Originally posted by karq How fast is pentax AF in low light contitons compared to Nikon and Canons AF?
Maybe the problem is in me, but I think that pentax AF sucks in low light, it takes to long to focus something and thats bad when you photograph people on a party.
Pentax FA 50mm F1.4 is f*cking slow even the kit lens is littlebit faster.
I just posted this but thought it might be relevant here -
Pentax are notorious for being slow in AF in low light levels - there is not that much improvement going from a K100D to even the current top of the line K20D -
here compared to some of the latest dSLRs from Canon, Nikon and Sony (read Minolta)
note the horizontal scale of the K20D is misaligned it should be the same as all the others.
(crops from certified test results from Popular Photogrphy)
The other well known brands are faster in lower light levels - but we are still talking in the order of about 3/4-1 sec to auto-focus - which is simply
NOT fast enough to catch any action.
This is the misconception that faster automation is a panecea for
ALL problems.
So how did photographers from years ago ever manage to capture action with manual focus lenses?
and there are lots of example out there including acknowledged masterpieces....
Almost
ANY AutoFocus is faster than we can focus manually
- so why aren't we doing any better? ...
Did photographers from years ago with manual focus lenses wait to see the shot and then tried to focus to take the shot?
I know, that sounded absolutely
ridiculous -
of course not, they pre-focussed their lenses and waited for the shot
then it was only literally tripping the shutter.
Use the same technique -
Pre-Focus - by light half depression on the shutter button, hold that focus, re-compose, and wait for the shot - when the shot is seen, fully depress the shutter button, then the delay or shutter lag is less than 0.1 sec which is faster than human reaction time
or any AF from any brand ...... under any lighting conditions.