Originally posted by ManuH What's depressing is that a 5 years old D200 has probably a better AF system than any Pentax DSLR to date.
I'm not sure about that. Three years ago, I attended my niece's wedding in St. Petersburg, FL. It was held in Sept. at a hotel, on the beach, at 4:00pm. It was a typical, sunny, Florida afternoon, so there was plenty of light.
My brother, as father of the bride, had been told, in no uncertain terms (by the mother of the bride) that he could ABSOLUTELY NOT spend all afternoon with his camera, so he asked me to take some shots for him, with his D200 and Nikkor 18-200mm VR zoom.
Several times, I noticed it hunting badly. It would go from closest focus to infinity and back again, before finally locking focus. This was in bright sunlight, in a high-contrast scene. I was shooting with my Pentax SF1 (yes, film) and a Tamron 18-200mm AF zoom. I remember thinking that his D200 was hunting a lot more than my SF1 was, in identical situations.
I also don't remember that it focused appreciably faster than my K10D does, although I couldn't do a direct comparison, because I didn't have the K10D, yet.
All in all, I am not convinced that all the hype about how Nikon and Canon AF is sooooooo much better than Pentax's is really true. I think it is largely a case of greener grass in another pasture.