Originally posted by ffking It's become such a mantra that Pentax's weak points are AF,video and modern lens selection that these will always be highlighted -but Ricoh is working on them, as it must. The lens issue is a perfectly reasonable one to draw attention to for anybody thinking of buying into the Pentax system for the first time - being able to expand into specialist areas as you progress is an important point. For instance, I do a lot of macro work, and, if I was starting with a clean slate, I might be tempted by Canon because of the amazing MP-E65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro lens, the like of which nobody else offers as far as I know.
I assume Pentax, who used to have some unique lenses, found that as their user base shrank the development and manufacturing costs couldn't be justified, and got caught in a vicious spiral -but the truth is that these lenses are no longer reliably available. None of this is Ricoh's fault, and they are addressing it, but it takes time and investment - just as improving the AF does -if there was an easy or cheap fix, they'd be utter fools not to have implemented it - I suspect that they are partly hoisted by the petard of Pentax's backward lens compatibility - that doesn't mean they're not improving it - but it's still not good enough. And whether we like it or not, it does matter - maybe not 95% of the time - just are there are features on my K-3 I have never used and possibly never will - but having the confidence that the AF won't let you down when you don't have time for workarounds is important - and as long as AF is perceived as an Achilles heel, there will always be a stick to beat Pentax with.
I do think that the dpreview was unnecessarily negative about some things - I think they were grudging about the strengths ( though some of these too, have a mantra-quality about them where they become received wisdom beyond argument) - and that their conclusions were more negative than the testing they were based on in places - but, like with Tony Northrup's review, if you step outside the Pentax bubble and look at the camera from the point of view of a consumer who has an open field to chose from, the points are not unfair. I love Pentax cameras and don't want to change, but that doesn't stop me wishing that the focusing on my K-3 was a bit more decisive, because that's about the only thing that stops it being well nigh perfect for insect macros. I'm not going to mention video because I never use it, other than to say that if Pentax don't develop it, it will go on being another stick to beat them with. I think where the review is better than many is that they don't expect contradictory things - like high frame rate AND high Mp, or rugged weather-sealed construction AND feather-lightness.
But I think that we, and Ricoh, need to take the criticisms on the chin. Ricoh need to deal with them at cause and stop them being issues - and the evidence is that they are working on this - and we need to stop being defensive about them and tell people why, in spite of them, Pentax cameras are still our cameras of choice.
It is a new sensor size for Pentax and so it is probably not unusual that they wouldn't have a full line up lenses yet. They are working on it. The line up currently has 15-30, 24-70, 70-200, and 150-450 -- a very nice set of zooms, the FA limiteds and the DA 50, DA 35, DFA 100, DA *200, DA *300 and DA 560. Biggest area of lack to me is in the wide angle prime department, but those will come. Compared to where Sony FE mount was at launch, it is in pretty decent shape.
I don't think anyone on here is arguing that Pentax shouldn't improve their auto focus more. Of course they should. They need to add more focus points, develop better tracking algorithms and fit their lenses with better motors (although the newest set of lenses is pretty nice here). What folks are upset about is that DP Review's focus test came out significantly worse than our experience. The comment was made in the rebuttal that even the worst mirrorless cameras can track this cyclist and the Pentax wasn't able to do so, that it is unlikely that the K-1 will be able to keep up with moving children, etc. Well, that is just simply wrong. I don't shoot a moving cyclist, but I do take photos of my kids running around and the camera has no issues keeping up with them. If I am tracking something, as long as the first image is in focus, subsequent images will be in focus, as long as I don't screw things up.
As I said before, I expected DP Review to drop pentax back a bit based on lens availability and not great video. At the same time, the selling point "Better still image quality than a D810 offers for half the price," seems to have been missed.
Edit: I will say that I do feel really aggravated when I see folks posting about the K-1's auto focus performance based on the K3's performance. They are very different cameras and anyone who thinks that Pentax didn't work on auto focus between the release of the K3 II and the K-1 is definitely wrong. But it isn't uncommon that people will come back here and run down the focus ability of current cameras based on their K10 or K7 from ages ago...