Originally posted by Asahiflex Yes, it is. The K-7 does have it too, but not nearly as fast and no satellite spy-zoom either (it does have a manual zoom however).
It looks cool. And that CDAF is as fast as some of the PDAF in older cameras. I'm wondering if the zoom is necessary for the actual focusing (though I doubt - it doesn't need to be shown on the LCD for that - it's probably just one mode for peace-of-mind, to show the user that everything's in focus.)
As people have said, it's gone from a nice-to-have feature to something that's much, much more usable. Of course, we've all got to realise that video was on some well-lit, high-contrast subjects on a white background, but still...it's blisteringly fast.
I really wish Pentax would do things like release the story behind some of their developments - who were the engineers, what their process was, etc., for the CDAF and the new SAFOX IX+.