BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Ric Henry

Shooting Volleyball in a gym

I have 2 manual focus lens, one is a 70-200mm 2.8 and 300mm fixed 2.8 both are Tamron adaptall lens. I have not used them yet I just bought them. I shoot some other sports like soccer and hockey. I was thinking of getting a autofocus 200mm is that a waste of money? Just looking for some feedback. Thanks for you help.

Ric

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January 12, 2005

Maynard McKillen

Dear Ric:
Which camera models are you using with these lenses?

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January 20, 2005

Ric Henry

Hi Maynard,

I just bought a Pentax ist DS yesterday. I'm very excited to use it and my daughter has a tournament next weekend and I will use it then. Before I was using a Pentax ZX7 film camera it works great I just wanted to go digital because I had a lot of action shoots that didn't turn out. Thats why I was wondering if a autofocus would help me? I don't want to send the money if the results aren't any different. Thanks for any feedback you can offer.

Ric

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January 21, 2005

Maynard McKillen

Dear Ric:
Is that AF 200mm lens a zoom or a fixed focal length telephoto? What is the maximum aperture? Who manufactures it? Does it have any type of image stabilization feature? Any chance you can rent the lens and test it before you buy? How close do you get to the action?
The question seems to center around how well the ist DS can track moving subjects, and how quickly the lens responds to commands from the camera body.
Sports photographers were getting sharp images before autofocus came along, often because they prefocused at a certain place and waited for the action to arrive. They also saw the image they wanted in their mind first, then positioned themselves at several places around the field during the game to capture it. (It seems you could prefocus on a player, wait for her to serve, bump, spike, etc., and take the photo at the peak moment.) Still, they burned a lot of film for a handful of good images.
Isn't it great to just delete bad images and keep the good ones?

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January 22, 2005

Ric Henry

Hi Maynard,

First question, One of the lens I have ia a 70 - 200mm manual lens made by Tamron it has a adaptall ring on it so it will fit different cameras depending on the adaptall ring. The second lens is a 300mm fixed lens is also made by Tamron and manual focus. Both lens are 2.8, neither lens has any image stabilization on them. I haven't checked in to renting one I'm not sure about that. I can usually get pretty close to the action within a couple of rows from the court. What ISO would you use in a gym 400, 800 are faster? Thanks for the response.

Ric

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January 22, 2005

Maynard McKillen

Dear Ric:
So...you're not sure about the maximum aperture on the autofocus lens you were thinking about? I ask because the higher the maximum aperture, the brighter the image in the viewfinder, which can help the autofocus sensors to better detect contrast and to focus correctly and quickly. It would be great to have an AF lens with a high maximum aperture of 2.8, like the manual focus lenses you have now.
As to ISO, when shooting film I would tend to suggest 800, though I also tend to manually set my camera's ISO so that it thinks I'm shooting film with an ISO of only 640 or 500. I do this because, when shooting ISO 800 film, I notice the images lack some of the color and contrast of lower ISO films, so I treat ISO 800 film like it is only 640 or 500. This improves color and contradt noticeably. For digital work, the lower the ISO you select, the less noise you have in the image. (Think of noise like film grain.)
Those manual focus lenses are pretty good units, by the way. If you pursue an autofocus lens, selling the two might offset the purchase of the new one.

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January 22, 2005

Dorothy E. Reed

Ric,
As a pentax user for over 20 years, and a Pentax IST*D user since they first came out, I think your going to find that in low light and fast action, the AF is of no use. Your best bet is to anticipate the action as Maynard suggests. If the lighting is good, then AF should be fine, but you still have to use it properly. I still would rather have it and turn it off when I need to then not have it at all. For a 2.8 200 mm, you're looking at around 1,000.00. It seems to me, that you would be better served with the flexability of the zoom.
I'm not that familar with the adaptall that you are talking about, but I have found some issues with certain lenses not working with my digital, even if they worked fine with the ZX7.So make sure of the return policy of the company you buy your new lens from if you cant try it out before you buy it.
As far as the ISO, shoot the lowest setting your lighting will allow. Your gonna want fairly high shutter speeds so stick with the fastest lenses you can afford. Faster lenses will allow for faster shutter speeds in lower lighting conditions.
You didn't mention what flash you are using, but if I might suggest, the AF500 is really super with the digital. As you probably already know with the zx7, the onboard flash is useless except for fill.
Just my opinions, so take it for what it's worth. Hope it helps.

Dorothy

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January 22, 2005

Ric Henry

Dorothy,

I appreciate all the feedback I can get. One thing I have noticed with the istDS is the 1.5 magnification so now my 70-200mm will zoom to almost 340mm. I could trade both lens in on one autofocus but if I shoot soccer or football I think I would wish I keeped the 300mm fixed lens. You question about the flash I have a Promaster FTD 5700, but most gym won't let me use it during the games. How do I set my camera to shoot at ISO's around 640 to 500 on a Pentax ist DS?

Ric