Very interesting article for those who are Pentax and believe in Pentax

https://fstoppers.com/editorial/new-superhero-could-pentax-k-3-ii-how-nikon-and-...

Interesting to some degree in that the astrotracing ability has been there for a very long time now, IF you purchased the dongle, which is the same issue they knock Nikon for charging extra for, which is what Pentax had done for a long time too. The only big change here is it's now built in, which I'm glad to see.

As discussed many times before, I'd also like to see some more focus on video capabilities and a quantum leap in Autofocus ability, as we really don't compete in these areas yet. We offer a solid proposal for stills, with weather sealing and sensor shift during stills, but lag behind on the tracking focus and video offerings, most notably the loss of sensor stabilisation.

I'm genuinely pretty interested in the new K-3ii, but will be checking the pricing...

The article was interesting in some ways and it is nice to see someone highlighting the benefits of Pentax, but I think it rambled on a bit too. An interesting point is raised by richandfleur above regarding the weather sealing, sensor shift on stills and decent AF for non-moving subjects. It seems to me that Pentax may be actively trying to differentiate in these areas and not to worry too much about other areas where they know they can't offer anything better than CaNikon.

For me they have the right balance, for many others probably they don't.

Regards
David

Edit: I think the 4.5 stops in body stabilisation is a pretty killer feature

Brings us back on a par with the Sony A7ii ability, oh and Olympus em5 mkii also.

There's often this gap in experience Andrew; I totally agree with you, I never have a focusing problem either.

But then I don't use tracking focusing for moving subjects - I still use centre point only and if I think it will be difficult I go back to manual focus, so for motor sports for example I would just pre-focus on the appropriate bit of track and press the shutter just before the car got there. The slight lag in my finger response and the even slighter one from the camera mean a judgement has to be made as to when to release the shutter. AF might or might not lock on, but even if it did, by the time the shutter released the car would have moved beyond the point of focus.

I'm sure it depends on lens used, distances involved and light levels as a friend showed me his Nikon D7100 with Nikon 70-200mm f/2/8 lens and its focus was positively slow.

Anyway, the K-5 is fast enough for my requirements and certainly accurate enough, and the K-3 is even better.

Good point John. Having said that though, even with any camera/ lens focus is very subjective. I know many photographers that will sit there any study I photo and argue whether it's in focus or not

The K-5ii cameras onwards are demons at focussing in dim light, without the need for a focus assist lamp. Like John, I don't use focus tracking and I stick to centre point, but unlike John I have had focus issues, more so with certain lenses, such as the DA 17-70 and surprisingly the DA*50-135, which I have found devilishly difficult to get the right AF adjustment set up with my K-3. Having said this, I mainly shoot it at F2.8, so DOF is thin.

The only camera I've owned which was bad at focussing was one of my K-5's, but I had another one which had no issues at all, so there is a lot of variability. I suspect those of us that like to shoot with wide apertures probably have the most issues!

Regards
David

I see the K-S2 is rated to lower light focussing than say the K-30, so it's good to see that populating through the range.