Have I made a mistake

I have to say that My Sigma 150-500 focusses at least as fast and I would say faster then my DA*s on my K20d. Another thing I noticed was that if the battery was a little low, SDM/HSM focussing seems to suffer.

Battery was fully charged. So that is not an issue. I've got the chance to go to another match for some practice on Monday evening. So I'll see how it goes then.

Am I correct in thinking if I have firmware 1.3 then the supersonic focusing is working.

I can't remember, but I think so. Basically, SDM is silent, whereas normal AF is quite noisy; you can hear the focus motor whirring. There is a noticeable difference.

However, Oggy's experience is interesting. It may be that what you are experiencing is normal. I have to say that my 16-50 (my only SDM lens) seems to focus very quickly.

G

Up against the 16-50 there is very little in it, but it seems to be more pronounced with my 60-250 and 300.

Well it focusing silently. So thats ok then. Wonder if I can blag a K7 for a test run for Tuesday.

Please explain?

Did you understand the question Mike?
I meant have you got the camera set to AFC and not AFS, you need AFC for moving subjects.

Also, If you are using the AF button are you keeping the AF button pressed down as you press the shutter? otherwise the camera will attempt to re-focus.

Do you have a photo for us, it can of course be that it is out of focus but it can also be blur or something else.

Yes - Using AFC. I've pretty much got the camera set to this constantly.

Yes keeping the AF button depressed.

No access to pics at the mo, laptop battery issues. However it is a problem with focusing speed. It manifests itself when people are running towards the camera. If there is someone running slightly behind the first person they will be in focus and the first won't. This is how far behind the AF is.

Just found out my local camera shop has the K7 in stock. Don't suppose anyone would care to loan me (indefinitely) £1K?

There is of course some lag when pressing the button and when you press the button the focusing stop as well and when using the lens at 250mm wide open you won't have a lot of dof so it must be quite precise.
Also the AF seems to always just lag a bit behind the subject, it only refocus when the subject is moving out of focus so that's why.

The best thing to do is manually focus and just focus a bit ahead and press the release on the right time.

I know it throws the reason you've AF out of the window but you will get better result.
The K-7 will focus faster but also probable suffer of this problem since it doesn't predict so that it would focus just a little bit ahead of the subject.

Anvh,

I understand what you are saying, but I have for a season used the Sigma 170-500 and not had this problem, well not as much. The prefocusing idea is ok but impractical. Football is hard enough to shoot without having to do that as well. I'll see what I can get from tomorrow nights match and then hopefully I will have it all sorted out for the big game on Tuesday.

Thanks

Mike

The sigma is F5-6.3 so bigger depth of field.
I really don't know what f-number you are using with the DA*60-250 but at f/4 250mm and he's 30 meters away you have a dof of 2.30 meters meaning 1.10 meters infront of him so one step and he is out of the DOF.
The sigma is probable around f/5.6 at that range, the dof is then a meter wider so giving you 50cm extra to play with.

I really don't know what you're settings are but this might be the case.

It seems your doing everything right, whats the focusing like with static subjects? try a few test shots with the lens wide open at 250mm, just to make sure its not the lens thats not back focusing.

Other options would be to meet up with another user in your area and try the lens on another body and vice versa, it's a good idea to have your location showing in your profile for that