teresajewell Loc: Bloomington, IN

I'm looking at buying a Pentax k-70 but am concerned at the low number of autofocus points. Just 11. I take mainly still shots...landscapes and stock photos. Some wildlife. Do I need a higher number of focus points? Thanks

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

As any auto focus system can only focus precisely on one point and with your repertoire of shots I would suggest you only need one, most likely center point. Now if you were shooting BIF or other fast moving, hard to follow subjects then the more the merrier. But I suspect you are looking for justification to up your gear.

teresajewell Loc: Bloomington, IN

Thanks. I appreciate your answer. Trying decide between buying a camera with 11 focus pts as opposed to 30+ points. Big difference in price.. Thanks again.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I use just one - right in the center. I must be cheating myself.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Pentax seems to be ceding sports / events / birds-in-flight to the other manufacturers, concentrating on landscapes and other slow / big / not-moving objects as their natural subjects. One thing special about the K-70 is that early users are already demonstrating that high ISO values seem to be quite useable on it despite its modest price-tag

tramsey Loc: Texas

I shoot with a Nikon d7100 that has 51 focal points but I only use one, center point. I shoot mostly wild life, grand kids and around the yard. I don't have any problem at all. I can't remember a time when I've used more then center point.

teresajewell Loc: Bloomington, IN

Thanks😀

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I read a posting the other day and someone said the D500 is superior to the 7D II because one has 153 focus points and one has 61. Now I just happen to own both cameras and the D500's 153 focus points is not at all what makes it better than the 7D II. Both have great AF systems but realistically one is using either the 9 central focus points or just the center focus point. What makes the Nikon better than the Canon is the Nikon has much newer technology in it, the Canon is an older camera. So, to throw my answer into the ring, you don't really need a whole lot of focus points, you only need a few that work well and in many cases, only 1.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Teresa, by me, it's impossible to have too many focus points. But more is misleading, because you can have twice as many in the same size area and you may not be gaining a lot. Fewer points over a larger area may sometimes very benificial and more over a larger area better still in some cases.
I think you just don't understand focus points and how to use them.
I shoot portraits with about 80 focus points(I think?) and don't have enough of them, and certainly in too small an area, so I compensate by having more mp and shooting more loosely .
One center point is only good if your subject is always in the center.
If you use an 85mm f1.2 lens wide open, and use the middle point and recompose, EVERY shot you take will be soft because the DoF is too shallow to recompose. So you need to use the appropriate point on the appropriate subject area so that point on your sensor will be sharp.
Some people only need one point. Since you can't understand why you need more, it might be a waste of money for you.
But if you learn to exploit all your points, it might become the ONLY thing that will work for you!!! Good luck
SS

rfcoakley Loc: Auburn, NH

It seems to me that there are two separate topics that are being discussed here. I interpreted the OP question to be relative to camera autofocus characteristics - how many focus points are available and how many of those focus points are "cross focus points." Some of the answers seem to, instead, be talking about the selection of focus points in the pictures that they take. Cameras with better autofocus systems provide a greater number of overall focus points as well as a greater percentage of them that are cross focus points. However, in virtually all still photos, standard advice is to utilize a single focus point when focusing on the scene. For action shots, there are a variety of multiple focus point selection strategies that provide better results in cases where it is difficult to maintain a single focus point on a dynamic subject.

For Nikon DSLRs, the last three generations of autofocus capability are probably just fine for most photography. For use with wildlife photography or other dynamic subjects (e.g., sports), a camera that offers advanced autofocusing capability (such as the 153 focus point system on D500/D850) may be a better choice.

teresajewell Loc: Bloomington, IN

All such good points. I appreciate all the thought and time. Love learning. Thanks

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I don't see where your comments come from. The original request very specifically asked about use of autofocus points, specifically when taking landscape pictures and some "wildlife" pictures, although nothing is said about whether the "wildlife" was big and slow or small and fast. There was no request for definition of the various types of autofocus points

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

Center point ..except for as noted by Gene51 here AND for off-center motion focus like 2 people walkin down an aisle and you need to focus on 1 or the other off center with continuous (servo) focus....there may be other examples but 95% is center point.
Tried various zone focusing but always go back to single center.

teresajewell Loc: Bloomington, IN

Thanks

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

The simple answer is NO, you do not.