Pentax autofocus certainly isn't the best, but it's not as bad as you describe.
John Francis is able to shoot motorsports—professionally—with an *istD. I had
no problems shooting wakeboarding with an *istD and the DA50-200.
Paul
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Jens Bladt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> We do not differ too much.
> What I'm saying is, that sports photography IS professional photography.
> Readers and viewers want close-up shots of football players, icehockey
> players, baseball players, swimmers, tennis players etc. Razor sharp and
> caught at the right moment from reather long distances (using 200-400mm
> focal length).
> For shots like this the AF of an *ist D is simply too slow 90% of the the
> time. By the time the focus locks (if it ever will) the picture is long
> gone. Of course some "slow" sports events can be dokumentet by Pentax AF or
> by using manual focus. For the latter I might as well use my 1967 Exakta
> VX1000 or my 1987 P50.
>
> Regards
>
>
> Jens Bladt
> http://www.jensbladt.dk
>
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: John Francis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sendt: 13. januar 2006 19:52
> Til: [email protected]
> Emne: Re: new AF system soon (when D2 arrives)?
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 13, 2006 at 04:54:14PM +0100, Jens Bladt wrote:
> > P?l, have you tried to shoot into a group of people, vehicles, animals
> etc.
> > that are moving with the D?
> > Nothing good will come of it - even with a F. 2.8 lens.
> > Sports photography is simply off limits using a *ist D, IMO.
> > The AF is too slow and FPS is insufficient
>
> I'm sure that will come as a surprise to those amongst us doing
> sports photography with a D - apparently we must be hallucinating.
>
> The buffer size is a limitation - I have lost shots because the
> camera is still writing out earlier images. But I've been able
> to use AF, even with big, heavy lenses.
>
> Not that there isn't considerable room for improvement; I don't
> agree with the posters who suggest even cameras such as the MZ-S
> can auto-focus as well as competitive bodies such as the 20D with
> USM lenses. I've used Pentax, Nikon & Canon bodies at events,
> and I'm firmly convinced that the Pentax AF is neither as fast
> nor as reliable as the competition; if my livelihood depended on
> my ability to bring home the results I would have switched by now.
> But to suggest auto-focus is unusable is overstating the case.
>
>
>
>
