Some church league basketball

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by lazuras_dc

Whats the advantage of using back button focus?

As far as being in AI servo, as long as your shutter button is 1/2 depressed or back button if you're using it that way is depressed, the camera is constantly focussing on your 1 AF point?

I used AI servo a few times and felt like the lens motor kept turning regardless if there was much movement or not. Like it was changing focus unnecessarily.

if you or your subject move an inch your camera will refocus. If you want accurate focus for sports you should use it.

[John Godwin]

There are several reasons that I use the back button focus.

I cannot feel when the shutter button is half depressed. I would have to look at the little rectangle in the view finder and make sure it was lit to know that the camera was focusing. Way to much to do when following action. When I tried focusing with the shutter button at times I would press to hard and take a photo usually before the peak action would take place but not soon enough for the camera to recover to allow me to get that peak action. When it is cold I cannot feel the shutter button but I can smash the back focus button. If the cameras that I use would have had a detent on the shutter button I might have never moved to the back button focus. I am not worried about the focus motor running. I carry extra batteries!!! There is an advantage to using the back focus button which allows you to focus on the target area and then recompose the shot prior to taking the photo without the focus changing.

[arich]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

That's probably because he has the gym lights and the strobes he put up isn't quite powerful enough to over power the lights. So he has two different color lights in each picture. Then shooting in AWB (just a guess) will get some variance in color temp.

I like to shoot in one color temp for both cameras just so everything looks the same. If my temp is off, at least it is off the same in all the pics, so I can batch adjust them all at once.

I actually haven't tried strobing yet. And I was lazy and was running AWB instead of setting custom off of a shirt or something since I don't have a grey card

Originally Posted by ldelacruz

Check your WB because the colors seem to be off. If you look closely their uniforms don't match! Especially #3 his shorts and shirt seem to be 2 different reds?

Lol like I said, it's church league, the shorts ARE 2 different colors

And thanks for mentioning the back focus button, what is the actual advantage to using this over the 1/2 shutter press? Don't you achieve the same result?

[heard03]

Originally Posted by arich

And thanks for mentioning the back focus button, what is the actual advantage to using this over the 1/2 shutter press? Don't you achieve the same result?

IMHO, the back focus button is a must for sports/wildlife shooting(combined with AI Servo). It admittedly feels different at first, but if you go out for one day/game and commit to using it you will get accustomed quickly. The main advantage is you can hold that back button down constantly with as much pressure as you wish without accidentally actuating the shutter. While in AI Servo the camera is also constantly focusing on your focus point(s). Just think how tracking a player from the top of the key all the way to the basket would be easier holding down that back button and not pressing the shutter button at all until you actually want to shoot the picture.

I shot my 50D with 100-400 at the zoo last week in AI Servo and the IS on and never had to go to my spare batteries, though I did have to go to a spare 8 gb CF card after filling my first one.

Keep in mind if you like to focus and recompose to turn off AI Servo first. And that back focus button is also an aid when focusing and recomposing.

[johnstodd]

If you're shooting Nikon equipment...for indoor Basketball...try these settings and fire away...
Shoot manual and turn on Auto ISO...1/400, F2.0...Camera will choose the appropriate ISO, Custom White Balance, Continuous servo AF, Dynamic AFArea using 21 or 51 points...Set a4:Focus Tracking with Lock-On to Off

[Tom]

Originally Posted by johnstodd

If you're shooting Nikon equipment...for indoor Basketball...try these settings and fire away...
Shoot manual and turn on Auto ISO...1/400, F2.0...Camera will choose the appropriate ISO, Custom White Balance, Continuous servo AF, Dynamic AFArea using 21 or 51 points...Set a4:Focus Tracking with Lock-On to Off

The OP is shooting with a Canon 40D.

When shooting in a gym, your light won't be changing much, so there is no reason to shoot in automatic anything.

Focus will be more accurate on your target if you use single point instead of multiple point focus.

[johnstodd]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

The OP is shooting with a Canon 40D.

When shooting in a gym, your light won't be changing much, so there is no reason to shoot in automatic anything.

Focus will be more accurate on your target if you use single point instead of multiple point focus.

I guess the gyms I've shot in over the years had a variety of lighting conditions...some areas were darker than others...auto iso will adjust for that while keeping a static speed and aperture. I've seen my pics range from ISO ~800 to ~2000 in the same game and gym just dependent on whether the players were in a bright spot or not. I like using continuous focusing since basketball players are not static and the distance varies constantly...not to be confused with "multiple point focus".

[Tom]

If you are using 21 or 51 points, you are letting the camera pick what it wants to focus on. That's almost never done in the professional sports photography world.

I've never had a stop and a half range in lighting in a gym, but have many times on a football field.

[johnstodd]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

If you are using 21 or 51 points, you are letting the camera pick what it wants to focus on. That's almost never done in the professional sports photography world.

I've never had a stop and a half range in lighting in a gym, but have many times on a football field.

Nikon's continuous focus system "borrows" the focus information from an adjacent focal point if the subject leaves the primary focus point. This is not the same as using "multi focus point"...maybe that's where the confusion is. I tell the camera to use the center focus point and the camera will use adjacent focus information when the subject leaves the area (Continuous Focusing). You can choose 9/21/51 depending on how erratic the subject is. Multi focus point shooting allows your camera to decide who/what is the subject and then focus on it. You give up a lot of control and I never use this option. That's not what I'm decribing here. As far as the range of lighting goes, that depends on the gym. Some of the gyms I've shot in...where some of the lights were burned out...would cause dark "spots"...and I've experienced that many times. The better / newer the gym...the better the lighting. It's a simple test...go into a gym of your choice and meter different areas and see if you get the exact same settings everwhere. Good for you if that's the way it always worked out for you...I rarely found gym lighting to be that consistent.

[Tom]

I also don't shoot any prep stuff any more, so I am blessed with much better lighting.

[arich]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

I also don't shoot any prep stuff any more, so I am blessed with much better lighting.

Haha I can only dream of the day when I move to pro level sports.
Off-topic, shot for a bit the other night with a 1DmII and LOVED it. The auto-focus is spectacular, wish I had it every night

[Tom]

Originally Posted by arich

Haha I can only dream of the day when I move to pro level sports.
Off-topic, shot for a bit the other night with a 1DmII and LOVED it. The auto-focus is spectacular, wish I had it every night

Its a lot of fun if you don't mind spending a lot of time shooting, captioning and editing and not making much money doing it.

[ldelacruz]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

If you are using 21 or 51 points, you are letting the camera pick what it wants to focus on. That's almost never done in the professional sports photography world.

I've never had a stop and a half range in lighting in a gym, but have many times on a football field.

I bet it has to do with the sensor picking up the uniforms and walls since he is using auto ISO and focus point expansion.

[arich]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

Its a lot of fun if you don't mind spending a lot of time shooting, captioning and editing and not making much money doing it.

Well that's a bit of a downer =P