Jump to content

Settings for Sports Shooting

waggles

By waggles
in Fuji X-T1 / Fuji X-T10

 Share

Recommended Posts

waggles Apprentice

waggles

Posted
Posted

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.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Phil Community Regular

Phil

Posted
Posted

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?

Link to post
Share on other sites
waggles Apprentice

waggles

Posted
  • Author
Posted

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.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Antony Collaborator

Antony

Posted
Posted

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!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Similar Content

  • Posts

    • Giampaolo Masserano
      Looking for Full Frame lenses to adapt to GFX

      By Giampaolo Masserano · Posted

      I use a TECHART ring to mount Canon EF lenses on the GFX 50S-II and 100S-II, maintaining image stabilization and autofocus. The only limitation are lenses with a small rear element diameter that make it impossible to cover medium format. Fast lenses like the EF 85/1.2L or the 100-400L, however, work great.
    • thelostkiwi
      Looking for Full Frame lenses to adapt to GFX

      By thelostkiwi · Posted

      I also use a Nikon to GFX Fringer and it works very well.  24mm f/1.8 vignettes so best used on 35mm mode.  50mm f/1.8 covers the entire frame very well with no issues and is a superb little lens. 105mm Sigma vignettes slightly but is perfectly usable. 300 f/4 likewise the 105.  I have a 70-200 f/20+.8 incoming to test so will report back but I'm expecting a little vignetting.  Even in 35mm mode the image is still 60MP and if you're prepared to manually crop and correct you can get 80-90 MP images.  I also have a C/Y to GFX adapter.  The 24mm Sigma Superwide vignettes strongly. Ditto 28-80 Zeiss Sonnar. 80-200 f/4 Sonnar is perfectly usable. All work fine as 35mm mode lenses.  I also have an M42 adapter which I tried with the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm f/3.5 with good results. 
    • Trevor R
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By Trevor R · Posted

      Thank you. I will research it.
    • jerryy
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By jerryy · Posted

      Ahh, the infamous brick wall photos… 😀 According to internet lore, if the dng converter does not properly apply the corrections, you can have it apply custom profiles that should work for you. How to do that is waaaaaay outside of this comment’s scope, but there are plenty of sites listed in the search engines that step you through the processes. Best wishes.
    • Trevor R
      Image correction with GF20-35

      By Trevor R · Posted

      Jerry Thank you very much. That is extremely helpful. It seems that the camera and the lens have the latest firmware update, so it appears that the corrections should be applied automatically. The lens arrived this afternoon and I took some quick test shots, in which the correct lens information appeared in the EXIF files, so that sounds good. I used Adobe DNG converter to convert the Raw (RAF) files, and then opened the DNG files and saved them in PSD format. However, with a beautiful, clear, cloudless blue sky, there were no lines near the edges to check if distortion had been corrected. Another day I plan to photograph a brick wall. Thank you for your help.
×
×
  • Create New...