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Technique for best focus field sports.


louis1

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I am a bit tortured with this so any feedback will help. After 18 months with the 10D I am

still dithering.

 

When shooting field sports which maybe within a few feet to a soccer pitch away I have

tried various setups with my Canon 10D. Which would you recommend.

FOCUSING

One shot.

AI Focus

AI servo

 

SELECTED FOCUS POINT

Central point

Point directly below central point

All points

 

FOCUSING

Shutter button

* button ie separate focus activation from the shutter button

 

Finally

Continuous vs Single shot.

 

I leave the exposure metering to evaluative.

 

 

At times I use single shot withe focus activation bt the shutter button othertimes I use AI

servo activated by the * button + continuous +with the central point selected. I worry that

the AI can mean you are shooting when focus is NOT achieved but the 2nd shot is (which

maybe TOO late).

 

All thoughts welcome.

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I don't think the 10D focuses fast or reliably enough to use one shot for something like

soccer. I would suggest using AI Servo with CF 4 enabled. Your best best is to let AI follow

the subjects for a little bit before shooting, but with soccer I know how frustrating that can

be.<div>008xID-18906984.jpg.3abf4e132e4eb9b966f603269c830ce2.jpg</div>

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Is manual focus really an option here? Granted, I've never shot soccer, but I'd guess that you have two choices with manual focus: following the action with focus or picking a zone to focus on and waiting for something to happen there. Trying to follow the action with manual focus might lead to a lot of missed shots and well developed finger muscles, while picking a focus zone and waiting for the action to reach it might mean very few shots at all. if I'm wrong about this please let me know.
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I am an amateur who loves to shoot sports shots of my kids, espically soccer and basketball. I use a D70 or F100 on continuous focus with my 70-200 AFS-VR 2.8. The trick for me is positioning myself behind the goal my team is attacking and shooting digital bursts of the action, I delete alot, but also get alot of keepers. I always use matrix metering and have found the Nikon computer is way smarter than me. The hole point of digital for me is to hold down the shutter and fire away. Go home, download and print the keepers.
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Louis, I am sure that digital video camera is just around the corner. I for one will be happy when it's affordable. I don't take photos for the sake of art, I guess that makes me a shallow unwashed slob, I just want sharp action photos I can blow up to 8x10. How I get them doesn't really matter to me.
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