn't really a problem at all when compared to other bodies shooting under the same conditions.

Or it could be a real big problem compared to those other bodies. We just don't know unless we've shot multiple systems with similar lenses in similar situations and can compare somewhat subjectively. I know my D90 spanks my K20D in low-light AF speed and accuracy, I'd really like to know how D90 stands up against the K-5. (I guess I'll just have to buy a k5 to find out, huh? )


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$80 - $240? Wow - they certainly are proud of those, aren't they?

What's the point in paying all that dosh when I can make one for free.

I already have chopsaw, wood and enough carpentry skills

Well who knows how other manufacturers models perform?

I just know my K20D performed much better AF in low light than my previous K-5.

I'm not totally convinced my new K-5 performs as well as my K20D yet, but initial rough tests show that it probably will. I'm going to build a better test bed with a vertical focus target before doing any further tests.

Smeggy, I still have my K20D and have given it a run alongside the K-5 I have now, and I can say the difference is quite clear. The K-5 is more direct, more sure with locking on focus and is not any less accurate with focusing in low lighting as far as I could tell. So I do wonder whether your previous K-5s had issues.

Tommo (and others interested), I gave my K-5 with v1.03 a low-light run with my DA 12-24 and DA 18-55 at their widest focal lengths, and after about half an hour of 'testing' I finally managed to get my K-5 to front focus! Once.

At about EV1-2 I took about 20 shots with both lenses knowing the exact focus point, and despite trying different AF points, different focus distances, using AF assist lamp or not, out of all these shots I got one from the DA 12-24 front focused by perhaps a couple of centimetres. But I could not get it to replicate the front focusing again. So I gave up.

I accept focusing won't always be perfect under these conditions, but from what I've seen the focusing has been pretty much spot on each time I've challenged it. Any more difficult conditions and I'd be wondering what I want in a photograph of the dull scene before me.