First gymnastics shoot tomorrow ... late thoughts

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Doing this for the local club who are competing in a regional competition - a freebie as my daughter is a competitor.

I'll be using the D300 as the main body and the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 as the primary lens. Will also be taking a few primes, and after working out where I'll be standing in relation to the action, keeping one of them attached to the S5 Pro - a 50mm f/1.4, an 85mm f/1.8 or a 130mm MF f/2.8. Any thoughts or advice on these?

Anyone who covers these type of events, do you generally rely on the AF or do you prefocus on manual too? Btw, it is acro gymnastics, so no bars or wotnot, just floor routines (pairs and trios) and tumbling.
 
Nobody around who does this stuff? Going to bed soon so will see if I get any thoughts before we set off early in the morning!
 
I do karate, no doubt in similar conditions [sports halls] so you will definately need iso1600 miminum in order to get shutter speeds high enough to freeze the action or at least minimise blur on extremities [unless the lighting is unusually and exceptionally good]. I usually use continuous focus, its the best way of dealing with the constant movement. Faster the lens the better, but remember that does leave less room for error on the focusing when you are down at f2.8 or less.

HTH a little, and have fun :thumbs:
 
If it's floor routines you will want to AF as each routine will be slightly different and the action will naturally occur in different spots.

Your kit is fine, and should be up to the task.. just keep your shutter speed up.. don't be afraid to up your ISO!
 
Yv said:
I do karate, no doubt in similar conditions [sports halls] so you will definately need iso1600 miminum in order to get shutter speeds high enough to freeze the action or at least minimise blur on extremities [unless the lighting is unusually and exceptionally good]. I usually use continuous focus, its the best way of dealing with the constant movement. Faster the lens the better, but remember that does leave less room for error on the focusing when you are down at f2.8 or less.

HTH a little, and have fun :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Thanks :thumbs: Yep, I usually don't need to shoot at high ISO so this will be novel for me. Thanks for the tip on continuous focus - was wondering whether this would be best.

purpleclouds said:
If it's floor routines you will want to AF as each routine will be slightly different and the action will naturally occur in different spots.

Your kit is fine, and should be up to the task.. just keep your shutter speed up.. don't be afraid to up your ISO!
Click to expand...

Cheers. Yes, realised after I wrote the post that MF won't be useful on the floor. Decided to bring the laptop with me and check results during the warmups. Got a feeling it's going to be a hectic first 30 minutes to make sure I've got the settings right on both cameras. Whoohoo!
 
Thanks for the help guys, the day went well. Think it might even be the first time I ranked the ISO above 3k :lol:

A later shot of the display team below, only chosen as it protects the gymnasts' identities. The main shots I took during the day were of pairs and groups in competitive routines. A mixed bag, but managed to get about 100 decent images from about 400 shots (quite a lot of settings experimentation though). Main thing - learned a lot. Looking fwd to doing a better job next time :thumbs:

2ugpf2c.jpg
 
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