Richard, great shots and 70-200 2.8L IS II is one great lens (Still on my wish list). As it stands now, I am only shooting with the 7D and the 500 F4 L. I was trying to shoot the close shots with my 400 D and 100 2.8L IS---but that just didn
Richard, great shots and 70-200 2.8L IS II is one great lens (Still on my wish list). As it stands now, I am only shooting with the 7D and the 500 F4 L. I was trying to shoot the close shots with my 400 D and 100 2.8L IS---but that just didn
Bob
Great shots Richard. And these shots serve to reconfirm my personal discovery that 12,800 iso is definately usable in a pinch---not great, but usable. Based on your shots, the 1DIV certainly handles the high ISO better than the 7d.
Thanks for sharing
Bob
One more question for Richard---what AF mode do you normally use?
Bob
Originally Posted by Bob Williams
Thanks Bob!
I never use IS for shooting football, since it is such a start and stop game, and the reason is that there is a slight delay from when I start tracking until the IS settles down. It is only about a second or two, but it is long enough for it to cause a jump in the viewfinder and mess me up for the shot. I also find that the IS, tends to counter my movements and I feel that it is fighting me at times.
IS is probably better for sports that have a constant flow to them like soccer, motorsports or Air Shows, which has less starting and stopping of the IS. In these instances it can settle down the viewfinder, especially when shooting handheld. The IS also drains the batteries faster if you're ever running low on juice, but with the batteries these days, it's really never a problem anymore.
As you have quickly discovered, an f/2.8 lens is really essential for shooting at night or after school for that matter. I think the 400mm is too long for the 7D. If you stick with a 7D 1.6crop than I would recommend the 300mm. I think the 300mm or 400mm would be a good choice for the 1.3 MKIV sensor.
I actually think that the 300mm works great with the MKIV especially when you're first starting out since it's easier to track the action and follow the ball with the 300mm wider angle of view. You're always better off to leave some room around your shots and then crop the extra 100mm out later. As you can see in most of my shots there is room for cropping, since it's better than cutting out the action with too long of a lens. However, if it's true that Canon will eventually stop making the MKIV sensor, than the 400mm would probably be a better investment into the future if full frame becomes more popular.
We probably have better access to the field while shooting High School football than the Pros have while shooting the NFL. If I decide to go full frame then I would go with the new 400mm.
Rich
EDIT: Bob, If you stick with this than you could try a shorter prime than your 100mm or a short zoom on your 40D and look into purchasing a used 300 f/2.8L IS version I for your 7D, and try and keep your 500mm f/4L.
Thanks again Bob! Yes, the ISO 12,800 on the MKIV is more than quite usable and remember that these shots don't even have any noise reduction applied to them. In addition, these were shot under University stadium lighting, which is much better than High School lighting. Also, I should have lowered my SS for even better ISO performance. Bob, if you recall in the 1D X thread, I was hoping for nice clean output at ISO 12,800 f/2.8 and 1/1000sec for the new 1D X.
AI Servo, high speed continuous, manual single point selection with surrounding AF points. Evaluative Metering. IS off. Monopod. Kneepads.
In the beginning I was shooting AV mode at f/2.8 with Auto ISO, but then the camera adjusts two variables (SS and ISO) and I didn't like that, then I switched to Manual with Auto ISO, and as you can see above, there will be different ISO's for the same play, which I don't really like and I also found out that as the lighting changed, then my manual exposures were all over the place, and they required a lot of post-processing which I would like to avoid since during a typical game I shoot around 1000 shots. I also read that Auto ISO, fluctuating between shots can slow down processing speed, however I'm not sure how true that is.
Now, I have come full circle and I like AV Mode @ f/2.8 and I use a "fixed ISO" to be high enough, so that my "shutter speeds are at 1250/sec or above in daylight," and above 1/500sec to 1/800sec at night. You just have to make sure that you keep an eye on your shutter speeds and increase the ISO accordingly as the light changes. Be aware that it's usually darker near the end-zone, so make sure that your shuuter-speeds will hold up at that part of the field, or else the SS can drop suddenly leading to blurred images. I have found these settings to be the best by far.
Bob, I just shot a game this Friday night, that started in the day and ended with the lights on at night, and the lighting was terrible. I would be happy to post some more shots if you're interested in seeing what bad High School lighting looks like.
Rich
Rich, thanks for the info. Actually, I am getting better at tracking the action with the 500---but it really needs to be beyond the 50 yard line for whole body shots---( I have been shooting from the end zone and beyond when there is enough room). I also noticed that it is a lot easier to get full body shots of little kids than it is high school kids. My keeper rate was decreased because I was chopping off a lot of legs and heads when shooting the high school game. I do have a championship youth game to shoot this afternoon, but it will be at 4:00 pm so I should have decent light for that one. It will also be on one of our city high school fields that has better lighting and I can shoot from the track around the field so I am hoping to have an easier time with this one.
Thanks for the setup info--I have been using zone AF,But thesurrounding AF points seem llike a better idea---I'll give it a try.
Thanks again for all your help,
Bob
My Pleasure!
Yes, I think Zone AF is too wide of an area with all of those bodies so close together, and I think it focuses on the closest subject to the lens, sort of like automatic AF point selection. Whereas, the manual single point selection starts off with a smaller AF area which provides more precision, and the surrounding AF points will only kick in if you lose your subject from the original single point.
Good Luck with your game today and I can
Oh, The pressure
Bob
I forgot to say that the images shot at the super high ISO
Richard, besides the messed up shot, did you see fewer in-focus keepers when using IS?
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