Originally posted by Pål Jensen That's right. They always have. While Nikon and Canon were targeting the photo journalists whose images was mainly printed in low res in newspapers, Pentax were concentrating on image quality; and particularly on lenses, and high res imaging with medium format.
Pentax has never been about machine gunning images. They were even late providing motor drive....
Good points. Awhile ago I was looking at pictures taken by newspaper photographer pros . The pictures were taken of NHL hockey action for city newspapers back in the late '80's. The pro camera equipment at that time was 35mm film Nikon, Nikon/Nikkor lenses. The resolution was not impressive, but the action stopping was impressive. I know a hockey arena is not the best place for photography, but boy was I not impressed with the quality...composition fine, but resolution.
Back in the 1980's I had a new Leica rangefinder and Leitz (35mm), wide angle, 50mm and 90mm for a long weekend. I shot everything and anything. Many rolls of film...64, 100, 200, 400 ASA. I tried an experiment...my Pentax ES ll body, my 50mm F 1.8 Takumar and 135mm F 3.5 Tak, vs the Leica and Leitz 50 and 90mm lenses. Same subject, same film, same ISO, same F stop, same shutter speed and I checked out the quality of both Leica and Pentax photographs. I had difficulty telling which was taken by which camera/lens. I had a buddy and my wife take a look...without telling them which photo was taken with which camera equipment. They couldn't tell either.
In the digital age I've seen photographs at the 8 X 10 level, taken with Canon 5D2, 7D and my K10D and K-5....at 100-400 ISO. All with Canon and /or Pentax lenses. IMHO, my Pentax gear more than holds it's own.
Freezing fast action is not my priority...excellent resolution, sharpness have always been my priority.
As far as fast action, I generally use my Sigma 150-500 and K-5 body.
I invariably take pics of wild birds (BIF) and wild animals during daylight hours. I set my ISO at 800-1600, shutter speed over 1/1000th or more, F stop at F 9 to F 10...for added DOF...to add to sharpness of fast moving birds. I focus on the eye of the subject, lead forward the subject, with my lens (old hunting trick I learned from my father) , anticipating where the bird/animal is going and the pics for the most part are in focus....and hit the shutter button. I do set on AF continuous, use spot focus .
I also take pics of fast moving drag race cars using this methodology, except I focus on the front wheel rather than the eye...as long as the race car is not doing a wheelie.
Even though I do read about the lack of fast AF of Pentax stuff....I dunno...it seems ok for my purposes.