On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 2:30 PM, Dario Bonazza <[email protected]> wrote: > Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > > It's very interesting to hear others' take on this. I have found over > and over again that when I disable AF my photos are far more > consistently in-focus, regardless of camera and regardless of how low > the light I'm working in might be or whether the subjects are moving > or not. AF generally does little other than slow things down for me. > Like steve, I've moved more and more to abandoning AF entirely too. > > I'm open to better manual focus with better focus aids, and I could do that > at times. But for quick action you simply don't have the time for focusing.
I've had this debate with others before and I don't want to revisit it as there is no end to it – it's a matter of belief and developed skills. But by and large with the best AF systems I've tried, I can focus faster and more accurately than any of them. I sometimes shoot at sports racing events and I *always* obtain better results with manual focus than with AF systems. AF is a useful convenience feature with quite a lot of significant limitations in my view. But a lot of people hold your opinion as gospel and I'm not going to debate it. >> "As quick and precise an AF system as possible" would lead me to >> looking into the Nikon D3s and D700, they seem to be the market >> leaders in this area as well as in sensitivity and noise control. > > I perceive the K-5 and a few good lenses as the poor man's D3s/D700 & AF > Nikkor VR lenses outfit, which I could hardly afford. Not to speak of the > special relationship I have developed with the Pentax people in > Italy/Europe. As you're undoubtably aware, I had a business relationship with Pentax USA Marketing for some time too. :-) Sadly, I never found it to be particularly special. I'm sorry, but as good as the K5 is, it is nowhere near the competence of the Nikon D3s as a professional grade camera body, nor are there anywhere near the depth and breadth of state of the art lenses available for it. It's simply not in that class of camera, and I doubt Pentax would assert that it was either. It's closer to the D700 class of camera, although again you're getting more in the larger format camera than Pentax offers with respect to base low light performance, improved AF, better viewfinder, and more lens options, albeit at a higher price. This discussion is certainly wandering away from the original intent of the thread. ;-) -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
