[nomadkng]

not so much license plate worries,, the driver should worry more that he told his wife he was on the other side of town at that time in a business meeting.

now bob's forum posts clearly show where he actually was and why he lobbied to raise the kids allowance by $5 a week,,, mmm

[philbaum]

I will need to read more about setting up AF on the K-3
The auto-focus section in the manual seems a little sparse to me and an area that deserves more explanation.

Since the BMW came out ok then I would guess it was me with the second car.

I set the focus on continuous, high speed. I see that I had AF set to AF.A and so I will retry with AF.C, the setting focusing area was set to zone, first frame action #16 set to focus priority, action in af.c set to focus priority, i had #18 hold af status set to default 1which is none. I am changing to 3 medium

privacy - traveling on public road means you give up privacy - I think

As the car gets closer, the amount of focus adjustment and the rate of angular motion across the camera lens gets greater. I wouldn't be surprised that their might be a limit to how fast the electronic/mechanical components can adjust the focus point. ( I don't like the feel of newer Sony lenses for manual focus adjustment, but i wouldn't be surprised if such lenses could be quicker to respond for tracking. At some point, photographers may have to choose between lenses that are electronically quick to focus and those that are better for manual focusing - compromises :-))

In any case, any processing functions you can disable might help the camera to respond quicker - since there's no sure way to tell where the delay is involved. For example, using jpeg may be quicker for the camera than raw. turning off lens corrections, horizon correction, etc. all may help, i think :-)

I saw some bif pictures that indicates the K3 is way beyond anything Pentax has had to date.

[bossa]

I believe there's a hold feature of AF-C which determines how long the camera waits before refocusing.. I might be wrong there (that's how it is on Nikons anyway) so you may want to investigate that feature and see if you can speed up AF-C.

[RonHendriks1966]

I just got my K3 last night, charged new batteries, put on the DA*300 and went to my street corner to photograph moving cars. The first sequence is a car coming directly toward the camera, the second sequence the car is coming towards and across the camera. In the past the DA*300 on my K5 was slow, not so on the K3 - not instantaneous but noticeably faster and certain. No processing other than converting DNG to JPEG. I set the focus points to the middle selection. The last shot is a third sequence bu the forum limited the attachments to 10.
I still need to go through and learn about the auto-focus options and how best to set up the K3
I would estimate the speed of the cars to be 25 mph perhaps 30

To be honest if you do that series again with a bikinigirl running I will be more interested!!!!!!!!!

[dadipentak]

However in my humble opinion you might want to remove the pics before the car owner stumbles upon his cars license numbers out in public domain
Or you can blacken the number plates at the least

Huh? Because?

[RockvilleBob]

I believe there's a hold feature of AF-C which determines how long the camera waits before refocusing.. I might be wrong there (that's how it is on Nikons anyway) so you may want to investigate that feature and see if you can speed up AF-C.

Thanks for the advice - Yes there are a number of auto focus options I need to work with. The camera is terrific - the manual is very skimpy when it comes to the auto focus options. I did another sequence with different options and the auto focus of moving cars is much improved.

I did send Pentax a note suggesting that more is needed to explain the auto focus. We are their best advertisers for getting new users, they need to make us shine.

[RockvilleBob]

The C3 menu is Hold AF Status. Here's what the manual contains:" you can set whether to immediately reactivate AF or to maintain the focus for a certain amount of time before activating AF when the subject happens to move out of the selected focusing area after being focused. The default setting is to immediately activate AF when focusing is unsuccessful." The options are Off (default), Low, Medium, High
What does this mean? I am using AF.C with zone focusing 9 points. I want to have the K-3 do tracking as best as it can. What is the proper setting for tracking is OFF maximum tracking or is High maximum tracking. What I wrote above appears as a footnote on page 43 of the manual.
It seems to me single point focus would eliminate tracking - I noticed another section of the forum dealing with AF where single point focus was used with a discussion on tracking.

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Last edited by RockvilleBob; 11-08-2013 at 05:50 PM.

[derekkite]

You are talking about two issues. The hold is for when you are panning and there is something between, in the foreground. It would hold before focusing on the closer object. I had mine set to low, but turned it off. For what I was doing it was getting in the way.

The tracking is different. You set the number of points to use, and the one you want to start with. I set it at Expanded af area S, which is 9 points. And the center point being primary. So I focus on something with the center point, and if it moves, the surrounding point will detect and keep focus. Something I noticed is the bottom right button on the back used for selecting the point can get pressed inadvertently and it then doesn't know what point to use. The indications other than the info screen are someone difficult to decipher.

[kenyee]

don't you need a lot more narrow DOF to check AF accuracy?
I remember a user griping a while back that the 85/1.4 wasn't accurate enough to use wide open :-P

And are the AF focus sensors (not the display points in the viewfinder) finally smaller?

