Comments on OK1000 Pentax Blog: Pentax DSLR Auto Focus Tips

This is such a very helpful and informative post s...

2010-11-30T02:32:05.123-05:00

This is such a very helpful and informative post specially for newbies like me. I just bought a new camera and I'm on the process of learning some basic shots particularly with different light settings and a lot of other stuffs. :) I learned a lot from your post and I hope you post some more techniques on photography! :D

Yes, that's perfect. Thanks!

2006-09-20T23:03:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's perfect. Thanks!

Michael, yes, the OK button will work independentl...

2006-09-20T08:06:00.000-04:00

Michael, yes, the OK button will work independently of the shutter button when you have the OK button set to activiate AF. The camera will need to be "active" in the sense that it must still be powered on and be capable of metering, but you don't have to half-press the shutter button. The shutter button will no longer activate AF when it is pressed. This works in the *ist DS, DL and K100D cameras. The *ist D and K10D both already have an AF button. I can't stress enough how great the Pentax "Quick Shift" lenses are with this camera feature. Hope that helps!

I'd like to confirm something which I can't seem t...

2006-09-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

I'd like to confirm something which I can't seem to find elsewhere, about the use of the OK button for focus: when the custom function is set to make the OK button activate focus, are you sure that the half-pressing the shutter button then doesn't also activate AF?

Pentax's literature is a little vague about this, so I'd like to check with a human who's actually tried it.

Canon bodies can be set to do this, and it's the behavior I'd like. Because then it's easy to take another shot without thinking about focus all over again, just like a manual camera. This is one of the main things I hate about compact digicams.

Thanks!
Michael

I noticed that my DS was never locking focus and I...

2006-06-30T16:21:00.000-04:00

I noticed that my DS was never locking focus and I now know why: after upgrading to the 2.0 firmware the AF Mode was set to AF.C - continuous focusing. I've moved it back to AF.S and I will select sports mode for those occasions when I do want continuous focussing. Thanks for the tip.

I've never been fully satisfied with the interplay between focus lock and exposure lock. With my old manual focus SLR, I always used to focus, then point the camera so as to get the right exposure (e.g. away from very bright areas that I want over-exposed in order to preserve shadow detail), half-press the shutter, and then with everything locked recompose for the final shot.

This doesn't work with the default settings on the DS, because half-pressing the shutter doesn't lock the exposure.

As an experiment, I am trying AE-L with AF locked, so that when the shutter is half down both the focus and the exposure are locked. I've also set the OK button to cancel autofocus, and the 'Swtch dst mst pt' setting to centre so that it always focuses on the centre of the frame.

For most shots this will be just what I want. I point the camera at the subject, half-press to fix the focus and exposure on the subject, recompose, and then take the picture.

On rare occasions when I want exposure for one area and focus on another, I can either press the AE-L button to lock the exposure while I recompose and then half-press the shutter a second time to set just the focus, or I can press the OK button to prevent the focus changing while I recompose and half-press the shutter to set the exposure.