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Saturday, May 28, 2011

To All K-5 Users: Do You Actually Encounter the Tungsten/Low Light FF Issue? (Poll)

As you know, I like much about the appearance of my gold/brown K-r. Practically, it is a nice camera and good piece of photographic tool putting aside the persistent front focusing issue under tungsten and the last isolated accident that I have encountered.

However, I am so annoyed with the tungsten FF issue as I do shoot indoor with my fast Pentax primes from time to time. Indeed, the problem is most troublesome when there is mixed white and yellow light sources, under which there is not a single "fine focus adjustment" factor that I can safely enter to avoid the AF errors. Otherwise, for indoor environment that is with tungsten source only, I could quite safely to use a -10 adjustment factor to compensate for the error that must occur with the K-r in that case.

Just with this problem alone, I am now seriously considering to move to a K-5, which has a SAFOX + (Plus) AF system, which theoretically should avoid the problem. However, for what I have made my research so far, it seems that there are still some K-5 users, who have already upgraded to the latest K-5 firmware of version 1.03, do yet encounter some AF problems, although it seems that it is not as severe as the K-r's. See this example.

So, after all, I would need to seek assistance from all you folks who have used your K-5 for quite a while, and most importantly have been shooting under tungsten or mixed light sources indoor wider opened with faster lenses, to give me some advice about the AF reliability for this application. Your information provided will surely help me to make a better decision and to help me to re-configure my Pentax gear with a better setup/lineup.

Thank you in advance for all your kind help and inputs. Here we go!

Do You Find Any AF Issue(s) With Your K-5 Under Tungsten/Lower Light?
I am a K-5 user and I do not see any problem.
I am a K-5 user and I do find some problems occasionally.
I am a K-5 user and I do encounter some persistent problems, consistently.
pollcode.com free polls

Comments (37)

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Peter Fang's avatar

Peter Fang · 720 weeks ago

The K-5's AF system performed better than all previous SAFOX VIII DSLRs I had owned all the way from the *ist D. The one area I found most improved is AF accuracy, especially with fast lenses. On previous Pentax DSLRs I sometimes got hit and miss results with lenses like the FA31/1.8 or the FA*85/1.4 at or near wide-open but with the K-5 it's almost always spot-on. Combined with the superior resolution of the Sony 16MP sensor, I can really say the FA31 Limited is now truly a great lens comparable to the performance I get on film SLRs, except for the change of effective focal length due to the APS-C sensor size. For years I had been saying I couldn't fully reproduce the magic I got from the 31 on the MZ-S with a DSLR. Not any more. With the K-5 I can see amazing AF accuracy and stunning resolving power from this lens. If you have reservations with how SAFOX VIII performed on previous Pentax DSLRs, by all means give the K-5's SAFOX IX+ system a thorough try. I
5 replies · active 719 weeks ago
Voted "I do not see this problem". I've had no trouble with FF under tungsten since 1.03, however I have some severe back focus with my Tamron 17-50, but that goes for any kind of light. With my Pentax lenses, the K-5 is terrific.
Hi there!
I am owner of k-x and live in russia! I am now selling my k-x and wanted to move to k-r due to focusing points in viewfinder and better LCD. But I am afraid of tungsteen issue!
Guys is it better for me to save some money and stay with k-x (i am photographer newbie) or just wait a little bit and get k-5?
p.s. sorry if it is offtopic)
21 replies · active 718 weeks ago
I just returned from a trip to Japan and I had so many keepers from my K-5 compred to K-7.

HOWEVER, I did encounter a possible AF issue.

For those of you have been there, you will know the famous floating Torii gate of the Miyajima island. In the evening this torii gate is illuminated by projected (mercury??) light. The gate themselves are a bright orange reddish color.

How when I took photos of the shrine in the night, the AF consistently seem to front focus - compared to say, if I use Live view for cofusing.

The live view focurs always places the focus point at near infinity, while the standard AF consistently seem to lock focus just short of infinity.

I observed this multiple times. In then end all the photos I took that night of the shrine were taken with the live view mode.

My K-5 has a series number of 40XXXXX, and already have 1.0.3 loaded.

I will have to do further testing to re-confirm my findings.
6 replies · active 719 weeks ago
Thanks for the info, I think I will do an update then a reset to see if it improves things.

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