[andy271]

Hi guys hope someone can help went to my local forest today with thek-1 and macro I normally am a tripod shooter so recently ive beentrying my Zeiss lenses but not much success due to front focusproblems this is now almost resolved.
Today with the macrolens the lens would make its noise then I would take the shot but ifI moved the camera say to the left it didn’t make the focus noisethat lenses make just the red dot flashed and made its noise not thefocus noise so I had to wait a second then point and try again thefunny thing is every image I took today handheld was pin sharp
I just worry isthere a problem with the lens mechanism


my seeting are



Phase detection afs
af active area spot
afs setting shutter can not be released until subject is in focus
Contrast detectionaf 5th one down from the bottom small square
Contrast af options shutter can not be released until subjects is in focus
af assist light on
ae metering multisegment
Shake reduction on

[pepperberry farm]

your concern is that all the shots were pin sharp?

[BarryE]

your concern is that all the shots were pin sharp?

Beat me to it. That was my reaction. I suspect minor re-focussing noises are not noticed.

[andy271]

When you normally focus with a af lens there is a certain noise i.e.hunting etc. but what happens here is the noise will start then I take picture but if I refocus on another object there is no noise the red dot will flash but no noise its very strange and behaviour I never have with Nikon z7 or canon r5...i still love Pentax but the last week has really been a struggle what with front focus problems back focus problems

[Madaboutpix]

Okay, if you want to sort out your focusing woes, you should perhaps concentrate on one lens at a time and also make a difference between AF and manual lenses. From what you have written, I assume that it was the manual (Zeiss?) lenses that you suspected of having front or back focus. By which you probably mean that you get focus confirmation at distances where the OVF image is not in critical focus. I just wonder why this should be such a major concern when most photographers would rely on their eyesight (OVF) or focus peaking (LV) rather than trust the green hexagon when they're using their manual lenses.

As for the DFA50 Macro, does it give you any front or back focus when you operate it in PDAF? And if that isn't the case, does it (re)focus in PDAF when you try to make it focus alternately on near and far subjects? If it does, and achieves focus based on the images you're getting, the odds are that your lens is perfectly okay. BTW, for some macro work it may be easier to prefocus or use AF to get in the ballpark magnification- and focus-wise, and then focus with your whole (human) body while shooting in short bursts. Just my two pragmatic bits.

[andy271]

Hi madaboutpics when af confirm focus i take the shot but if i move to say a branch in front it wont focus
I have to move the camera away and them recompose i wll have to test more a lot of my lenses need
-9 and +9 some of the zeiss need more than -10 that is why im tempted with debug mode my k-1 is out
Of warranty

[Wingincamera]

My -D FA smc 50mm f2.8 Macro is one of the most used lenses I use. If close up for macro it immediately finds focus. When focusing on something far away (beyond say 50 feet) it usually snaps into focus, but sometimes it does hunt slightly. Mostly this is inside a building, with several items or people in close proximity. I might focus on one target, but if I want to switch to something really close, it might be slow in re-focusing. What I do is just focus at my feet or something really out of range then it will lock on my target. An example might be when taking pictures of a group of people on a stage and trying to focus on each one separately.
I probably didn't explain this very good, but it is a good lens.

[andy271]

Hi wigincamera yes if i focus on say a tree and i want to focus on another part i have to focus on something else then refocus on the part of the tree that wouldnt focus and today i tried to focus on a small branch with a flower on it i just could not focus on it it focused on the bark so i think it is back focusing its a nitemare i need to do more testing

[Madaboutpix]

if i focus on say a tree and i want to focus on another part i have to focus on something else then refocus on the part of the tree that wouldnt focus and today i tried to focus on a small branch with a floer on it i just could not focus on it it focused on the bark so i think it is back focusing its a nitemare i need to do more testing

The first thing you mention is actually a useful and recommended technique for ensuring accurate focus with PDAF when distance changes are minuscule. Your second observation may be due to the fact that PDAF focus point areas are larger than many users expect and may hence struggle to pick up the subject area intended by the photographer. I tried to indicate above that for such scenarios, prefocusing (automatically or even by hand) may well be the better option.

I may be wrong, but I have this hunch that the "nightmare" you're describing may at least in part be due to unreasonable expectations of what even a perfectly functional PDAF will do. At any rate, I would advise against messing around in the debug mode of your K-1, unless you can be absolutely sure that (a) your lenses really need that much calibration, and (b) you know what you're doing in the debug mode (which is a bit akin to open-heart surgery).

[andy271]

Thanks madabouroicx yes if i can avoid debug i will i will keep experimenting

[photogem]

I think you got too much worried that you might have damaged your AF/M switch and this worry continues.
Again: There is zero danger to your AF/M switch because it is spring loaded, if in AF position you can push the screw-drive-part back with your finger, it would be crazy if the design would be that vulnerable, the net would be full of such stories.

The D-FA50 Macro is loud because it is plastic-fantastic and ultra light.

Because it is a macro it will hunt much more than a non-macro but this is normal.
Handheld macro-photos can be a bit more difficult because if you release before the antishake had the chance to swing back into it's "resting position".
That is known and one must give this time. Because the very typical hunting of any AF-macro lens this just needs to be taken extra into acount.

Back- or front focus are easy to find out and corrected.

I think everything is very normal, but too much worry has taken over.

[andy271]

Hi photogem you may be correct but i will do some more tests when tbe weathet gets better.