Settings for Sports Shooting

[waggles]

I tried my new x-t1 yesterday for shooting roller blade hockey. I used the 55-200 lens. Exposure setting was ISO 6400, 1/250, f5.6. Not bright, but not bad for indoors. I set the camera focussing to Continuous and the drive to CH. I was shooting through plexiglass.

 

It was almost impossible to get the camera to focus. I tried changing the size of the focus area from medium to large and it made no difference. Is there something else that I should adjust? Is this lens responsible?

 

When I did occasionally achieve focus and shot a burst, I could not follow the action afterwards because the camera was displaying the captured images in the EVF. Is there a way to stop this, maybe have the captures shown on the LCD instead?

 

I have not had any trouble with the Canon 7d or 5dii in the same situation.

 

Can I optimize the x-t1 for this type of shooting or do I need to keep my DSLRs until mirroless evolves?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Phil]

AFAIK, Continuous High only shows the previous photo, but Continuous Low will show movement during burst shooting. Maybe try continuous low?

 

I'm not sure why you were having AF problems. I shoot primes, and not sports, but that should be the same lighting as f/2.8, 1/125, and 800, and I shoot in darker conditions than that all the time.

 

My guess is maybe the plexiglass was reflecting light and messing with AF? It doesn't seem like it should be so dark as to affect AF. How is it in other conditions

 

The firmware 4.0 update coming in June should make AF 2 stops darker, so hopefully that will help. Since you have some depth of field to work with, could you try AF-S?

[waggles]

Focus problems were due to a stupid mistake on my part. Somehow the camera was set to macro mode. I discovered that while fooling around with the camera today. Funny thing was that it didn't seem to affect focus with the 18-55 lens. Also, it sometimes acquired focus on distant scenes, so I don't really understand what macro mode does. The manual just says to use this mode for close distances.

 

Thanks for the suggestions on burst mode. Problem is that I want high speed bursts. I want to follow the play through the viewfinder and fire off a burst when things look good. After the first burst, the viewfinder isn't available for a few seconds. This is probably old news to many of you, but I found it frustrating.

[Antony]

Hi Waggles,

 

A lot of your issues will be resolved (or at least improved) when Fuji releases it's firmware update on June 18th. There are significant improvements to continuous focus in the new firmware upgrade, you can see the details here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/news/fujifilm_announces_new_version_40_firmware_for_the_xt-1_and_xt-1_graphite_silver.html#b

 

In the meantime here's a few hints to optimise performance as it is now. Make sure the camera is set to High Performance in Power Management. In Screen setup have image review set to off. Set the camera to focus priority NOT release priority. Use the centre focus point at a relatively largish size and and make sure that it is always kept on the subject. AF should be set to AF-C. Use a FAST sd card with a write speed of at least 95MBps, preferably one of the newer ones that write at 250MBps. To maximise your buffer shoot Jpeg or RAW, not Jpeg + RAW.

 

If all this fails you may wish to invest in a faster lens - the 50-140mm f/2.8 is guaranteed to find focus better at f/2.8 - the 55-200mm is not renowned for fast focus. I'd suggest waiting until the firmware upgrade hits and trying it then before investing in new glass.

 

Whatever happens the X-T1 will likely not perform as well as the Canons for this purpose - DSLR makers have had 30 years of development to improve autofocus performance in traditional SLR bodies, and mirrorless cameras are truly in their infancy. The improvements Fuji have apparently achieved bode well for the future, but in the interim sports shooters will likely keep their cameras. Personally I'm fully invested in Fuji with 4 cameras and maybe 6-7 lenses, but I still have two 5D Mark IIIs and all the F/2.8 zooms simply because in some circumstances the Canons outperform the Fujis. I'm hoping that the next iteration of the X-T1 will enable me to move fully to Fuji, but in the meantime I need to do the best for my clients which means using both systems.

 

Good luck!

[waggles]

Antony,

 

Thanks so much for spending the time to give me all those helpful hints. I will try out the camera with new settings tonight.

 

Bruce