Hi folks,
I recently picked up photography as a side hobby. I purchased a GX-1L, the Samsung branded *ist D about a year ago. I knew about the big two at the time, and that buying a body meant buying into the whole system. Either way, I ended up with a Pentax (well, Samsung), and it has been very well to me thus far.
However, recently, I have had a chance to actually try out my buddies' camera, namely being the D80 by Nikon and a Canon XTi. I was blown away by how fast the auto focus was! I had heard that AF was not Pentax's strong point, but just last night, toying with the XTi in low light room settings on his stock lens, gave nearly instantaneous AF speeds. Compared with my GX-1L with the 1.4/50mm (supposedly one of Pentax's fastest lens), it was a wait period of nearly two or more seconds, depending on the subject.
I know my class of camera is the lowest of even the consumer line, so I'd like to ask if would an upgrade to a k100d or k10d would grant me similar focus speeds, as they have more (11, i think) focus areas compared to the *ist D's five. But then, I thought, doesn't it depend more on the lens than the camera body itself? Or is that only true for Nikon/Canon lens??
I know shake reduction is definitely a plus if I do decide to upgrade, however if I up to the k10d I'm be dismayed at loosing the ability to use AA's! Anyhow, I'll probably learn to suck it up in a few weeks when I received a batch of MF lens (one Jupiter-9, might I add) that is on the way. But I really wish I had that fast AF ability (especially low light) that can actually be compared to Canon/Nikon.
Lastly, I even considered switching to Nikon (is talk of that blasphemy here?
) for that AF speed. Is there anything I've overlooked?