K5ll&300sdm

My K5ll keeps hunting for focus any ideas?

Not sure whether it is camera or the lens has anybody else had the same problem.

It does focus one in five times, Not much good when you're trying to focus on flying birds

Your camera AF sensor needs cleaning? Worth a try.

Try I did' but still hunts
Think it's the lens?

I have a 50-135 sdm that hunts if i have not used it for awhile. I have to wind the focus ring back and forth with the lens set in AF. It's rumored the SDM motors "go to sleep" if not used regularly, so you have to wake them up.

Might be worth a try

I don't think this is due to the SDM 'going to sleep'.

Pentax DSLR's are prone to hunting on small subjects due to the AF configuration, which is aligned more to accuracy on larger subjects than it is to focussing quickly on small moving targets. This happens on some lenses more than others and is also more prevalent on camera models prior to the K-3. I have both a K-3 and a K-5iis and I notice a huge difference when photographing birds on the K-5iis vs. the K-3 with the same lenses. The K-3 will lock on where the K-5iis will hunt.

I haven't used the 50-135 for wildlife shooting, but I do own this lens and would imagine it will be very prone to hunting on small moving objects like birds.

Hope this is useful info.

Regards
David

I think that should be nominated for an award David .... Most Euphemistic Description' of Pentax AF ever known to have been written !

In fact, it clearly should be adopted in the Autofocus sections of all the Camera manuals (although once translated into Japanese and then back to English again its meaning might have changed completely) ......

Cleaned everything but it still hunts
Its a DA*300 I will try moving the focus ring
Cheers thanks for the help

You haven't told us how your camera is set up (focus points, etc) nor in what circumstances you get hunting.

All cameras and lenses will hunt at some time or other.

For example, if it's just the bif and the sky behind it, I'd say you'd be very likely to get hunting as the system alternates between the bird being in the af target zone and when it's not. I don't 'do' birds in flight, but I imagine they're very difficult to track through the viewfinder, which would explain why some birders use the equivalent of rifle sights with their long lenses.

It hunts on static things as well it doesn't quite stay in focus. it looks as though you're waving the camera about, even on a tripod
I've tried af centre spot continuous , single ,both the same

Are you using Live View, or the viewfinder? And do you have Shake Reduction on or off?

Cheers Nigel

Regarding the issue with the lens, it seems to me that this is an actual fault with either the lens or the camera body. My suggestion would be to find someone with a Pentax camera and try the lens on a different body, this will rule out either the camera or the lens as being the cause. I once went on a nature shoot with a fellow Pentaxian who had a similar issue and we were able to confirm his problem as a camera fault by swapping lenses between our two camera bodies.

However, as mentioned earlier, the K-5 series are more prone to hunting than the K-3 bodies onwards.

Regards
David

As I bought the camera and the lens from Wex I'll pop in tomorrow and see if I can work out whether it's the camera or the lens
Thanks for all the help I will keep you updated
Stan J