[derekkite]

I didn't upgrade to the K5II because of the reviews, and now I'm finding that most of the amazing difference in AF on my K-3 was available on the K5iis as well.

Someone who posts here, who I respect, who takes amazing shots is going to buy a second one. He is very pleased with the AF improvements. I am very happy with the improvements as well. I am taking shots that I didn't bother lifting the camera when shooting the K5.

[fotogaffer]

On the topic of focus accuracy, I thought I would post some bird shots taken with the K3 which I have had for a couple of weeks now. These are just my observations from shooting with the K3, after having previously shot with both the K5 and K5 IIs, especially for birding. I think that the smaller focus points on the K3 make a huge difference for capturing birds especially in cluttered surroundings, where I would have not expected much success from the K5's in the past. I will show some examples. Keep in mind these shots are not showpiece photos. They are common birds in a lot of clutter and branches in the photos, but that's the point, the K3 was still able to lock focus. Also, these are all handheld, braced against and through a window at ISO of 800 at shutter speeds of around 200-300 in flat light, which is all I've had since acquiring the K3 - go figure!! Under better light, I am sure they would look even sharper. In short, I notice a big improvement in focus acquisition in these situations when birding through branches and clutter with the K3 from the K5 versions.

Here you go-

[Zafar Iqbal]

How about with off-center focus points. How is the accuracy then?

[JinDesu]

All fantastic examples, and that last one is barely any bird at all!

[caledonian]

Which lens is this please? .....EXIF is blank.

[fotogaffer]

@ Zafar Iqbal - These are all with the centre point selected, can't comment on the off centre focus points, although I don't see why it should be any different.

@JinDesu - Thanks!

@caledonian - These were all shot with the Pentax DA 300mm F4, sorry, I should have mentioned that!

[caledonian]

Thanks.
My DA*300 is rarely separated from my K5.

[normhead]

All the non-BMW shots have focused where the car used to be 1/3 second before the shutter tripped. I base that on the fact that the focus point is about a car length or so behind the front grill, say 15ft and 30mph is 44ft per second, so 15/44sec. What happened to predictive AF?

You might want to actually look at the lines on the road… you're wrong about where the camera is focused.

[Zafar Iqbal]

@ Zafar Iqbal - These are all with the centre point selected, can't comment on the off centre focus points, although I don't see why it should be any different.

I'm asking because the center points on both my K-30s are more accurate than for instance the corner points. So much so that I've entirely stopped using any beside the center point and that's a big shame, since it's harder to track and compose at the same time. I'm not trying to get a comparison between those two models, but if the accuracy can differ on one model it could differ on another models well.

If you or someone else would do some shots with off center points then I for one would look at those with much interest.

[Mr Spocko]

That's good news to hear about the smaller AF points, I too have had issues on older models with the AF points being much bigger than you would expect making it hard to nail focus on smaller areas.
With outer AF points from what I see all but 2 are cross type so I'd be surprised to see a big drop off in performance for the cross sensors. Unless something was out of alignment with the AF module.

[WerTicus]

what a shame they downgraded the sensor while upgrading everything else.

I could not in good conscience buy a K-3 because of that... Same reason I skipped the K-7.

[philbaum]

what a shame they downgraded the sensor while upgrading everything else.

I could not in good conscience buy a K-3 because of that... Same reason I skipped the K-7.

I don't consider the K3 sensor to be a downgrade from the K5. I worried about that myself. But after taking 2 months of shots, i much prefer the K3. I took 9 portraits recently with the K3 and i was impressed with the detail and image quality.

The K7 was a different situation altogether, iMO. Ricoh did a nice job on the K3.

[normhead]

I don't consider the K3 sensor to be a downgrade from the K5. I worried about that myself. But after taking 2 months of shots, i much prefer the K3. I took 9 portraits recently with the K3 and i was impressed with the detail and image quality.

The K7 was a different situation altogether, iMO. Ricoh did a nice job on the K3.

I agree, if you pixel peep, the K-3 can look a bit rougher when there is noise, but if you downsize to the same size, it's better. More resolution makes for cleaner images.

I use the edge focus points all the time... they work just as good as the centre point.

For many images soft light can produce superior results, with no blown highlights... that hawk is a perfect example fotogaffer. If there was a direct single point light source you'd have shadows and blown highlights... sometime I think my best images are in exactly your conditions, 400-800 ISO 1/200-1/300 of a second... you lose some to motion blur etc, but the ones you get are often really good.