Covered an Under-16 and Under-18 baseball tournament over the weekend. ; These are all-star teams which get scouted by colleges so there is some very good talent to watch. ; Not a student of the game, I learned a lot but still found myself missing plays. The lens I used (Nikon 80-400VR), while capable, does not focus nearly as fast as an AF-S lens. ; Catch that Dennis? However, I adjusted and came out with some good ones. ; I have A LOT of photos to process and get up for the tournament and parents this week but here are some selects. ; All taken with a borrowed Nikon D700 and my 80-400VR lens. ; Remember, no crop factor. ; Turning the Double Play. 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 2500, EV +0.6, 400mm focal length Sending in the fast ball. 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO 800, EV +0.6, 260mm focal length Got the runner at first, too. 1/2000s, f/6.3, ISO 800, EV +0.3, 400mm focal length Strike Three! 1/2000s, f/8, ISO 800, EV +0.3, 300mm focal length A couple more on my blog today: View 135: The Boys of Summer I want to thank fotodave for giving me some great tips on how to photograph baseball and base settings to start out with knowing the equipment I had on hand. ; His advice was spot on and, I know, it saved me from a lot of frustration. ; Thanks, Dave!!!!!!!
Nice set, Scott. ; And yes, I got the hint. ; There's always the option to do it The Old Way with MF and pre-focus.
Good luck with MF. ; I did some pre-focus when I had some idea of where the play was or I was doing a sport portrait. ; The D700 has something called 3D 51-point tracking which I didn't use for the tournament but have in the past. ; Awesome technology.
My D300 also has 51-point 3D AF. ; But if the lens can't keep up with it, it's not very useful. ; MF is always an option. ; It's what I had to use with the 400mm on my film camera in the Good Old Days.
I tried that at a high school basketball game and wasn't that impressed with it. ; Although with 10 people in close proximity on the court that might not have been a good test of it. ; I guess it works better for sports like baseball where there are less people in the frame.
A base runner is caught in a rundown between 1st and 2nd base. ; He played it right as he kept the red team occupied long enough for his teammate to score from 3rd base. 1/1600s, f/7.1, ISO 800, EV +0.3, 230mm focal length.
I used the 3D 51-point tracking focus setting last year for a reining horse show where only one horse is in the ring at a time. ; Worked very well in that situation. ; Since I had not used it for baseball before, I choose not to play with it and went with a 9-point system which worked fine.
I've heard differing opinions on multipoing autofocus. ; If you're doing high-speed action, I heard that the fewer active focus points you have, the faster it can pick one. ; On the other hand, if your subject is not centered, the more points, the better.
My impression of the 51 point tracking was that it was plenty fast to shoot a basketball game. ; The problem I was having was that it wasn't always focusing on the player I wanted it to, so I switched back to using a single point. ; Like I mentioned earlier, I think 10 people in close proximity confused it a little. ;
Nikon's 3D tracking relies on color tracking. ; So something like a basketball game would give it fits when players group, as they would be wearing the same jersey colors. A cardinal through trees - very easy. ; So think about what you are shooting and think if the 3D mode is worth it. ; My experience has been if you have a color contrast available compared to the background, you probably won't miss a shot. Now I noticed that Canon is using color tracking now as well (if I remember what I read about the new AF).
Roger, you mentioned the color tracking when I said I had trouble with the 3D tracking at times with the reining horses. ; After you said that, it made sense as to when the AF had trouble. Here's an HDR image created from one file. ; This is the same photo above ("Strike Three!") but cropped differently.
I didn't realize that the tracking was color based either, so the issues I was having definitely make sense.
