Definitely the second one. The 50-200 gets a bad rap. It's an excellent lens for the money (in this case esp. for £70)....I would say only marginally inferior in IQ to the 55-300 (I have photos if you would like me to post them). And one of the really nice things.....it's extremely compact and light for a relatively long zoom.

I feel like Emily Litella from the old SNL skits. She explains why she doesn't understand why people are all atwitter about what she thought she understood was something completely different. Then when told what it really was, she just says "well then....never mind".

I guess I have reached that point here because I have grown exasperated trying to explain myself. I have learned my lesson and I apologize for wasting everyone's time. Move along....nothing to see here.

Thanks, Bill.....I appreciate that. I too do primarily landscape and wildlife. I love my K-r and I have no problems with it at all.

BTW, I have to hold myself accountable for my own observation. I stated that I found it amazing that people can understand what motivates someone to post something in a forum. I need to apply the same thing to my own assessment of the posts made. I should have just clarified my motivation and left it at that.

Fair enough, and I agree. So what could be more clear than asking whether the ff issues affects your shooting? It's a very simple question. It does not presume there is an issue unless it affects you. If you don't have an issue you just vote NEVER. What could be simpler than that? There are in a lot of other forums the question of whether or not you have a problem or not.....that's why I wanted to isolate this part of THAT question. Perhaps it would have been better to have that poll first. I will concede that point. But the question can still be answered whether or not you believe there is an issue. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive. True?

Well, I wasn't expecting this reaction. It's amazing to me that people can understand what motivates someone when they post something in a forum. I should recognize this can happen....I just didn't expect it here and for this poll.

In a sense, yes....I am trolling. But not in the context that is suggested. This is my own idea to get a sense of how many people shoot indoors and therefore would have a problem with the ff issue. The reason is because I almost always shoot outside and it has made an impression on me how many have complained about the ff issue because it is not a relevant one for me. How else would you find out this info if you don't pose the question? It's easier for me to count up the votes by stating it in a poll format. That's it. No other motivation.

And no I can't control what is stated in this thread, but I can tell you I don't appreciate the inference that I am trying to do anything but find out something for my own edification. And so now instead of focusing (no pun intended) on the question, the emphasis is now on why the question was asked and is it a legitimate problem. That is not why I asked, and my hope is that instead of derailing the original intent of the poll....for those who still want to discuss the question itself, I implore you to take what I wrote at face value and make up your own mind about it. For those who want to question whether or not there is an issue or talk about what is brilliant and achievable, there are plenty of other threads with which to navigate. Good day gentlemen.

John, yes....the question is presuming. Since the question is pertaining to the ff focus issue (legitimate, perceived, or otherwise) and since there is no way to corroborate various anecdotal accounts of the relative extent of the issue, for the sake of this poll it is assumed that there is a problem to whatever degree by THOSE users.

The question can also apply to those who don't actually have the problem physically on their camera. It was not meant to preclude any users. If you don't have a problem at all then you can just vote "never". But the idea is to suggest that even if you did, would it affect your shooting based on your predominant tendencies?

Please excuse any confusion. That's why I suggested further commentary to explain the reasoning for their choice. We could also do a separate "do you have a problem with your K-r with front focusing?" poll, but by having the "never" answer option it allows for those who don't to answer in this poll.

I posted this poll in another forum and thought I would get feedback here as well.

Trying to get a sense of what kind of shooters are out there. I rarely use my camera indoors and so even if I had a front focusing issue on my K-r (assuming it was confined to indoor light) it would not be a factor in my satisfaction whatsoever.

To clarify, this poll can also apply to those users who either don't have the problem (or don't know) actually in the camera.......or to those who don't have a problem because they usually or always shoot outdoors (shooting outdoors at night in an urban environment notwithstanding). I wanted to isolate this part of the question already answered in an earlier poll about whether you had a camera that did front focus. Please feel free to add anything relevant to the discussion because I know the short answers in the poll do not provide enough latitude for explanation.

Perhaps one more additional question as a caveat might be whether your K-r front focuses even outdoors?

I use Picasa also and I freaked when I saw this......I thought there was something wrong with my camera. Did some research and read that Picasa is just slow getting the RAW data from newer cameras interpreted and plan to have the K-r PEF updated soon.

I also used the same workaround with Irfanview. However, I took it a step further. I did some minor editing on the RAW image in Irfanview, then saved the file as a highest quality JPEG. Because I prefer the editing tools in Picasa, from there I opened the saved JPEG file in Picasa and processed to my likening. Worked perfectly with no apparent IQ degradation.

If you are agonizing about this enough to post it on this forum, my sense is that you won't be happy until you get a K-5.