[bluebronco]

I love my Pentax gear. My first was a K1000 film camera.

I really haven't even played around with Nikon or Cannon. I was at BestBuy the other day and I decided to look. I played around with about 5 of the cameras. I was amazed at how quite they were compared to my K20 with 50mm 2.8f Macro. At first, I didn't even realize that they were focusing. So quite. So hear it is.... why is the Pentax so loud?

[ismaelg]

Do you know if you were testing ultrasonic lenses?
They are much quieter than traditional AF. In Pentax that is SDM.

Thanks,

[pxpaulx]

Two things - even most of the cheap canon and nikons have some sort of ultrsonic motor now. Compared to the screwdrive lenses (including the macro, but not SDM which is quiet) they are much quieter. Secondly, Macro lenses have much more focus travel since that is an inherent design for a macro lens - the elements move much farther away from the film/sensor plane as you get closer to the subject (which 50mm macro version do you have - is the DFA an internal focus lens? my Pentax-F macro extends close to 2 inches beyond the lens barrel - and yes, it is easily my loudest lens!)

[philbaum]

Pentax's SDM is usually very quiet, at least the 2 lenses i have with it. At first i wasn't even sure the DA-300 was focusing until you see the image coming clear in the viewfinder.

But without the screwdrive and motor in the body, we wouldn't have the ability to use the older lenses that require screwdrive. And, it might not be so easy to engineer really small pancake lenses with an electrical motor embedded in the lens frame. (i'm not so sure about this last statement) So it appears that Pentax bodies may have to maintain screw and SDM drives for some time to come.

I'm not sure, but i doubt that the micro 4/3s cameras and the Sony NX camera have sonic motors in their lenses.