5D II Auto focus system -Fast action-

This is proof that in the right hands the 5D II auto focus system works wonderfully. I always read people's posts where they bash this camera body because of its slow shutter rate, its inability to track moving objects or its lack of auto focus points but it can take great pictures in all sorts of situations not just the studio. In some of these images these sports cars and motorcycles were traveling in excess of 180 - 230 mph. If you've ever seen a car pass you at 150 to 180 mph while you are standing still then you'd see how difficult it is to track them as they approach and then pass you. They start out the size of a pea at half a mile away and then quickly grow in size as they blur past you.


Yes it would be nice to have a 1D Mark IV in this situation but then that would eat into the money that I make.





Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freelanceshots/sets/72157623705938384/





Lenses used EF 70-200mm and 15mm Fish Eye





Event Title: The Texas Mile, High Speed Shoot-out held in Goliad Texas March 25 - 28th

Great pics, and thanks for demonstrating the 5D Mk2's ability!

I talk a lot on the forum about critics who know all the flaws of cameras and lens they don't own and have never used.


I've been using the 5DMKII a lot for sports photography becuase it out performs my 1D MKII at higher ISO. I think the autofocus works fine for me. Maybe I'm not very demanding and maybe the camera just works really well through the EF 300 f/2.8 and the EF 400 f/2.8 that Iuse for sports.


I'm certainly agree with you. I think the 5D MKII can be a good body for sports.This is especially true if you're like me andmake your money through portraits and weddings.

It is a situational thing. I've used a 7D and 5DmkII at indoor high school basketball games. If you are trying to capture an important shot under those conditions, 5D is not the camera you want. Shutter lag and frame rate will really bite you. 5dII's Servo doesn't track ball players charging down the court toward you very well either.


Kudos to freelance. I think your shots are great and I believe it was the know how that helped get those. Also the good light and the left to right tracking helped too. But I'd like to here you opinion if you shot the indoor basketball games with players charging at you. The 5DII will work but you'll have way more misses than with the 7D.

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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]You would be right where the 5D II
would be at a disadvantage. In basketball you really need a camera
body that can squeeze out at least 6 frames per a second where you
can then pick that one image that captures the best moment. The
bright light at the track was a big help where in my situation I did
not need a super fast frame rate. There was no one milisecond in time
that I had to capture so that gave me more freedom. The one big
benefit that I did gain buy using the 5DII was that I was stuck with the
70-200mm lens where I needed more reach to get in tighter but the 21
mega pixel sensor allowed me the ability to crop heavily into my
images and not lose quality. Also images can get grainy when you crop
in even at ISO 100 so the 5D2 helped in this area as well. I had my
40D camera body with me but it just does not match the image quality
so I switched back to the 5D2. I've had the opportunity to shoot
hundreds of high school and college basketball for the newspaper job
that I used to have so I do know what your talking about. As far as
shooting sports under dim lighting with the 5D2 I don't have a lot
experience since I had already left the newspaper when I got this 5D.
I can say that I know a guy that I used to run into out on the job
where he used his 5D1 for the past three years to shoot everything
sports related even at night/crappy light and he cranked out magazine quality
stuff all the time. He primarily used his EF 300 2.8 lens but
I don't think that was the contributing success factor. When the right job comes my way where I have to have the camera body that fits the special niche I will add a 7D or if time permits its predecessor. With the way cameras are being updated I don't think I will ever drop the money for a 1D series body even though I'd see the benefits.

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Originally Posted by freelanceshots

In basketball you really need a camera
body that can squeeze out at least 6 frames per a second

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I don't know about you but when I'm shooting basketball I'm using off-camera flash and my strobes definitelycan't recharge for 6 shots every second even at quarter power. I learn the shutter delay of my camera and precisely time my shots. Shutter rate has no advantage here.


I've found the 5d II's auto focus to function fine for my needs but of course theres always room for improvement. I'm sure the 7D and the 1D IV produce more in focus shots but the image quality and resolution of the 5D (when shots are in focus) are superior in my opinion. While it would be nice I don't need 500 sharp shots :P I get my keepers and I'm golden, but for others that need to deliver hundreds of shots and not just a handful I can see why they'd want adifferentcamera.


Sports is just one subject of many that I shoot (I'm working more in the studio now-a-days) but the 5D has really shown itsversatility in the year or so that I've owned it.

The 5D II is more than capable of shooting fast action sports. Here's an example of super bikes shot last year with a 70-200 2.8 and these guys were doing more than 170MPH.


http://brooksv.zenfolio.com/img/v9/p200484689-4.jpg


http://brooksv.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p277811429-4.jpg

Amazing photos freelance, love those! I'm gonna shoot some carbashing and motorcrossevent this easternweekend with my 5D, so I think you can expect some "sporty" shots from me these days [:D] I'm not afraid the AF will let me down that's for sure!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by varok

The 5D II is more than capable of shooting fast action sports. Here's an example of super bikes shot last year with a 70-200 2.8 and these guys were doing more than 170MPH.

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Guys think outside this box. Perhaps they travel with such speeds, but it is in line with you, I mean the distance doesn't really change. I believe the 5D will be great and do just fine for these shots, but think of this:


100m sprint of athletics and you stand in line with the athlete just about 15m from the finish and the athlete sprints straight into you. Would the 5D's autofocus keep up with that? Predictive focus is what I mean.


The shots that are posted here are pretty awesome, but I don't think it is right to say it is prove that the AF is about as good as the "sport"camera's.To be honest, panningshots of very fast moving things can also be done with an old 300D or 1000D or whatever camera. They might go very fast, but the once the AF locks changes are minimum. Also the subject/camera distance is probably quite big in these shots, so the angle and speed the camera has to compensate for isn&acute;t that big. I did a few panning shots myself and often I even used MF for these shots.


