Originally posted by Davidparis Long-time faithful Pentax user, these days I'm so fed up with their AF that I'm seriously considering jumping ship to Nikon. Not happy to admit that, but I need precise AF in extreme situations. Pentax AF requires an enormous amount of effort and concentration to compensate for its mediocrity. Will wait for the ever-elusive K-3 succesor or a new FF if demonstrably better AF is available...
Those of us who started with no AF don't take AF quite as seriously. I'm pretty much amazed at what i get with my AF.
K-3, AF.S, 23 frames with the first 20 in focus, the last three, the dog was too close to the camera for the AF to keep it in focus. Shots were selected for their composition. Every now and then I do this just to remind myself... there are other factors besides the camera's AF system that are stopping most people from getting the images they want.
Originally posted by normhead Pentax AF requires an enormous amount of effort and concentration to compensate for its mediocrity.
What camera are you comparing it to?
AF is kind of like low light. You can get some really bad pictures where it's not the fault of the AF. It's the expectation that a candid action picture will be as good as a more posed still picture. I really don't understand people thinking unposed, thoughtlessly taken images where you are just tracking someone will be as good as images where you actually prepared, took time to make sure you had a background good light etc.. There's this imaginary world where you can shoot in burst mode with no preparation and produce studio quality images.
But honestly I have no clue what the situations are. 99% of the time people who say stuff like what i quoted above, are really just saying, "I have a problem and I blame the camera." That's all I know. But I got my suspicions.
A guy who posts in the 300 plus club went Nikon a while ago for Birds in Flight. I think he said he increased his keeper rate about 4/10 to 6 out of 10. My numbers are almost certain to be wrong but, the point is he got some keepers with Pentax, he got more with Nikon. Personally, most f the time I'm looking for 3 or 4 good images, so 4/10 instead of 6/10 or 8/10 is just fine with me. I'm not willing to pay for better. Others who want better should switch brands. It's not like anyone really cares what brand you use. But seriously, if you're getting nothing, it's not the camera, it's you.
Personally if AF was even remotely important to me i would have switched back in the 90s when a friend showed me his Nikon F4, with AF and 6 fps. People in this day and age 30 years later complaining about Pentax AF just makes me yawn. "Pentax has bad AF" is a catch phrase for every wannabe expert with a blog on the internet, to the point that you can almost rate the knowledge of these self appointed experts, by how quickly they dismiss Pentax. Announcing Pentax AF is inadequate for your needs seems to be a fad, a fad, that I'm really tired of. Rather than earn credibility it earns my instant disgust. It's poor workman that blames his tools.
We have to listen to you whine about your bad choices. That's not fair. Man up.
We're you living under rock?