fractal
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 15, 2013
- Messages
- 9,537
So does anyone shoot sports on manual focus? I'm thinking I may try that next meet. Maybe focusing on the beam and then shooting in manual since usually the gymnast is moving perpendicular to me. Also in the above pictures I had to push my ISO up really far to compensate for the slower zoom lens and the noise is pretty obvious. I havn't tried editing in software yet (just windows photo editor) that has noise reduction. I've borrowed a tamron 70-200 2.8 for tomorrow, and its the old one that has no image stabilization. The person I borrowed it from said if the shutter speed is high enough the lack of VR may not matter. One thing I've noticed about the tamron in playing with it is the AF seems slow when its at 200, thinking maybe manual focus may work better in lower light. Tomorrows meet is in a high school gym.
I've had plenty of experience focusing manually. I've been using my Minolta Maxxum 200mm 2.8 for indoor sports over the last 3 or 4 years. The focus peaking and focus magnification on my Sony camera makes it much easier. Using an Optical View Finder I feel would be much harder.
Some tips - at least 1/800th of a second, ideally 1/1000 or faster. Shoot in burst, not only to catch the action but also to increase odds of getting a shot in focus. Practice - manually focusing is a skill that like any other skill takes practice to get better. Try to anticipate, if you know what's going to happen next it helps. You can try "zone" shooting - When I shoot swimming, I pick a spot in the pool lane my swimmer is in, then focus on the water, wait for the swimmer to enter that zone then fire away. It's much more of a challenge than AF, but in many many can be more fun and satisfying.