No AF in K-7 for video

Quote from Pentax manager on DPR forums:

At the time the copy was written and the video was shot AF was working during movies. Once we recieved updated firmware we were told this function was never supposed to be engaged, but was overlooked by the engineers in the pre-production firmware.

To be honest, I can see why is was never supposed to be engaged. It was a little slow and did not have a pleasant look when engaged during a video capure.

We seem to be getting mixed messages on this one.....

I seem to remember hearing in the official Pentax video preview that the K-7 used contrast based autofocus when in video mode :

Makes the video pretty useless then. I suppose you could use it on a tripod focused on a bird feeder or something.

Bleedin nuisance having the two things on one camera anyway. My Sony
camcorder has a rotary switch that turns the video part on at the first
click, but it often goes past that to the second click and you finish
up recording trashy little MPG1 files to the memory stick. Plus you can't
find things in the manual very easily, because it's full of stuff about taking stills and MPEG1 both of which are of diabolical quality.

shim

LOL! Ditto! Can't remember how many times I've tried to explain that to others

There probably is a market for video in a dSLR. If you've ever seen a high-def camera, fitted with a ground glass coupling screen, plus a 35mm lens adapter plus a 35mm lens (it's flipping massive! :shock - you'd probably give your right arm to shoot similar quality on a diddy little dSLR! (And that's all manual focus anyway - that's what the "focus puller" does - they focus blind, without seeing the image!)

...but it's not for me
Matt

I've seen them DOF adapters Matt.... unbelievable extent just to show the camera focusing from one point to another. The even vibrate the focusing screen to make it clearer, I'm surprised that works if it's a fresnel.

shim

probably haven't got the kinks out of the firmware yet..

even slow af is gonna be useful for some subjects.

my guess is it'll stay disabled until the new lenses get updated, it is possible the wr kit lenses aren't the ones that'll do video af.... I'm betting there's something else coming...and a firmware update with the new lens will arrive at the same time...

in the mean time it's better to keep us guessing than give us a half-a$$ed working AF feature.

Indeed.
At least we know its possible at some time in the future.

To me that sounds fully on par with "the dog ate the autofocus". What a joke.

Presumably what this really means is the feedback from beta testers was that autofocus was so lousy as to be unusable.

This video feature on K7 is sounding more like a joke everyday.

Be honest fokes....and I know I haven't had a chance to review one yet....if you had a chance to re-specify the current top of the range Pentax stills DSLR....the K20D.... would video be on top of your list?

No auto focus in video mode?....JEEEEZE!



Rob

No, it wouldn't be top of my list but I would take a K20D with video rather than one without.

Agreed

Would you like a K20D that had video with no auto-focus?



Rob

Hypothetical question, but yes I would because occasionally I would still find it a very useful feature to have

With regard to the K-7 video autofocus, I wouldn't get too wound up with regard to comments appearing here and there. Even if if the feature isn't there immediately (first release firmware) I'm sure they will be doing their best implement it as soon as possible

The spec speculation is certainly driving interest (as in AIDA...attention, interest desire and action).

Early adopters would certainly get bent out of shape if the alleged flaws could not be rectified by s/w updates.

Rob

True, as you would expect I guess

Sorry, I'm a bit lost there, what flaws?
Bear in mind there is not single review of a production K-7 yet