Jens Bladt wrote: > I seem to have read that FPS of the K10D is a tiny bit faster than the D. > Write speed is faster and the buffer is larger. > But the AF system has not changed. It's still SAFOX VIII. > Your shot is excellent. But IMO it's "more an exception than a rule" about > how the D perform action shooting/autofocus. > The fact that some list members use manual focus rather than AF for this > type of shooting seems to confirm this. > Let's face it - Safox VIII is not the fastest or most accurate or most > predictive AF system on this planet
SAFOX VIII is the sensor design, not the entire AF assembly. The K series have greatly improved AF algorithms over the earlier bodies. The D and K100D are similar in speed (K100D is a little faster) since the D still has a more powerful motor than the K100D, which makes up to some extent for the slower and less positive AF algorithm. The K10D has the D's motor, driven even faster by the higher voltage of the Li-Ion battery, and AF algorithms improved over the K100D. It's very definitely faster than earlier Pentax's. Also one area in which SAFOX VIII excels is focus accuracy, unlike the units in most similar bodies from other vendors (D80 and Canon Rebel XTi/400D excepted, they use sensors inherited from much higher-spec bodies) > > Heck - some Canons use 45 AF points (giving a different meaning to the word > "predictive") as well as two separate micro processors especially dedicated > to the focusing system (This may be the reason why a lot of action shooters > are Canon users). Canon uses one microprocessor dedicated to the AF system on the 1 series bodies and another for everything else (The digitals add a third, the DiGiC processor for image processing). Note that the 45 points of the Canon AF unit are all concentrated in the centre of the frame and cover less of the frame than the 11 point units in the D, DS and K bodies (As well as the similar 11 point unit in the Nikon D2's and F6). That's the big weakness of the Canon's. > Pentax does not aim to compete with this at all. If they did, they would > have improved the AF system - to SAFOX IX or X or whatever. > > Regards > > Jens Bladt > http://www.jensbladt.dk > Saying that belies a great misunderstanding of the AF performance of the newer bodies. I suggest you try a K series body before making any claims about their performance. The SAFOX VIII designation merely refers to the sensor design, which is only a small part of AF performance (witness the differences in performance between the DL's and the other SAFOX VIII bodies, the DL's use a cut-down version of the SAFOX VIII sensor that isn't nearly as good). -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
