[WPRESTO]

Who cares what they say or think so long as we have a camera body we like??

[todd]

Just an implied reference to the tilt screen in the Pros column.... "and a large, useful LCD screen" that has the D810 "falling just short" of the K1...

[biz-engineer]

The Amazon standard is Canon, Nikon or Mirrorless and Pentax North America is incapable of educating the camera punditry community.

What looks strange to me is that Ricoh's engineers must know very well the performance of their AF module (lab testing), and Ricoh does not react to such review. If I was Ricoh's exec, I'd sue DPR at the court for false claims regarding AF performance, although it may be difficult to explain that the test isn't standardized , so the results can be anything depending of the test setup and willingness of the reviewer to get good results.

[lithedreamer]

If I was Ricoh's exec, I'd sue DPR at the court for false claims regarding AF performance

:facepalm:

I know DPR has a bent that many of us don't care for, but is suing camera reviewers ever a good PR move?

[jake14mw]

An astoundingly brief review. Are all their camera body reviews that brief? I have been saying for years that the three areas that Pentax was behind were AF, video, and flash system. Apparently, DPReview doesn't care about flash because it wasn't mentioned. We all know video is not something Pentax cares about at all.

The AF review area did surprise me. I have been reading such good things in this forum about the K-1's AF performance. The bike test did not surprise me, but only a 50% keeper rate in simple centerpoint focusing? How can that be true? This does not jive with what people have been writing in this forum. I am interested to hear what people think about this.

From everything that I have seen and read, Pentax seems to have done a great job with the K-1 to cater to the Pentax community. I think they packed a lot of features at an excellent price point. In their next flagship camera, I would really love it if they overhauled the AF system. Not tuning SAFOX, an overhaul with great AF performance. Every camera is always the same, AF TUNING. What are we on, SAFOX XII? Enough already, overhaul it. I would also like to see them address some of their flash system deficiencies. Regarding video, I give up, I honestly don't think they are ever going to take it seriously, so while I would love better video handling, I expect nothing there. Wether or not they or we like it, video is becoming more and more blended with photography, and more people are using it.

[serothis]

It is confusing why PF and DPReview came to such different conclusions regarding AF performance.

PF gave it 9/10 (very good), while DPReview concluded that the AF is poor (4-5?).

Maybe more K1 users can comment about their experience

I think some of it is expectations of the reviewers. I haven't used other pentax bodies but comparing it to my old nikon d40x the K-1 is very good. Compared to the D610 i tried (pre k-1 release), I remember the nikon being better...and the d610 is criticized for it's "poor" AF performance. PF is probably comparing the k-1 to other pentax bodies. DPR is likely comparing it to the new D5/D500. And of course you have the natural biases to skew perceptions.

The best way I could put it is, the k-1's AF is a very good system. It's just not the gold standard. For me the K-1 AF has been pretty good. It will occasionally miss and occasionally hunt but not often enough to be concerned.

[tvdtvdtvd]

And IBIS is not among pro's

Actually, it is:
5-axis In-Body Image Stabilization
Sensor Shift Shooting Modes (Pixel Shift, Astrotracer, Horizon Correction and AA Filter Simulation)

Nonetheless, I agree with your quips about their Cons. It really felt like they were intentionally padding the deck.

[Kunzite]

:facepalm:

I know DPR has a bent that many of us don't care for, but is suing camera reviewers ever a good PR move?

Well, I'm glad people here aren't Ricoh's execs. Too many "brilliant" strategies

[RobA_Oz]

Missed 85% of bike shots? Wow.

That was, they said, with single-point AF. I shot a lot of ballroom dancing the other week, using multi-point AF-C and only missed focus on one shot, where the dancers separated, out of 350, and that was all with an old Tamron 28-200. Perhaps their basis for comparison is inadequate.

[D1N0]

Actually, it is:
5-axis In-Body Image Stabilization
Sensor Shift Shooting Modes (Pixel Shift, Astrotracer, Horizon Correction and AA Filter Simulation)

Nonetheless, I agree with your quips about their Cons. It really felt like they were intentionally padding the deck.

They've been editing it then

[bwDraco]

What's leaving me very concerned is that the AF performance and behavior appear to have regressed from the K-3 II.

My experience (as a sports photographer no less) shows that the K-3 II doesn't just drop to infinity with subjects moving straight towards the camera. It'll maintain focus reasonably well until the subject gets very close to the camera, and generally reacquires focus quickly if it loses the lock (consistent with https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/301750-japanese-blogger-te...provement.html). In the test DPReview showed, it seems the K-1 just gives up right away, focusing to infinity rather than attempting to reacquire focus.

Ricoh needs to update the firmware on the K-1 as soon as possible to address this issue. This cannot possibly be acceptable AF.C behavior.

So it seems DPReview rushed the AF testing and got bad results. I'll wait for a second opinion, then.

Draco

[rawr]

willingness of the reviewer to get good results

Exactly.

but only a 50% keeper rate in simple centerpoint focusing? How can that be true?

They never took any time to learn the K-1 AF [ie RTFM] and use the proper settings for tracking. No one does tracking with centre-point only, even in Nikon (unless you are shooting an f8 telephoto, and all you have access to is the centre-AF point).

The AF result reminds me of DPreview's first pixel-shift result. Basically they don't seem be able to drive the camera properly.

---------- Post added 2016-07-06 at 07:32 AM ----------

What's leaving me very concerned is that the AF performance and behavior appear to have regressed from the K-3 II.

It hasn't regressed at all. Quite the opposite.

[D1N0]

What's leaving me very concerned is that the AF performance and behavior appear to have regressed from the K-3 II.

It has not. Don't believe dpreview. They are incompetent

[bwDraco]

Come to think of it, it certainly seems DPReview rushed the review and did not properly test the AF on the K-1. I'll wait for a second opinion, then.

Draco

[D1N0]

Imaging resource:

Autofocus performance was swift, comparing well with the Pentax K-3 II in my informal, real-world testing. (And our lab testing likewise found autofocus performance to be a strength of the Pentax K-1.)

Pentax K-1 Review: Now Shooting! - Field Test