Originally posted by LFLee
LOL... those who say AF is not important... because you do mostly MF....
I remember I told myself that I will never buy a car with auto-transmission as manual-transmission give me much more control ... 10 yrs ago. Now... I drive auto and laugh at myself. Now, if your car auto-transmission have problem or slow, people just complains (why not?).
technologies improves and yes, if Pentax sell camera at a price they used to be, I won't complain much about AF speed. If they start selling camera and lenses at price comparable to Canon and Nikon, why can't we demand the same AF speed from Pentax?

I'm not so sure this is a sound argument IMO (sorry).
Yes technology improves, but Pentax addresses a niche market that combines technology with practicality and legacy. The screwdriven lenses are driven by a basic technology with small mechanics (difficult to improve) that is limited by AF algorithms (can be improved somewhat). I'm sure if we got into the details of screwdrive AF technology we will see what our limitations are in terms of speed and accuracy.
This is not to excuse Pentax's lagging AF performance - simply to put it in perspective. Now SDM technology - that's a different ball game. Here is where A LOT of improvement should occur and ought to occur for more customer confidence.
So it's much more beyond the MF/AF issue, and more to do with marrying legacy with technology, which in some cases are extremely difficult (damn crippled KAF2 mount). We can demand better performance, and this is good for competition and corporate success, but either appreciate the available technology of the brand or move onto a different brand, where technology is clearly more advanced (and you obviously have to pay for it!)