Tell me what you think.


Jan

By the way freelance, did you use IS mode 2 and centerpoint focus for these actionshots?


Oh and perhaps you could post a few in this thread: Post your best motor-sports photos


Just to get some life in that thread again, would be awesome! [A]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crosbyharbison

I learn the shutter delay of my camera and precisely time my shots. Shutter rate has no advantage here.

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This is where the 5D2 bites me in the rear. I think it has to going back and forth from 7D to 5D. The lag on the 7D is almost nothing and them I switch cameras and with the 5D my timing is thrown off.


I never said the 5D2 couldn't do the job, but there are definitely better tools for the job. So far the 7D is giving all that I desire from a sports camera, but the 5D will always be right by my side with a wide(er) angle on it.

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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]I have the non IS
version of the 70-200mm. IS probably would have been a big help
this day as my panning was very shaky. I was shooting at approx
between 1/500 to 1/800 of a second to get blur in the tires and
background. Anything slower then 500/800 sec and the whole image
would come out soft from extra vertical and unmatched lateral
movement. I used my B&amp;W polarizing filter some of the time to
block out some of the light and reflections which in turn helped me keep the
lower shutter speeds but in respect caused the sky to be uneven.
Could not adjust the filter easily from scene to scene because of the
lens hood. Overall, I was not very prepared this day where I had not
picked up any of my cameras in a month so I had to over come that
rusty feeling that seemed to take a long time.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]I like the pictures of the
motorcycle racing, wish I could see some super sport motorcycle
racing first hand! Vorak can I come and stay with you!?!? There is
nothing cool like this in Arkansas where I wish I could get a gig for
next years Daytona Bike Week. I ride an R6 and really enjoy the
sport. That reminds me I really need a 400mm 2.8 lens for the
motorcycles.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]As far as the camera I
switched back and forth from center point focus to all the points
selected depending on the speed of the vehicles. Cars coming at me
and then passing me high speed I used center point focus, the car
approaching me more slowly all the focus points selected. There where
two different areas where the cars were doing either their high speed
passes and then the return down pit lane. I left the camera in
AI-Servo mode unless I was shooting still objects. I agree that the
7D would have been an easier camera to use this day but since I don't
have one I had to make the 5D2 work which it did a fairly decent job.
My 40D's shutter button is worn out where there's no way I'm going to
spend the money to send it in and have it repaired. I think its got
some major dust in that area as it was never the same after covering
the last AMA outdoor motocross race.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]My original point in this
post was to just express that the 5D2's focus system is not as bad as
people think or are led to believe. Yes there are more appropriate
cameras for this specific type of photography work but its not the
end of the world if you don't have every latest and greatest camera
body. I know there are a lot of folks who don't even own this camera
and write reviews which are misleading for people who want real
information or just want to make informed buying decisions.

Sheiky,


Predictive focus was working like it should for any decent camera as I began
tracking the high speed section of the cars where the start was half a mile away. At that distance the cars and motorcycles were about the size of a speck of dust. The tracking path had me arching from left to right about 140 degrees. This was a pretty big distance to start focus where the
camera had to predict future focus quickly and it accomplished it just fine for a non pro camera body. The challenge was keeping the very fast subject with in the center focus point the entire time. When the car would leave the center
focus point for even a millisecond the focus would go slightly towards
the foreground or background.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freelanceshots

<span style="font-size: small;"]My original point in this
post was to just express that the 5D2's focus system is not as bad as
people think or are led to believe.

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I get it. I chimed in because on occasion I have been one of the critics.

This is not a rule, but in my experience most of the time people blame their camera for bad images it's the photographer's fault. As I said, not a rule (think: 1d3 AF issues, etc), but I see people complaining about their 40ds and 50ds when in fact it is possible to create great images with them (think: Nate!). I know the AF on the 5D2 isn't superb (Why isn't everyone buying the D700?) but as demonstrated, in skilled hands it can work just fine.


brendan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bburns223

(Why isn't everyone buying the D700?)

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Good question. I honestly don't know :)


For me, I had a bunch of canon gear and didn't want to switch. And then what if the next time I want to update my camera, I like the Canon better. Switch back? Anyhow, I think I like canon lenses better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bburns223

in skilled hands it can work just fine.

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There can be no doubt about that.

After busting out the 40D for these car and motorcycle pictures I was just reminded how bad its shutter button had gotten. Well today I decided to do something about it where I tore it done and fixed the action of the button. If I didn't try and fix it I was just going to turn it into a paper weight. The operation was way easier to do then I thought where it worked out like a charm. I'm glad I've got my old trust worthy 40D back as I used to love using it. I went about a year dealing with that crappy shutter button problem where it made me miss countless photos and I thought I'd have to retire it.


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All I can say is.....You da man! [Y][Y][Y]

And I did it without getting shocked by the flash capacitor. The others who tried it said they got shocked and that it was very, very painful. I guess I just got down to business and didn't stick my fingers where they didn't need to be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bburns223

in skilled hands it can work just fine.

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I agree ... even though I'm not so skilled hands :-)


I often considered the 50D as my second camera (after the 5D mkII, but surely because the price at first. The more expensive, the 1st) but after searching a long time for the right lens for me, I began to feel very at home with it. Curiously, and even though I got a few good L lenses, best sport shots were made with a 55-250 (underrated, no pro gear, blah, blah... but make really good shots) !!