AF.C reliability on K10D

I've been messing around trying to photograph moving objects such as cars etc. They seem just ok. Has anyone had good results with the lever set in AF.C position? With my canon 10D in this mode I could hear the lens tracking constantly but I hear nothing with my Pentax.

Does anyone use this position much for this type of thing?

I've had as good results by simply using the AF.S position.

Which lens do you have?

In my (limited) expirience you would be better of using the Canon.

Whenever I try to take a photo of anything moving - even slowly - with my K100D or a friends K10D all that happens is that you hear veeet,veeet,veeet as the lens tries to focus followed by cursing as you have missed the shot, again.

If I have to shoot anything even slightly moving I manual focus.

i have taken pictures of moving rally cars before but that was before Auto Focus. Then i would pre focus on a point on the road and pan with the car in shot until it arrived at the focus spot. Maybe worth trying with the K100 set to Manual Focus

...and I use the same approach for railway photography, though the path of subject through the frame is more predictable than motor-sports.

Regards

Peter

Thanks guys. I'm using the standard 18-55 kit lens. I no longer have the canon. It's not a major issue really. Just a slight annoyance.

I guess the fact that the AF is via the worm screw coupling as opposed to the canons lens electronics may play a part.

The focussing capabilities of the SDM equipped lenses is far superior (faster) than the older screw drive lenses. I'd suggest you start saving your pennies

These were taken with K10D in AF.C mode.

Faster lens and loads of light were probably a big help though ...

Not me. It's not one of the camera's best features. The lens will track from time to time as the subject moves out of focus, but not truly constantly.

Hope it doesn't put you off the camera that is otherwise very good.

I couldnt have put it any better myself.

Its coming to a point where the ability (or lack of) of the AF module to track things is peeing me off.

I want to upgrade my camera but I dont think the K20D is good enough in this respect, nor do i see things improving in future .

AFC is OK once the focus has locked and the subject does'nt stray too far, otherwise the AF will tend to hunt again.

As Peter said, start saving your pennies for SDM lenses, there quicker and extremely quiet.

The problem I have is getting the AFC to lock.

Are SDM lenses really that much quicker? A lot of reviews tend to say its just quieter.

Although it doesnt matter to me as my camera cant take these lenses.

I agree it can be frustrating when the camera does an end to end focus lock when trying to capture a moving target.

Taking pictures of aircraft in flight this summer I found that it was an advantage to have a lens with quick-shift focus, in my case the 55-300. I could manually shift it near enough for the auto focus to reliably finish the lock. It was then usually fine in AFC providing I did not stray off the target. However if it did decide to wind right out I could shift it back faster than the camera without having to disengage auto focus although you have to release the shutter button so that the manual shift is not fighting the auto focus.

Before the 55-300 I would have used the Sigma 135-400 for aircraft but I felt the quick-shift focus gave the 55-300 a real advantage.

Glyn

Hope it doesn't put you off the camera that is otherwise very good

Not at all. I love the amount of features on the camera and everything else is fine for me. Sometimes I just worry I have a faulty model. Obviously not

Thanks for the help

Well, judging by these shots the camera looks very capable with the right lens!

Thanks for posting