Boys Soccer, trying again!

[btrips]

Here is a couple shot form the weekend. I have decided that the 200 is not long enough, so I jumped in and oreder the Sigma 120-300 2.8 today. I already have a sigma 1.4tc so I should be good to go. Now just have to sell my Sigma 70-200 2.8.

1st pic of one of my sons, the oldest of the triplets by 1/2 hour. He is in the blue.

[btrips]

2nd Shot of my youngest triplet (by 2 1/2 hours after the first) and a daughter is the final triplet right in between the two boys, just in case you wanted to know.

Thanks for looking! C&C is always welcome.

btrips

[JohnG]

btrips wrote:

Here is a couple shot form the weekend. I have decided that the 200 is not long enough, so I jumped in and oreder the Sigma 120-300 2.8 today.

Ah, welcome to the club It's a great lens. If you haven't done so already - you'll want to get a monopod for the lens though.

If you don't need the money I wouldn't be too quick to sell the 70-200 though. The 120-300 is a great sports lens but the size makes it impractical for other purposes and 100mm is long for indoor use.

If you need the money then go ahead - otherwise I'd advise waiting for a while before selling off the 70-200

[JohnG]

by the way - I like the shots but the focus is off in both. The second especially appears front-focused - the face isn't as sharp as the leg

[Mark1616]

You are soooooo going to love that lens, it is great (but I've already told you that LOL). John is right I very rarely use it without a monopod as after about 20 mins or so you start to notice it! You will find that the AF is quite a lot faster than the 70-200 but still that camera is going to take a second or so to get a good lock in AI Servo so get in the habit of tracking for a little before hitting the shutter. Oh that brings me onto another thing, do you use custom function 4 which allows you to put the focus onto the * rather than the half press of the shutter. You will find that this really helps with getting a lock before hitting the shutter, yes it take a bit to get used to but now you have the equipment and will be shooting quite a bit of sports it is worthwhile.

Can't wait to see how you get on with it so do post away.

[btrips]

John,

Is the front focus a lens issue or a camera issue? I will have to go back and look at the others I took. I am still having a hard time getting a good focus lock. I am getting a lot of goodshots, just not great pictures.

THanks

btrips

[btrips]

Mark,

Thanks for the tip!

I have not been using the * button for focus. On the CF 4, which one? 1, 2, or 3.

I am having a very hard timenailing the focus. I begining to wonder if I need to send in the camera. One would think for as many shots that I havetaken I would at least nail one ortwo.



Thanks

btrips

[Mark1616]

Off the top of my head it is option 3.... I'm 99% sure that is right.

Do a check, does the camera focus correctly with a stationary subject using single shot AF? Then switch to AI Servo, shoot a sequence of say 5 shots with them stationary, then get them to walk slowly towards you from a distance. Track with AF and then start shooting for say 5 or so shots (if you like fire off 10 as it is not costing anything). Lastly do the same for running. Make sure the section you are focusing on has a good contrast not as solid colour as this slows things down. Also are you using centre point focus or all points? If it is the latter the camera ispossibly selecting an area that you don't want to focus on so give that a go. I expect that 40-50% ish will be in focus if all is good (that includes your technique).

If you are still not having any joy put a new post up in the Canon EOS or Canon lens section and we will go into more detail.

[btrips]

I will try this out! Thanks. I have only had this camera since Feb and it is/has been trial and error. Any way here is the best shot I have gotten out of the 2-3 thousand I have taken.

btrips

[JohnG]

yep - that's a great shot. Nice timing!