Q, plus Chinese adaptor, +Kenko 1.5x TC, + DA*300. Okay, no award winner but in the half hour I spent playing around I couldn't get it with combinations using the K3. I can stop down my Chinese adaptor but I would love to have the extra features of the Pentax one. Where the Q + DA*300 comes into its own is with extreme telephoto video when cropping isn't an option. Neil P has slightly better Jupiter with same combo but Pentax 1.7x

Not sure why this would affect focus? It is fine DOF but why would it confirm focus on something clearly out of focus? It demonstrates it is perfectly capable a lot of the time. I think people like David and Alan Wennington are getting higher success rate under similar conditions.

Thanks for posting these Steve. Looks good.

I would David, just to get some nice Dipper shots, which I'm sure you have around your way

It certainly is a cracking lens Gareth - check out the ones that are in focus in my gallery!

Good idea Gareth. NeilP is a friend on here and lives nearby and he has one and now a K3. Will have to get together with him.
... and Roger, yes maybe it should be sent back for a check over. It is well used and coming up to two years old. Sounds like a very similar fault to mine, except when it is correct which is still quite a lot, the quality is second to none.

I have now had the K3 long enough to think that the AF seems more hit or miss than my previous Pentax DSLR's in certain conditions up to and including the K30.
WHen it is right it is stupendous. But it often seems to front or back focus as well as get it spot on. In fact it seems to be in about equal proportions. I doubt the camera is faulty and I have shot a large number with the Tamron 18-250 with few issues. So could it be the DA*300?
This is the scenario. Mainly shooting furry birds in good light with more high contrast adjacent. I could see it missing focus in these difficult conditions but I am using centre spot focusing (back button focus) and do not press the shutter till I get the focus confirmation bleep and I can visually see the focus point on the bird's head or body.So to summarise:-
With DA*300 (calibrated) it misses focus a lot in AFS mode centre spot focus despite positive confirmation. Is this possible?
We can eliminate camera shake/movement due to shutter speeds, tripod, or the static object nearby being sharp.
Examples below:-

1. In focus



2. Back focus



3. Front focus



Any thoughts welcome,
Dave

Blimey, 35mm SLR, rolls of film, fuel by the gallon. Sigh, those were the days. Those Tardis's never were very economical on diesel

-----------------------------------------------
Could you expand on the extent of your play? You could be the first review!

----------------------------------------------------------
Written by someone who lives in a Country that doesn't have high latitude winters and cloudy summers I'm guessing. Whatever the technique it gets a lot easier if we "always use very high shutter speeds, don't we". Of course for BIF you really need to, but opportunities are limited here.