KX and team sports

Hi All

I've been using the K10 for a couple of years. Its a great camera.

The KX looks to have the best low light performance of all the Pentax DSLRs and I've seen comemnts about it being slightly faster to focus than the K10.

The sport I enjoy shooting is (amatuer)football and often in low light or even under floods. In both situations the K10 is stretched at ISO 800.

Has anyone used the KX for fast moving team sports?

How good is the face recognition for this use?

Other than the lack of weatherproofing has anyone any other thoughts or advice about my adding as KX to my bag as a second camera?

Appreciate any thtoughts. Cheers all

Geoff

I'll let K-x owners deal with the other bits but in relation to face recognition - about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

FR only works in live view which, in turn, employs a much slower AF system such as the ones found in compact cameras. By the time the lens had locked on you'd probably find the ball's up the other end of the pitch.

On the plus side, I had a play with a K-x before Christmas and I'm happy to report that the regular (through-the-viewfinder) AF seems quite a bit quicker than my K10D.

It would also seem that ISO3200 shots from the K-x are broadly comparable to ISO800 shots from the K10D noise-wise, meaning an extra two stops of light for a similar quality result.

Thanks Hefty, I'll forget the chocoalte tea pot as a benefit but value your comments about ISO 800 vs 3200. Those 2 stops would be very worthwhile.

Would I notice any advantage from the extra pixels?

I can't comment on the Kx, however I do have the K7 and like you do shoot football under what is laughingly referred to as floodlights. The K7 is fantastic in comparison to the K10d. I can take photos of the action under floodlights that are very useable.

See this set.

link

I think you'll find the difference between a 10MP camera and a 12MP camera (all else being equal) is pretty marginal to be honest. You'd have marginally more cropping leeway with the K-x but it won't be a night & day difference.

Still, the low light performance and improved AF speed alone should make the K-x a very worthy back-up camera, plus it's small size and light weight. I must admit I'm seriously thinking about getting one myself now that I've had a play with one. The K10D still offers some advantages though; such as the weather sealing, pentaprism finder, dual control wheels and exceptional IQ at base ISO (CCD sensors are still far superior to CMOS ones in good light IMO) so I wouldn't want to swap permanently.

Thanks Mike and Hefty

Good to see your results Mike. Looks like you are a user of the TAv type setting which I see as a great tool on the K10 for action pics. The pics on Flickr are clearly reduced in size. How do you find the full sized K7 files for noise. Can you get reasonable A4 prints at the higher ISOs in these real world situations? If you dont mind my asking which tele lens are you using for the longer range (far end goal mouth) action?

The worry I now have vs the KX is that it reads like you don't know which points are being used for focus so in a team sport this could be quite a concern, especially at the faster settings on the lens. Am I right in this interpretation concenring the focus marks which we do have in the viewfinder of the K10?

Cheers guys and a happy new year to all on the forum

Geoff

Why is that concerning, I would only use centerspot when dealing with sport since the AF focus there the best.
And yes your interpretation is right, it are the red squares in the viewfinder.

Thanks Stefan

Are you saying then that even with centre point focus the KX doesnt have the confirming red/green points in the viewfinder?

I did learn from he help I got on this forum that centre spot and using the AF button on the back of the camera(K10) make for more responsive shooting.

No you don't see the squares in the viewfinder since they didn't incorporate that screen into it. Some here say it's because the lack of room.
You do see the green hexagon light up in the information bar in the viewfinder.

There is however an AF point information screen on the big LCD screen on the back of the K-X, it shows which points you use.

I said that I only use centre spot with sport since that's the best AF point on the camera.
Since you know that it focus on the centre spot, I don't see it a problem that the red square doesn't light up in the viewfinder to indicate which point is in focus.

I don't believe that using the AF button instead of the shutter release as focusing makes the AF snappier.
It's all because you use centre focus, the other ones around the centre one are also good but the ones at the far left and right side are less so I won't use those too much, only when needed.

You do know if you have selected the point yourself. I think most serious DSLR users avoid Auto Select even with cameras that do indicate the focus points in the viewfinder.

Thanks Pete

I agree that single point is the way and do use this on my K10D.

What I now understand is that the KX will allow single centre point focussing but if I read correctly you have to guess where the centre of the frame is during shooting.

Maybe this is one of the economies that have to be expected/traded off against the lower high ISO noise when comparing Pentax DSLR offerings?

Geoff

No, you don't have to guess where the centre of the frame is, or even where another point is, because the focusing screen is marked with brackets:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxkx/page4.asp

All you don't get is the red light in the viewfinder to confirm which point has been selected, but this is not a problem if you manually select and remember what you selected. You don't even have to stick to the centre point, just don't use Auto Select if you don't want the camera doing the thinking for you.

Geoff,

I actually shoot manual the whole time, typically underexposing slightly. I always use the centre point for AF. I sometimes manual focus as it can be quicker, hard work though. Lens used is the DA*60-250 f4 which apart from focusing speed is excellent. I've also got a Bigma that comes out when the light is better.
I've yet to try out printing the higher ISO files at A4, but I must do so sometime.
As mentioned though. I had previously shot a match at the same ground under floodlights with the K10 and it was impossible to get a shot. That's how much the difference is.

Mike

This is what I mean with that you can see the focus point on the LCD screen.
It's big square in between the four blueish parts, that says iso, awb, etc.
The red point indicates which AF point is selected.

Thanks Mike, Pete and Stefan - very helpful.

I confess I am wavering about which route to go down for a second body. If I choose the KX I'll get the lighter option while still having my K10 for the damp days and maybe with a standard zoom for use alongside the tele lens on the KX body at other times. If I go for the K7 then this would become the first choice for all uses and offers a faster frame rate for continuous shooting.

Cost is not to be forgotten and the seemingly galling factor is that the "expert" reviews are rating the KX high ISO performance as the best available in this class!

Does anyone know if a K7 mark 2 is likely soon (to incorporate the hardware advantages of the KX)

Mike I see you support either Prestatyn or Rhyl - do they ever play in this part of the world (E Midlands)? I'd like to hear your assessment of the A4 prints of any of the flcikr pics.

Cheers
Geoff