Originally posted by Dan Rentea Once you learn the 5D Mark IV, I can assure you that the af-c is way better than K1. Af-s is a different story and K1's af-s is quite good.
Exactly, so your need for Canon or Pentax AF is completely predicated on needing AF.c to get your shots. If you don't shoot AF.c much, you'd be wasting you money. If you rely on first frame AF.s no, AF hold and burst as I do, Canon and Nikon are slower.
But, once the guy with the 1Dx gets locked on his AF.c is faster than my technique. You don't pay an extra 4 grand for a camera for nothing. But whether or not that's actually worth anything. If I'm shooting 10 FPS and he's shooting 10-15, as long as I get what I want out of my 8 shots, I'm good.. As good as he is. I just don't find shooting out in the real world that who gets the image depends on the difference between AF.s and burst and continuous AF.c. And that'w here the extra Canon thing gets blown way out of whack. IF at the end of the day we have pretty much the same images, (except mine have more detail if I used the K-1) and I paid a lot less to get them, to my mind, I've got the camera i want.
Price for value.
Another point here being there's a difference between faster focusing and having faster focusing lenses. IF you aren't using a DFA 70-200, 16-85, 18-135, 150-450 to 28 to 105 then you aren't using one of Pentax's faster focusing lenses, making your comparison, a comparison of lenses, not a comparison of cameras. I have no doubt the best Canon is better than the best Pentax, but they are priced accordingly.
Pentax only makes sense as a value for money system, it's not really the best at anything, except for 36 MP images where Pixel Shift could be used (and AF.s speed according to Imaging Resources) . That being said, making a camera so complicated that you have to be pay more money after the high cost of the camera to learn how to use it, that's not going to be of interest to the average consumer.
So once you get used to a K-3 or K-1 and learn the appropriate techniques, I can assure you, you'll be competitive with any Nikon of Canon shooter out there. Not in terms of raw speed of AF.c which is irrelevant to what you end up with in most situations., but in terms of the actual images taken. In most wildlife situations AF.c isn't an advantage. IN fact because of the shutter lag involved in locking the original focus, it's actually a disadvantage for the first 5 frames.
Buying Canon or Nikon, you are trading for AF.c and giving up how fast the camera acquires focus with a similar lens, or how fast it can trip the shutter if you are pre-focussed. ANd if it was stated that way, I have n problem. But not one pro-canon or Nikon or even Pentax forum reviewer has ever noted how fast Pentax can be at confirming focus in AF.s or in acquiring focus with a fast lens. In fact even Pentax forum reviewers don't say that.
You have to go to Imaging Resources to find out just how good they really are.