Originally posted by aleonx3 Have you forgotten to use the "hi" continuous shooting mode? I have used the k-5 with DA 18-135 and DA* 50-135 in both occasions outdoor parade and stage shows.. almost every shot I got are in focus.... check your technique. On the other hand, I used the D3100 from my friend, sure the Nikon shutter keeps up with it, but only a small percentage are in focus. To me, it seems that the D3100 don't really care if the focus is on or not, the shutter will trip.
Yes, I was using Hi. All it really gave me was a very fast series of out of focus, and misfocused, shots when used with auto-focus.
I had the best results by manually focusing on an area that the dogs would have to run through to return the ball to me. I used the hi speed shooting mode and basically sprayed shots. It worked in that I got a few shots that are in focus enough to be nice to look at but it is both inefficient and inelegant.
Compared to the D3100 the K5ii is a machine gun when set to the Hi speed shooting setting. Unfortunately, in my experience so far, it's also about as accurate as a machine gun shooting in full auto. The D3100 shoots a lot slower but it locks and keeps focus on moving targets WAY better so even though it can only take 3 or 4 pictures in the time that the K5ii can take 20 or 30, more of the D3100s shots are actually in focus.
I'm hoping that this is all just a matter of the K5 being new and unfamiliar to me and being compared to a camera that I've shot every day for two years. This is literally the only circumstance I've found where the K5ii doesn't far exceed the D3100. I want to make this work and will keep experimenting until I figure out something.
I really appreciate everyone taking the time to chat with me about this and to share their thoughts and experiences.