New toy for me

So I ended up not waiting a year to upgrade my Pentax. I have been getting great results with my ist DL but could not pass up the offer of an ex display K10D. I have been sorting it out today and wanted to ask a question am I wrong in thinking the continuous auto focus is going to be fantastic for my sports photography?

'Continuous autofocus' (af.c) mode is what is more commonly referred to as 'tracking' autofocus, where the system finds a subject, locks on but then 'tracks' the movements of that subject and tries to adjust focus as it moves. The success or otherwise is always dependent on a number of factors, not least the experience of the photographer, so its going to be practice practice & practice to get great results. The lens will have an impact as well, and I' sure you will get plenty of great suggestions for a good lens to pair with your camera depending on the sports involved and your budget. I'm sure you're going to enjoy it very much!

Practice will not be a problem I have approached and had positive response from all my local rugby and hockey clubs and already do cricket and American football each weekend. I am having a real blast every time I go out. I will be saving up for a faster zoom lens but for now get great results with my Sigma DG 70-300

That's great, there's many here who will enjoy seeing your results and offering further support.

To be honest I have been holding off posting while the atmosphere is so toxic, am sure it will calm down soon then I may be more active for now just putting everything on my Flickr

The continuous AF of the K10D is NOT a "tracking AF". The AF points are not close enough to allow tracking in the true sense of the word. When the subject falls in the gap between two AF point, the camera's AF stops for a short while. When it re-acquires the subject via another AF point, it hunts a little bit, thus not providing a smooth continuous AF.

If the subject stays on the same AF point, then the results depend upon speed of the subject vs. speed of the AF system.

More or less "hit or miss".

It may be me, but I don't think I've ever kept a photo captured on AF.c on the K10D K7 K5 or K5IIs. Every now and again I give it another try, or discover it moved there by accident, but it just doesn't serve any purpose. In my experience, there are much smarter ways to focus.

That's very interesting Yves about the K10d focussing, it sounds like if might not be the ideal tool for sports in AF.C mode? I've used the K7 a lot in continuous mode with the 18-55 AL WR and have been pleased with the performance ... But that's mainly with small kids running around, some ducks swans and geese on rivers, not exactly fast jets or sports action!

I guess the lens will have an effect ... Does SDM or screw-drive have much impact on the af.c performance?

The tecnology in the K10D is a few years old now, so not the best for sports action using AF.

The alternative is pre-focsing on an area and waiting for the action to arrive there. This works well for some wildlife and motor sports, etc.

Have to agree with others - I found the AFc on the K10D to be fairly hit and miss - and not a great deal better on the K5 or K5IIs unless tracking the odd tortoise.

I attempted one series of shots of cyclists at the TDF on Saturday using AFc - suffice to say - I shall not be sharing any of the results!

Carl

I have found it works best combined with hi-speed 'burst' shooting mode ... Get the subject spot on to start with then just blast away for a bit and keep the moving subject nicely framed with smooth camera movement. The burst will stutter along as the focussing hunts and finds, but I find I get a fair proportion of keepers, say 50%. I would qualify this with the fact that my subjects tend to be quite large in the frame and near to me.

Hi Jamie

I have the K10d and agree with the comments above.

When shooting relatively close subjects such as football and some wildlife I have found a similar keeper rate using afc or afs with the central af point selected - it depends on yor preferred technique.

For more distant shots afc has worked fine but not all are keepers but usually enough to keep me happy.

The K5 is an improvement but I sitll find the K10 usable

Regards


Stu

Just came back from sports day where I had my subjects running towards me then across the frame. Pretty simple stuff, so I decided to let the af.c have a go and took 3 or 4 single shots. We'll see...

The reason I feel burst mode is best with AF.C is that the system will not fire until it hits focus, so whilst the burst will 'stutter' on and off as the focus works, mostly it will only fire when focus is good - of course it will struggle at times, but thats the principle anyway. The key techniques is to mentally forget about the focussing completely, just concentrate on keeping the framing good and ensure there's space in front of the subject for it to move into.

Not always. It depends which priority you set in the menus.