ai servo release priority sports shooters

KIPAX

KIPAX

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KIPAX Lancashire UK
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I can only guess Nikon have somehtign simmilar but not sure?

Anyway on Canon for SPORTS what are you using?

I have recently changed to

1ST Image priority = RELEASE
2ND Image priority = EQUAL

OK So as far as I can gather the cameras software will check to see if a picture is in focus before letting you shoot in any of the focus priority ie anything to the right) this takes time and in sports photogrpahy half a second is a couple of shots.. the time is even slower in darker situations.. having second priority on focus +2 really slows down the frame rate in poorly lit conditions...

My reasoning is... If I have the focus point on a subject and press my back button..its going to be in focus on a quick 3 shot blast.. I dont want to wait for the camera to decide its in focus before it lets me take a shot.. even a part of a second can make all the difference shooting boxing or basketball or ice hockey... any really fast sport in poor lighting... I am guessing daytime football not as noticable ? maybe have focus priority for good lighting and release priority for poor lights..

As usual this is just my thoughts and reasoning and the way i work.. NOT presented as facts or the way anyone else should do it.. BUT am interested to know what others use and why ?: )

PS I know in other types of photogrpahy focus priorty is a good idea for 1 and 2 .. but fast moving sport and low light ? hmm

thoughts ?


Oh yeagh... I set 2nd priority to focus plus two.. pointed my camera to a really dark place (iso 51200 blah blah) and the shutter was down to about 3 or 4 frames a second... i then set to the above and I got a proper fast frame rate with most in focus :) OK extreme conditions.. but if you take that to varying conditiosn then it will make a difference.. I guess its how confident you are that you got something in focus and you dont want to wait for the camera to confirm it ? thats my point :)
 
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DemiLion said:
Same as you; ie release priority.
Click to expand...


phew haha .. was sticking my head above the parapet there.. glad someone else thinks the same :)
 
I also go with 'Release Priority'.....I think it becomes almost a reflex that the shutter button doesn't get pressed until the subject appears to be visually in focus.
 
I was wondering why under floodlights my frame rate was dropping. I was set at equal priority for both 1st & 2nd. Will give your settings a go Kipax and see how I get on.
 
on the 1dxII ..in low light i kept getting hmmm.. like it was sticky.. either a lag before shooting or shot then lagged... chances are it was the camera software confirming focus before shooting... if i already confirmed it myself then why wait... litrally can be a couple of shots missed...
 
KIPAX said:
I have recently changed to

1ST Image priority = RELEASE
2ND Image priority = EQUAL
Click to expand...

As i said above "have recently changed to" and what a difference.. Have done some low light football and some indoor ice hockey and some extreme bright conditions... all of which can be effected by the camera deciding if your first shots in focus or folowing shots..... now every time i pull the trigget it fires straight away and i get the full frame rate.... as @Canon Bob eluded to.. we usualy have it in focus when we press.. its second narture... plus the 1dx cameras are so fast to get in focus its rarely a problem.. so why wait for the camera to confirm it... no more of that sticky shutter feeling or no shot as happens now and then in poor conditions. and I do a lot of adverse conditions..

So after figuring out it could be an advantage and now aftre trying.. I would say anyone who shoots in adverse conditions and is a confident shooter then I would highly reccomend switching..


How did you get on @Sgt_Bilko99 ?
 
It's worth noting how the body confirms focus. Based on historical info from Canon (it may have changed) we can see that an f/2.8 lens (typical of lenses used for action sports) will be said to in focus when the plane of focus is within the centre 1/3 of the total depth of field whereas slower lens are simply somewhere within the total DoF region. For a landscape or street scene then it's important that the DoF region extends in front and behind to get as much of the overall subject as possible in focus. This is not usually the case in action sports and there's often little relevence in whether there's as much in focus in front of as behind the subject as long as the subject is sharp. In short, the subject will be within the DoF before the lens reports that it has achieved the position commanded by the body.
 
I found my results better when I switched to a single focus point for basketball - which I know is not what you are talking about, but you did mention basketball which is just about the only sport I shoot regularly. I do focus priority +2 I think on the first one.
 
Chipper said:
I found my results better when I switched to a single focus point for basketball - which I know is not what you are talking about, but you did mention basketball which is just about the only sport I shoot regularly. I do focus priority +2 I think on the first one.
Click to expand...

I think you will find we all always reccomend single point focus for just about all sports :)
 
I can see why! I haven't found it necessary for the other sports I do; they are more predictable and less erratic and not as close.
 
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@KIPAX: Shot some floodlight football on Saturday and some indoor futsal on Sunday (ISO 12800). Frame rate is much better, doesn't feel like the camera is hesitating.
Still have the few OOF, but that is down to me and not the camera.
 
Thought I would give Release Priority a go shooting rugby yesterday. Not convinced it made much of a difference but the weather was so horrible that I was concentrating more on keeping everything dry rather than how fast focus was acquired or a direct comparison of how many of the first shots in a sequence were in focus. The plan was to set up 7DMk2 with release priority and the 5DMk4 on equal priority then switch at half time so I could do an A/B comparison on both bodies. Quite frankly in the monsoon and near darkness I was more worried about getting something usable and not drowning in the mud.
 
Release priority. My reasoning is that with really fast subjects the camera may not be able to confirm focus but the subject may still be w/in the DOF. It's surprising how often the focus point confirmation is not on the subject where you want it with things like birds in flight (as shown in image review).
I use dynamic modes which would equate to single point expanded in the Canon world. Also, on most Nikons enabling BBF disables the release priority setting for continuous shooting making it "release" by default (can be re-enabled on newer Nikons).
 
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