Originally posted by A H Thompson Thanks everybody. Will someone comment on the selection of spot vs multiple point focusing? Seems that this should change depending on the subject. Does this have as much bearing when the camera is set up for essentially zone focusing and not for focusing on a subject and blurring out the background as one might choose to do when shooting a portrait?
Portrait shots are useless unless the subject's eyes are in focus. (Probably a handful of artistic exceptions, but in those cases, substitute "eyes" with "a point where I want the viewer's attention". Same techniques apply.) The camera is not going to reliably pick the eyes to focus on, instead of an earring, a giant mole, nostrils, etc. You have to control that focus yourself somehow.
I have the DA* 55/1.4, an older camera, no trust in AF and a split-prism focus screen. The lens is capable of beautiful shots and paper-thin depth of field, but with slow autofocus. I have my camera set to use the center point, also where the split prism is. Then I can focus and recompose, either with AF or manually. Recomposing means sometimes I have to correct for parallax errors. I sort of know when I need to do that and by how much, after a thousand practice shots of my dog. I don't claim perfection but that works for me.
The KP has 27 focus points and is certainly more advanced. You should be able to select a focus point over an eye, make sure the camera focuses, and take the same shot. You'd have to know whether each focus point is sensitive enough to work and how to select them efficiently. Just a different set of skills and knowledge.
I recommend practicing on a dog either way.