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andy_chubb

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  1. <p>Karl,<br> hi. I know it's not exclusive to basketball, but I wrote a book on sports photography a few years ago. It needs a bit of an update, but may be of some use.<br> You can download it from my website: www.peverilphoto.com<br> Regards<br> Andy Chubb</p>
  2. <p>All,<br> personally I have kept a screw-in rubber lens hood on my 70-200 for many years. It means I can keep it on the lens at all times in and out of the bag, it doesn't hurt the lens if you happen to rub against a wall etc on your way past something, it doesn't bang on the glass of the shooting compartment when I'm covering snooker and it also helped when I dropped my lens a few years ago (still needed a repair but I'm sure the rubber helped to cushion the impact a little)<br> rgds<br> andyc</p>
  3. <p>Ron,<br> hi. <br> The usual reason for my focus errors in basketball (in particular but applies to any sport) is a player/ref running through the frame.<br> I use the AF-button on my Nikon for back-button focus, for a Nikon this works best with Continuous focus (as opposed to Single shot mode). <br> Your manual/an internet search for your camera should have plenty of answers as to how to get the best focus results - there will probably be lots of menu items to tweak. But also bear in mind the focal length of your lens (the longer the lens the higher the shutter speed to get sharp shots) and the light levels in the hall where you are shooting - if it's dim then it won't help your autofocus.<br> Regards</p> <p>andyc</p>
  4. <p>All,<br> we're lucky enough to be visiting Orlando soon and have tickets for the Magic vs Miami Heat game. Not lucky enough to have a spot on the floor (they mostly go to USA Today I'm told).<br> So, the Magic website says that you can bring in a camera bag 14"x14"x6" and a camera (D5) with a removable lens no bigger than 6".<br> Any suggestions for the best lens under 6"? I'm thinking 85mm f/1.8 and 28mm f/2.8 AIS (or 15mm fish-eye).<br> Regards<br> Andy Chubb</p>
  5. <p>David,<br> hi. You don't say what WB you were using. As the other posters have already said, this is a feature of the stadium lighting - other frames might show a different tint (I often get green->purple->green in a venue I regularly shoot at).<br> You could try shooting RAW and then post-process everything (applying WB changes to batches depending on the tint). Or you could set a manual WB based on an area of white (though this will still be affected by the lighting changes, it might reduce the variance. Or you could post-process each JPG to set the white point.<br> Regards<br> andyc</p>
  6. <p>Ron,<br> hi. Hope the following helps to a degree.<br> I shoot the Sheffield Sharks BBL team (UK, don't get excited!). I also shoot my son's games which I used to do using the same gear Nikon D700 + 70-200. This past season though I put all that away for my son's games and recorded video using a GoPro on a monopod from the half-way line. I used a monopod rather than a tripod as I wanted something a bit more mobile and higher up as well.<br> The results were quite good (when I remembered to pan enough as I didn't have the picture back) but do rely on manual operation.<br> What you lose is a degree of detail at each end as you are in the middle of the court on a wide-ish lens. At the senior Sharks games, which are covered by the local TV station, they use three cameras as a minimum - one in a corner at each end and one up in the gallery. Again these are manned and have the benefit of a zoom lens.<br> If you were to leave a video camera unmanned somewhere I think that it would have to be up out of the way - if it was anywhere near the court then odds are that something will hit it at some point!<br> Why not find out what the video will be used for? If it's for players/parents to watch the game back then something mid-court would probably suffice. If the coach wants to review plays then it might be best to base the video camera at the end they are shooting towards.<br> If you are going be under the basket anyway then why not also operate a small video camera such as a GoPro from there as well? You can get attachments to put it into you hotshoe. Though it does go a bit weird if you move your camera a bit - esp. going into portrait mode! Or have a video camera on a small tripod next to you?<br> Also bear in mind that video will start to eat up your hard-drive once you start to do a few games!<br> Regards<br> andyc</p>
  7. <p>Jay,<br> hi. One tip for photographing the High Jump from a bit of a distance away like you're having to do.<br> Remember what will be the focal plane of the subject as you take the picture - you don't say if you're photographing from the side or just behind.<br> If from the side and you want to get the head/upper body in focus rather than the name in the middle of the pole, then assume that there will be about 3 foot difference. So. Focus on the middle of the pole and then <strong>manually</strong> move your feet about the same distance in the direction that the head/upper body will be.....quite effective.<br> The other option would be to go up in the stands right behind where the jumpers are heading to and photograph down onto them.<br> Best bet is to get that infield bib!<br> rgds<br> andyc</p>
