Auto focus speed K5 vs K20d??

Hi everyone

I am currently a K20D owner and I love this camera. But there is a few things that drive me crazy sometimes with this camera. 1st is the level of noise even at iso 200 and when I use iso 400 noise is very noticable already. I personaly never shoot highter than iso 400 on the K20d. I noticed that the nosie level is better controled at iso 100 and 200 on the k10d.

Anyway we all know the K5's high iso performance is alot better than the K20d but how about the auto focus speed? I find the K20d auto focus extramely slow and inaccurate comapre to canons and nikons. If the K5's auto focus speed can match with the Nikon D300 than I will purchase my K5 very soon.

Thanks

Geo

Pentax are getting there but imo no, it is no match for the D300s or 7D.

But is it a lot faster than the K20d? say 30% faster and more accurate than the K20d?

I wouldn't say 30% but it is faster and more accurate than the K20D.

Much faster than the K20D and locks on immediately.

Thanks John and Mike

Sounds like I have to start saving up for the K5 now.

Spend the money on a K5 or use the money to spend on another trip to photograph?? Decision decision.

AF speed etc will depend on the lens, I find with the Sigma 50-500 the lens hunts just as much and it doesnt appear that much faster, the Pentax SDM leses I have are considerably quicker on the K5 and also lock on without problem 99% of the time

I've only had my K5 for a couple of days and not used it for anything other than test shots yet, but AF speed is faster than the K20D. It also focusses better in low light too.

Noise control is very good, but I never really had a noise problem with my K20D's and was happy to use it up to about ISO800. You have to work within it's limitations.

US Mag Popular Photography actually measure focusing speed in their tests.
At EV 12 the K-5 was faster than the Nikon D7000 and Canon 60D (0.28, 0.37, 0.35 secs) It was slightly faster at EV 10 and EV 8 at EV 6 (light in a kitchen) they were all about the same.

Stop bringing facts into the argument, Algi. Everybody knows that Pentax cameras focus slowly, and no amount of testing will convince people otherwise.

G

I thought there was a major issue with low light performance, as detailed here:

http://www.falklumo.com/lumolabs/articles/k5focus/K5Focus.pdf

John

I was never as fast as I used to be.

The questions was .. does the K-5 af speed match the D300 and the answer is no.
The D300 also has faster af than the newer D7000

I find my K5 faster than the K20D and K7,and the five point AF comes in handy for sports.

I would disagree with that. I've had three K-5s now, the first one suffered the Low Light AF problem and couldn't be fixed by Firmware 1.03, so I had it replaced.

The replacement and 2nd body did have the Low Light AF problem largely fixed by V1.03

The trade off of the 1.03 fix is that the low light AF is inconsistent, meaning that it doesn't always focus accurately in low light, and requires another attempt with the AF button/half shutter.


Low light issues aside, I would say the AF on the K-5 is a significant improvement in speed, and although it doesn't always lock on first time the hunting is much less than on the K20D