K5 11 Point AF / 5 Point AF Question

Hi all,

Under what situations would changing to 5 point AF be an advantage?

I normally use either the default 11 point or center point AF for my motorsport photos.

Regards, Chris.

I think there might be an advantage to 5 point when in AF-C mode tracking motorsport.
I haven't done this on my K-5 as I only got it this week, but experience with shooting with previous cameras at Drag Race events, I found that having less focus points was faster and more responsive, and I got cleaner results.
Similarly, when shooting fast moving wildlife, less points was better for tracking shots (in AF-C).

Maybe Pentax AF is better than other DSLR makes in this respect, I can't say yet, but it would be my guess that it would be better to use 5 points for tracking shots at motorsport.

I used it at the Bournemouth airshow in August and have to say I think it did a pretty good job with the aircraft. I got a lot more keepers than in previous years (with the same Sigma 50-500mm).

A (loose) analogy with metering occurs to me.

So five points AF would correspond loosely with centre-weighted metering - not as localised as spot, and not as take-it-all-in as evaluative.

It gives you a bit more leeway to not have to have the camera pointing exactly at the subject (with centre point only), while not risking that it will pick something from further out to focus on (using all 11 points).

If 5-point AF is quicker than 11, I can see an obvious distinct advantage for aircraft.

If it isn't, the fact that the background is usually at infinity, or close to it (!), suggests that 11 would be perfectly fine.

I'll certainly give it a go - I'll be down at the airfield next week if the weather's Ok, so I'll do some not very scientific experiments.

Thank you for your replies,

I'm hopefully going to an out of season 'just for fun' stock car meeting next week so I'll change to 5 point and give it a go.

Regards, Chris.