Best Sports Settings?

[dmargolis]

Which settings (other than the "Sports" Scene Mode) are best for Sports? For instance which focus: auto or manual, which autofocus setting, burst, image stablization 1 or 2, use evf vs lcd, etc?

[genece]

If it were only that simple....heres the way I go about that .....If its a FZ30 I use aperture priority at the largest opening F3.7 and 1 area fast focus.

And burst mode...IS 2 ... and the EVF

And it is one area that the Red dot sight can be beneficial.



If its the FZ20...... F2.8 and Manual focus.

[dmargolis]

The one area fast focus is that the smallest box or focus brackets?

[genece]

Without looking its the box with the H... I think its the middle box and while I do not have good luck with the 3 area fast focus ( the choice above that) it may work well for you.

[Puddock]

Can you be more specific than "Sports"?

Is it fast action?

Indoors,

Outdoors etc?

[dmargolis]

kids' soccer game, outdoors.

[Puddock]

Genec knows more than I so his advice is worth a try

.""If its a FZ30 I use aperture priority at the largest opening F3.7 and 1 area fast focus.

And burst mode...IS 2 ... and the EVF

And it is one area that the Red dot sight can be beneficial.""

However Without claiming to be an expert I would also try:
S - shutter priority. You are outdoors in good light so a speed of around 1/250 up should freeze kids soccer.
At that speed the camera can maintain an aperture which will give adequate depth of field.
If not I would up the ISO a bit.(Its sport - a little noise is OK by me)
Good soccer shots are hard to get because there is often so much going on in the shot.
I try to isolate the action I want to capture by tight use of the zoom or cropping later.
For it to work for me the ball must be in the shot.
Get level with the players. If they are little kids, try kneeling
Dont forget the shots which are there even when the ball is not in play,
like the joy of the goal scorer or the jubilation of the winners at the full time whistle.
Or the expression on mum's face as young Pele just got tripped!
And goalkeepers in action are good subjects because you can pre-focus on the area around the goal line.

Just my (long) 2 cents worth.

Good Luck,
Max

[dmargolis]

Thanks, great advice.

[genece]

Puddock was pretty kind to me and his way is what you would hope to achieve.

The reason I suggest you use Aperture priority is regardless of the light ,the camera can give you a shutter speed to match the Aperture you picked ,(which I would imagine would be 3.7) for a well exposed photo. Now that shutterspeed may be much too slow to stop the action but if you are shooting burst mode hopefully a couple shots will be OK.

Whereas If you choose a shutterspeed that is too fast for the amount of light... the camera can not give you a well exposed photo...perhaps not a photo at all.

If you try either system for a while you should get an Idea of which will work for you, if the light is good both systems will result in nice photos and if the light is poor neither system will be all that great.

Hopefully the lightwill be sufficient enough to permit a 1/250 or faster SS and the photos will be fine.

[Wildgust]

I have just got my own FZ7 for the same type of shots, and I am a complete novice too. I have been allowed to take photos at two games so far (child protection issues here in the UK), and though I can't give you any tips as such, I can tell you where I went wrong so far.
As a newbie don't be tempted to follow the action and take shots, pick a place where action is likley to occur. Focus on an area, and shoot when action happens in that area. I was too tempted to follow the ball and try and capture what I thought my be a player doing somthing interesting with the ball. All I ended up doing was, panning wildly and capturing nothing at all.
Great Zoom, but don't get too close, its all too easy to be tempted into getting the specific point of action in frame, I ended up with frames full of knees and feet, or worse still, just sky or grass. Better to widen the shot, get some action and crop the picture later.
Burst mode is great, but only if you give yourself space in the frame to catch the action, as with all the above comments, it will mean you get more shots of nothing worth having.
I tried the continuous focus mode, battery went flat in no time and didn't help one bit. high speed one spot focus works best for me so far. Pick a place, half press shutter button, burst a few as the action aproaches.
Sports mode was ok, players were generally frozen but the ball was a little blurred.
Shutter priority set at 1/500 has worked best for me so far, but I had to put up with some light and some dark shots. Dark shots could be brightend easily, but bright shots dont darken as easily with good results. Practice makes perfect, the UK weather makes practice a must.
The first game I flicked back and forth between settings to try and get better pictures, some were better but lots were worse. Second game I tried different settings in stages, still lots of bad pictures but had better references to various weather/light conditions and the effects they had on the shots, this included using the hood or not.
I read somewhere that half way was a good vantage point, not the case for me, too many shots of good action, marred by backs of heads or too many bodies in the line of action. Better shots were taken towards the ends, with less people in the line of shot and more chance of the players facing the camera.

Hope this helps you avoid the pitfalls I fallen into so far.