Focusing expectations of the F100

I'd like to photograph my 2 year old at play, in one contiuous shot,

in black and white, and have enlarged contacts made (20x24), frame

them and give them to the grandparents for the holidays. I had the

camera set on Cs for speed, Continuous focus and unlocked the focus

selector. When my son started running toward me from the other side

of the yard, I let her rip (85mm, 1.8 lens, fstop set at 5.6). The

camera could not keep up with him. Focus did not happen.

Realistically, what should I expect from the continuous focus

features from the camera. I'm certain that if he was parallel to the

film plane, it would have worked. Are my expectations unreal. I'll

shot him again, Sunday. Short of using my F3, any other suggestions.

I'm aware of the AF-S lens, and they are not in the budget until

next year.

Use manual focus (practice following your child manually without taking exposures). AF-S is no guarantee of sharp pictures in this type of a situation. A basic requirement for AF is that the focus sensor is correctly positioned most if not all the time.

I may be wrong, but I thought there was a setting for the Autofocus tracking for objects that are moving towards or away from you.

 

I don't know though. You'd have to look in the instruction manual to see what it says.

Read it, read some other book as well, checked out websites. No real specific information for the above situation. Manual is probably the way to go. What do sports photographers do??

Didn't Nikon claim something like it would track a Formula 1 race car approaching you at top speed? Did it focus on anything? (hands, background etc) This might indicate that you didn't have the subject in the focus bracket.

I know the problem.

Cs stands for Continuous Silent. That is 1 frame per second with silent film transport.

What you want to use is CH (high speed). CL means low speed (but still faster than Cs).

Try again with CH if you want to shoot like a machine gun.

Also, I'm not sure about the F100 but there might be a custom function or something to turno on focus tracking.

Example, my F4 (super slow, I know) when set to CH and continuous focus, can't track fast enough. But when I use CL and continuous focus instead, the camera enables focus tracking mode and it tracks surprisingly fast. So check your manual if there is a special function for focus tracking. Because if that function exists, focus tracking enabled with continuous focus would be way faster than just CH and continuous focus.

 

Regards,

Aaron

Your expectations aren't unreal. I have an F100 and 85/1.8 AF lens. In general, that setup can track my greyhounds at speed (I think my greyhounds are faster than your 2-year-old, maybe you have an exceptional child!).

 

A couple things come to mind. Your subject (your child) needs some contrast. If you did this with the child dressed in a dark solid color, the AF will have trouble tracking (just like my black greyhound; the blonde tracks AF better) if the AF sensor is centered on that dark solid color. When you try it again, put the kid in something 'loud', maybe some grunge plaid flannel. Also, if there's a bright contrasty background, the camera will default to that when it gets confused. I learned this to my chagrin when shooting skiiers, if you don't have the AF point generously covered by the skiier, the AF will lock on to the sun-lit snow.

As mentioned above use the CH setting instead of Cs, everything else the same and you should have a bunch of well focused frames. The AF-S shouldn't be a factor with that lens. One setting that could give you problems is in the custom settings. If you go with the default of focusing on the closest subject that can cause problems. If the lower sensor picks up the ground in front of the subject it will focus there and not on the subject, which might be picked up by the center sensor. For most situations this option should be disabled. Have you tried that?

You need something (contrasting colors) to have the AF lock onto, then the tracking should be in the ballpark. I've photographed jet aircraft (180 to 200 mph) and the F100 tracks just fine.

First, set the AF sensor selector to the position where you, and not the camera, selects the AF sensor. Second, if you set the focus mode (on the front of the body) to C, instead of S, then the camera is in shutter priority mode and will fire even if the image is not in focus. Also, the 85/1.8 doesn't AF very fast and my 28-105 is faster.

 

So long you are picking the AF sensor most, if not all, the pictures should be in focus.

Thanks for all the info and ideas. My current conclusion is to dress the child in a Hawaiian party shirt ( we all have one in the closet somewhere ) and turn the closest focus selector off. Make sure he is squared in a focus selector. Chest in center, b/c I have to shoot Horizontal). Cs at 3fps should be a good speed. I don't think 4.5fps will give enough change frame to frame. Shoot a few rolls with a few lenses. Thanks for the info.....Warren

Warren: If it is any consolation, the F100 kicks the s*** of out of Canon's top of the line EOS 1V. I've used both extensively and there is no comparison when using the 50 F1.4 or 70/80 - 200 F2.8.

Set focus mode to "C" (continuous servo), set the advance mode to "C" (continuous advance), set dynamic focus with the [ ] / [+] switch on the back (set it to [+]) and make sure custom setting 10:0 is set (that means close subject priority is OFF). Double check your manual, I�m half asleep.

 

Hope this helps,

Worked like a charm.....thanks Warren