That's my experience too but, the main issue I am trying to overcome is keeping the spot on a very small object flying very close at relative high speed.

Yesterday on Skomer I found it easy to nail a Fast Flying Puffin from 60 metres but at 6 metres it is almost physically impossible.

Between 6-60 metres the challenge to track the bird varies with focussing distance but even at 20 metres those Puffins are a "focussing challenge" ( for me anyway) .

Multipoint focussing on the K3 II and the K1 is definately capable and I don't see either the Canon 6D or the Nikon D810 being better , maybe not as good as.

When the moving object is large in the view finder area and has higher contrast than the background both Pentax's are spot on.

However as the object size diminishes and the back ground area increases, multipoint seems to find anything with contrast in the background.

Making the object area smaller exponentially increases the failure rate but; see Tomkeet's Sandmartin in this weeks ( or last weeks gallery) that is some capture.

For me there are two key issues; keeping up with the subject and keeping the bead on it when it is relatively small in the area of the view finder ( big birds are easier by a long way)

I think that is a skill issue ( lack of it in my case) not the hardware.

I do agree though, that the focus button is the best way, and in my experience, with anti shake off , hold off and anything else that gives the processor something to do while we are trying to focus on a speeding bullet, which is what Tomkeets sand martin shot is about.

Regards

Honestly, I don't get it; On my K3 II's and now the K1 I do pay due respect to the automation but increasingly I am finding it is getting more impractical; partiularly the current topic.

I just spent a couple of days on Skomer and had modest success with BIF ie. Some nicely crisp well focussed BIF shots.

However anyone trying to keep the bead on a returning puffin passing across your field of view at 5 metres will not be wondering about selectable points ; A Puffin at 5 metres, flat out is like a black and white tracer bullet.

I tried the K1 on all seven focus field modes and by far the best was with all points iniated in auto with anti shake off and AF Hold off.

This changed my "keeper rate" from about 1:30 to 1:15 but as for a well focuused and
composed shot of a " flat out" puffin it is not better than 1:50.

One thing that is pleasing is that the extra field of view of the full frame makes this type of shot more do-able, as it gives a bigger "window" to track the bird.

With the K1 the "Passing "Puffin Missile shot"has gone from being almost impossible to slightly possible.unless of course you are Tomkeet.

So focus points for me is not a feature that I thank the gods of photography for every night - tracking the bird is my omly concern and i still have to master this competence..

Maybe a simplified FF with just Aperture and Shutter priority, a good burst mode, basic multi segment focus and exposure modes and a flashsoe would cover my needs .

GPS, Astro tracing , selectable focus points, The Phase detection menu are wastec on me, frankly but I recognize I am defficient and so I must applaude Pentax for providing these technologies.

What a day, what a well taken set of stunning images,

Regards

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Regards

Marvellous shots, stunning exposures, if that's near to you then you are very fortunate; also to be able to make such a great set of images too.

Is the 150-450mm sharp at 450mm wide open?

Grab Shot at F5.6 X 500th (ISO 400) X 450MM

Great theme, taken so well, railway engineering is something that gets in your blood for sure; I like them all too.

Hi Neil,

If it is clear that this is repeatble under controlled conditions; Eg: taking 20 test shots of a static subject -10 off at 5.6 and 10 off at 6.3 , with the camera fixed on a tripod , with the focus points set at 9, then I agree, there is an equipment issue, most likely the lens.

My 150-450 is tack sharp at 450 mm without conspicuous change in IQ from wide open up to about f16 ; with 5.6 to f9 being as good as a prime lens.

Two images that show how sharp it is;







The dove image, I must say, looks like the lens has not established focus, manually or by AF. I can't say I haven't had a few shots like this on occasions but it is usually tracking a bird moving around in foliage with the wrong AF focus area setting ( expanded 33 points for eg) as I said in my previous post ,

Try the test shots with all variables removed other than the aperture change; If it is repeatble send the lens back for an exchange.

By the way if you are using a filter take it off for the test shots, I once had an issue with the 50-135 DA* which turned out to be a faulty filter and it wasn't a budget priced filter either.

John's comments on subject movement is very important to this discussion and as any zoologist will explain, wild creatures that are continually faced with attack from predating species actually are in continual scan mode.

Watch a solitary blue tit before it exposes itself to a potential predator attack on a feeder; it will take a minute ot two to scan the field of view by very rapid incremental, almost mechanical movements of it's head in all directions covering almost the full 3D 360 degree field of view before coming into the open.

The movements I referred to as incremental are so precise and rapid they could could be described as "systematic, programmed, high speed scanning".

Examine photos taken of such a subject at 1/60th , 1/125th and so on and you really need to be at about a 1/500th to cope with the physical speed of these very minute but repetetive head movements.

I find regularly on some of my pictures that a bird's body is sharp as a tack but the head can be unsharp, and it is often clearly not linked to depth of field

If you are close enough to a garden bird on a feeder try a flash and like me you will be surprised how our judgment on sharpness can loose calibration a little.

Rabbits and ground living prey species are continually scanning with their years and eyes, flexing the face and head muscles, perhaps a little less conspicuously than the wonderful meerkat , the ultimate " digital scanner"

As regards lenses and the originsl question from NeilP, I have the 200, 300 and 60-250 DA* lenses plus the 150-450; if I had to choose the sharpest lens I couldn'ft because of the other variables in the field John mentioned.

If I was pinned down, in ideal conditions with rigid support and half decent light the 200 is clearly the sharpest but they are all better than I am and how I deal with the conditions.

One thing is sure; if you are not on a " blue sky day" with a 500th at f8 at 200 iso , all those lenses benefit significantly from rigid support and despite being a "monopod man" in the psst my experience is that you cannot beat a bean bag.

A Benbo Tripod does a great job as far as tripods go, but my carbon fibre tripod has been confined to the draw for big lenses coming out only for macro generally.

The monopod is used very carefully depending on what shutter speeds I get.

Finally with a big lens the combination of focus mode, focus field and depth of field, even on small birds is quite complex - I took a long time to improve my understanding of this with the 150-450 ; wide open with the focus fixed on a medium size bird it is possible (if you are close to it) to have the eyes in focus and the tail out of focus, even if you have spot focussed .

Multi point focus mode is somethimg I do not use on birds that are not in flight; in flight yes and I must say the K1 is very good compared to it's predesessors as was/ is the K3II.

But as mentioned above, on static wild life I rarely use anything other than spot focus.

I am tending to consider depth of field issue more and more and regularly, even If I get the minimum shutter speed, will raise ISO to give me more depth of field.

Hope this helps and I am there might be something others consider as a priority to aid sharpness that can help me.

Tomkeet turns in stunningly sharp images of small birds using his 520mm Pentax all the time ; he sets the standard for me so I would love to hear his view.

Regards

Great shot of Bee, well captured skillful work