  8. <p>All,<br> having had a D5 for nearly a week, it was time to shoot a basketball game last night (Sheffield Sharks at Manchester Giants in the BBL). The results are in a web directory if anyone wants to see a few.<br> D5: https://app.box.com/s/n18wmog8xtyl6z025pmkl07ph1potpht<br> D700: https://app.box.com/s/ffrqp0v1xtd2mm02ohxg78z9ahimyq5g<br> I shot the first quarter with the D5 and the second with the trusty D700. Both with the 70-200 VR II and trying to keep as many settings the same across both. There are out-of-camera JPGs and RAW for each.<br> As expected, the noise level is greatly improved over the D700 allowing for shooting easily at ISO 6400, along with the improved White Balance and the snappy Auto-Focus, and of course the increased frame-rate. A nice surprise was just how clear the viewfinder image was over the D700. The Quiet mode will come in handy as well for some sports, and I did use the function to set the frame-rate on CL and CH as well - 12 frames a second will be used sparingly. The tracking features offer more options to tweak for different sports - I got less out-of-focus shots last night from players running across the frame in-between me and the focus point.<br> The AF-ON button for vertical shooting did seem just a tad too much to the left when my thumb was looking for it and the movement of the Mode button on top will take a little bit of getting used to. But overall it felt pretty good straight out of the box.<br> The free 32Gb card works well - I didn't push the burst past about 15/16 frames on a test - but a 128Gb card will be needed to get a good day's shooting done, perhaps manage with a 64Gb card to go in slot 1 and the 32Gb card in slot 2? (the freebie is the 400x version not the newer 433x version).<br> I'll still use the D700 quite happily for outdoor sports, but it will always be second out of the bag now for indoor work.<br> rgds<br> andyc</p>
  9. <p>Jon,</p> <p>well...to be fair we might manage a match against a Canada team featuring Bart Simpson. It's too cold and dark still for cricket.<br> Just seen the post from someone who didn't get the xqd freebies in their box. Not good - I'm not planning on buying any extra xqd stuff yet so will be relying on what is in the box.<br> Some more bball and darts and snooker coming up - all indoors - so waiting on that email from the supplier. <br> andyc</p>
  10. <p>Barry, thanks. Perhaps they are saving the really good ones for us!?! I managed tonight with the trusty old D700 again but it's a bit grainy at ISO 6400. There's always next year....<br> Come on Nikon...</p>
  11. <p>Got a big once-a-year basketball game tonight and was looking forward to trying out a D5 in the badly-lit hall.<br> However, I am left disappointed that there's still no sign of D5s in the UK a week after they started arriving in Ireland and Italy at least. Is it the same elsewhere or just poor old Blighty that has to wait? Has Nikon got it's shipping in a twist? The dealer is still saying that they're expected by the end of the month...</p> <p>andyc</p>
  12. <p>Lana,<br> Hi. Hope the following helps.<br> No problem with your kit combo. You should have your image stabiliser set if you're at 1/500th or less (as a rule).<br> Why not set your aperture to f/3.2 or f/3.5 (to get a bit of depth as your 70-200 is more like a 100-300 under DX), set your shutter speed to 1/640th or 1/800th or whatever you are comfortable with and then set your ISO to auto (up to a maximum of, say,3200)?<br> Your pictures are fine given that gyms are usually poorly lit.<br> Regards<br> Andy Chubb</p>
  13. <p>Henry,<br> thanks. That's what I meant when I said 'wire'. I've made a couple of my own over the years that fit the need. But definitely need to use them on this job. A DSLR would be best, but we'll see how the GoPro (smaller target!) works for now.<br> Andy Chubb</p>
  14. <p>Hi.<br> I regularly shoot the Sheffield Sharks basketball team.<br> The team are open to me placing a remote camera above the backboard, pointing down onto the ring for one of their games. I'm currently completing a risk assessment for this.<br> My idea was to place a GoPro Hero 4 (with extra battery pack as it'll be in place for at least 3 hrs) into a skeleton cage, attach this to a Manfrotto Magic Arm and clamp. Attach the clamp to one of the bars behind the backboard and use the Magic Arm to position the camera correctly.<br> They're a pretty good team - the likelihood of a stray shot hitting the gear is small. However, I'm going belt-and-braces in also attaching a separate wire to the gear/backboard and use a bit of gaffer tape to wrap up anything exposed/likely to fall as fragments in the event of a breakage (I'm hoping that if it does all go to pot that the main unit would stay together with the gaffer tape and the wire stop it from falling onto the field of play - except perhaps for a few small plastic fragments?!?!?!)<br> Any ideas/suggestions for this set-up/something better/something that works for you would be gratefully received. We're currently looking at a game in mid-March so just prepping at the moment.<br> Andy Chubb</p>
  15. <p>Hi,<br> that must be a <strong>really</strong> badly lit ground....<br> If that was me - I'd set the speed at 1/500th or above (you know what you need to make it sharp-ish), leave the f-stop as wide as possible and then set my Nikon D700 in AutoISO mode to see what that produced.<br> rgds<br> andyc</p>
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