Serious guidance required, please.

Like the video and the song - thanks for sharing!

I have spent a lot of time reading everything I could find about the K-30. I am now left with just three concerns.

1. Getting to grips with the K-30 in camera menu, it looks pretty daunting.

2. Am I correct in assuming that CDAF is Contrast detect auto focus and is used only in doing videos and PDAF is Phase detect auto focus and is used only in 'still' photography?

3. I have read consistently about the K-30 having, poor, slow, sluggish etc auto focus. Being a novice, this means little to me. Compared to my 650D I am assured that the K-30 is slower to auto focus and that I will always need to re-compose my shot before taking it.

When the phrase 'slow' etc is used how much slower, one second, five seconds or would I not even notice the difference?

These may be stupid questions to you gentlemen who have photographic knowledge but to me they are huge concerns. I really want to go back to a Pentax but need to know 100% that I won't be doing something very stupid by getting rid of my 650D. [I need to do this in order to finance my K-30].

I have only recently come out of full 'auto' mode. I can for the most part use either 'shutter' and or 'aperture' priority depending on whether I am taking still or moving subjects'. A generality, of course. However in moments of blind panic I am known to revert to 'auto'. Now you can perhaps see my concerns in a better light. As always, my grateful appreciation for all of your assistance, gentlemen.:

I have never found Pentax AF to be particularly slow. It snaps into focus virtually instantaneously, depending on lens of course. It tends to be tracking AF that people complain about, but to be honest I only ever use centre point AF.

To put this in perspective someone handed me a Nikon DSLR with 70-200mm lens and it was achingly slow in low light levels, so it depends on all sorts of factors clearly.

The menus are what need to be there, but it's just a matter of looking and learning. It's no more complicated than anything else, every item has an explanatory comment to guide.

Just in case there are any of you who may be interested. My K-30 plans have been postponed. Earlier this week I drove down to Burton upon Trent. The reason was to sell my Canon 'stuff'. The person concerned was 100% certain that he wanted my 'stuff' and was more than happy to pay my price but could not get up to me.

On arrival I was told that he had changed his mind and had already bought from someone else. This person had my telephone details but did not think it was a requirement or common courtesy to inform me of his actions.

In the unlikely event of anyone wanting to buy my 'stuff' they will have to come to me. No more Mr Nice Guy.

My view would be that you'd be better off getting used to your Canon 650D and using that, than switching brands yet again.

There's no such thing as a bad camera these days, and unless you have very specific requirements, and are confident evaluating the differences between features and brands, you'll achieve more by sticking with one camera and getting the hang of it.

Your comments are much appreciated ChrisA, you echo my wife's sentiments. I am thinking along the lines of you both. I have invested a lot in the 650D. Along with the 18-55mm kit lens, I have the canon 70-300mm, Tamron 18-270mm and the Sigma 105 macro lens.

Although I still regard myself as a novice, I can usually take some decent shots using either the Sv or Av priority modes. However, I do sometimes revert to Auto or P modes in times of blind panic. Hee! Hee! Apologies if I may have caused offence by talking about Canon in a Pentax forum. I shall probably disappear gracefully but still take great interest in this rather good forum.

A significant investment in lenses is all the more reason not to change without a very good reason.

Stick with what you've got, and find a nice friendly Canon forum to help you get the most out of your kit.
Best of luck.

Please note that we're not allowed to link to competitors except in the limited circumstances detailed in the Terms of Use. So link section removed in post.

This is for Gedski...I'm going to get a ton of hate mail for this but I have to say that I have had a love hate relationship with my K-r. I find the Auto focus has a mind of it's own and then that varies again with every lens I have. You can adjust for front and rear focus but it has to be done afresh with each lens on the K-r.

To those that are enraged please consider that these things are mass produced for a global market and perhaps a minor design issue could translate into a hit and miss problem on the production line with a certain model. I think the K-r suffered along these lines.

Rather than defend my experience I will say that due to the pleasure I have had with legacy lenses, the awesome ergonomics of Pentax and my belief that I have perhaps got a Friday afternoon build I will be looking at a K-5 or perhaps even the K-3 if one shows up in a local shop soon.

For the same reason I can fully understand your interest in the K-30 and I have heard nothing but good about it.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

No hate mail I'm sure, but what a shame you've had such a troubled experience with such a nice camera. I'm pretty sure we've looked into this one already on the forum so I won't start the process again, but feel free to link to the other thread if you know where it is.

Must say I've had my KR for about 18 months and have had no problems at all and to be honest it still out performs me!!

I have just completed my first piece of paid for photography, a wedding no less, with a kr and k5. You may be surprised that I used the kr as prime fitted with a Tamron 28-75 f2.8 and produced images which my client said made her cry.

Autofocus slow? ....... No!
Hunting in low light? ........ No!
Problems with tungsten lights? .......... No worse than my second shooters Canon and easily correctable in post prod.

Bang for buck it is hard to beat Pentax no matter which body you buy.

This will, in all probability, be my last post for obvious reasons. I shall be persevering with my present 'stuff', at least until next Autumn. I would just like to thank those of you who have assisted me, especially johnriley.

I am still determined to end up with a Pentax and look forward with some little anticipation what Pentax will have on offer in twelve months. Thank you all.

not quite correct

Phase detect AF can only be used when the Mirror is down so cannot be used for video. Contrast detect uses the main sensor so can be used for both. Contrast detect is more accurate, btu slower.

These pages illustrate the two types ...

http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs178/applets/autofocusPD.html

http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs178/applets/autofocusCD.html

On the K7 (and K5 I guess as well) you can choose to use either Phase or Contrast Detect AF during Live View operation. If using Phase then the mirror flips down quickly and up again, briefly interrupting the Live View. It is faster and more accurate (as Smeggy just said above Contrast is the slower)