[jpzk]

You are talking about two issues. The hold is for when you are panning and there is something between, in the foreground. It would hold before focusing on the closer object. I had mine set to low, but turned it off. For what I was doing it was getting in the way.

The tracking is different. You set the number of points to use, and the one you want to start with. I set it at Expanded af area S, which is 9 points. And the center point being primary. So I focus on something with the center point, and if it moves, the surrounding point will detect and keep focus. Something I noticed is the bottom right button on the back used for selecting the point can get pressed inadvertently and it then doesn't know what point to use. The indications other than the info screen are someone difficult to decipher.

This is the best explanation of the K3 AF system yet. (partly but to the point).

This is what I would use for birding nearly 100 % of the time then.
Do you agree with that?

Thanks.
JP

[derekkite]

This is the best explanation of the K3 AF system yet. (partly but to the point).

This is what I would use for birding nearly 100 % of the time then.
Do you agree with that?

Thanks.
JP

I'm still experimenting. I find that if the subject is small, ie. doesn't fit the center focus point, the area af will focus on other things such as background, or lose focus if you got it initially. It isn't hard to acquire focus on small things even at a distance. If it is larger, then it will track reasonably well. I'm using the 9 point array with the center point selected right now. You initially select the point, I use the center, and focus on your subject in the center. If the subject moves or you pan, other points will take over and maintain focus. It works reasonably well, but it isn't omniscient.

The issue I had with my DA*300 on the K-5 was what limited it's reach was the ability to focus on something in the distance. If the subject filled the focus point, no problem, but with a 300mm that is pretty close in. There seemed to be a hard limit at a certain distance, beyond that the IQ wasn't good. With the K-3 It can focus on things further out, and the resolution is denser, giving it a bit more reach.

The low light is truly amazing. This morning early I went down to the beach. I could see the outline of posts in the water, but couldn't see them unfocused in the viewfinder. The camera focused without a problem. I heard a kingfisher, and hoped it would show up and be exposed by a flash. No such luck, but with this body I can plan on doing it.

[bossa]

Changing the subject a little:

I was using my K-01 yesterday and was experimenting with the focus tracking when it came to my attention that after it locked on to a subject the indicator would track the object but when I moved away and toward the subject (whilst holding down the focus button) it allowed the subject to go way out of focus. I'm not sure it actually refocuses at all after locking on which makes the tracking mode a farce.

Perhaps someone can set me straight on this?

[Digitalis]

Another AF related query I have : is the screwdrive AF any quieter on the K3 than the K5? I'm gathering quite a collection of photographs of startled wildlife:

[RockvilleBob]

I'm still experimenting. I find that if the subject is small, ie. doesn't fit the center focus point, the area af will focus on other things such as background, or lose focus if you got it initially. It isn't hard to acquire focus on small things even at a distance. If it is larger, then it will track reasonably well. I'm using the 9 point array with the center point selected right now. You initially select the point, I use the center, and focus on your subject in the center. If the subject moves or you pan, other points will take over and maintain focus. It works reasonably well, but it isn't omniscient.

The issue I had with my DA*300 on the K-5 was what limited it's reach was the ability to focus on something in the distance. If the subject filled the focus point, no problem, but with a 300mm that is pretty close in. There seemed to be a hard limit at a certain distance, beyond that the IQ wasn't good. With the K-3 It can focus on things further out, and the resolution is denser, giving it a bit more reach.

The low light is truly amazing. This morning early I went down to the beach. I could see the outline of posts in the water, but couldn't see them unfocused in the viewfinder. The camera focused without a problem. I heard a kingfisher, and hoped it would show up and be exposed by a flash. No such luck, but with this body I can plan on doing it.

This is a great explanation. I would appreciate your advice on the number of points. The video shown of the AF system at Feature 2?K-3 | RICOH IMAGING uses all the focus points, the SEL setting versus SEL 9. What do you see as the trade off when you select the center point using SEL versus selecting the center point using SEL 9? Thanks to you and hte others for helping me work my way through the AF system.

[zapp]

This discussion is based on previous experiences taken with the K5 - sorry Pentax, but the AF system of the K5 was crap. The K5II only fixed this bug as it appears. Why should someone pay 1200 bucks to solve Pentax' AF trouble.
The K3 is still suspect to AF accuracy questions... I wonder how many people left Pentaxbrand over this trouble.

The new AF system and most feedback here show that the AF bug is solved in K5II and the K3. The great advantage of the K3 in addition is that it offers a real featurte advantage over the K5II that may be worth a new investment. I hope the K3 reanimates the brand - I for myself started looking at Olympus OM-D, but still appreciate the feel of my Pentax lenses and the sensor size over it... Before I buy, I will test the K3 in a shop quite thorougly - Pentax at least lost its legacy as a quality brand for me.