[Conan]

My experience with K200D and K-X with DA* 16-50 and 50-135, AF is quite bad for indoor events using center point focus and AF-S. Sure if you put it to 11 point auto it will be able to focus on something but more often than not the intended subject will not be the point of focus.

[hcarvalhoalves]

My experience with K200D and K-X with DA* 16-50 and 50-135, AF is quite bad for indoor events using center point focus and AF-S. Sure if you put it to 11 point auto it will be able to focus on something but more often than not the intended subject will not be the point of focus.

In my experience, center-point is really center. If you point to anything flat, lacking contrast, it fails to lock - and low-light just worsens this behaviour. I guess that's the cause of 90% of the complaints about AF.

While Auto 11 is indeed too broad, you still have Auto 5 available. It's the most balanced option for quick focusing under low-light, IMO.

[Reportage]

read through all the AF posts and in the end..i just switched to manual focusing for lowlight.

its a hit or miss but better then totally no focus lock at all.

Now which genius locked the focus assist beam to the onboard flash for my K20D i wonder.

[Conan]

In my experience, center-point is really center. If you point to anything flat, lacking contrast, it fails to lock - and low-light just worsens this behaviour. I guess that's the cause of 90% of the complaints about AF.

While Auto 11 is indeed too broad, you still have Auto 5 available. It's the most balanced option for quick focusing under low-light, IMO.

Using any kind of Auto will result in some shots with the intended subject not in focus. I just used my 7D with center point AF and it nailed every indoor shot that my K-X had difficulty with.

[twitch]

I find manual focussing with my K-x very difficult, near impossible for me to tell if something was in focus or not. I guess it's a matter of not much practice and older eyes, although I actually tried out a K7 in the shop the other day and the viewfinder was so much better than my K-x one, I think MF with a K7/5 would be a whole lot easier.

[Freak]

However there is no disputing that Pentax AF speeds to date have been a lot slower than CaNikon's - there is no debate, that is a fact. So hopefully the K5 will rectify that.

"While Pentax managed to quite significantly improve the continuous shooting speed the K-7 still lags very slightly behind the competition in terms of autofocus speed."

You seem to say "a lot slower" but Dpreview seem to claim "very slightly behind the competition in terms of autofocus speed"

So i think the amount or "a lot" or "very slightly" is quite debatable.

I think their are improvements needed for Pentax, and speed is one of them, but Canon and Nikon have a few modes which help certain situations, and i think it's these options that give the Nikon and to a lesser extend 7D's AF abilities.

[hcarvalhoalves]

Using any kind of Auto will result in some shots with the intended subject not in focus. I just used my 7D with center point AF and it nailed every indoor shot that my K-X had difficulty with.

I meant center-point on the K-x, that is. Not comparing to anything else, as I don't own anything else.

Certainly the 7D doesn't exhibit this behavior of pointing to something flat, and failing to lock. Pointing the K-x in center-focus to any edge / texture allows it to focus even under low-light though.

I guess the center sensor of the PDAF is too small and doesn't get much light, making it fail more often under low-light, or always failing when there's no contrast at the center point.