Settle my Paranoia!!!

J

jamesb84

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OK, so yesterday I came away from the football match I was covering feeling like the first-timer who wondered why all his shots weren't working out.

Now, I can't put up any images as they're limited by Football DataCo...

Imagine if the team you're photographing play in Blue shirts and White shorts, there's not many fans at the ground, which has lots of Blue seats.

Not much contrast between the subject and background. Focus is hunting around a lot, not a high keeper rate. In fact, I'm not really happy with many of the images, no idea how I managed to salvage 21 to send off.

Should I be paranoid that my kit isn't working well...or am I being paranoid about nothing and the 1D mkIII simply won't focus on a blue shirt with a blue background?

Last weeks photos (Red shirts with a crowd in the background - lots of contrast) were cracking... :'(:(

I think I might be about to crack.
 
Well... Thanks for all your help. I'll bear your usefulness in mind when I consider writing my next tutorial.
 
Maybe you were just having an off day? Can't give a reasonable answer as my knowledge (and experience) is no-where near yours. Still, to salvage 21 is a good effort if you had a day as bad as you said. My best would probably be the the quality of your crappest ones!
 
Hi James

Not sure I can help as have nowhere near your experience, and don't shoot any sports...but...

I saw you asked questions about your kit recently, and you were considering heading over to Nikon. I think once you start thinking it starts to gnaw away at you, so I wonder if now maybe you are seeing faults where you didn't before, and it's all building up to a change? Apologies if that comes across a little patronising and amateur psychologist!

On a technical level, is that not normal that it would struggle to focus in those situations? I know the 1D range have much better focus than my 40d but should it be working better in this situation?

Good luck

Al
 
Not sure why it wont focus on blue shirts with blue background:shrug: I never had any problems with my mk3 focusing on anything, maybe its time for a service.
 
If my understanding of the way the focus system works is right you have answered your own question. If theres not enough contrast the system will hunt on focusing. Before you go off to sell your canon gear and buy Nikon I have seen this happen with there gear. Hopefully you was just having a off day. A service might also be needed.
 
jamesb84 said:
Well... Thanks for all your help. I'll bear your usefulness in mind when I consider writing my next tutorial.
Click to expand...

And this is aimed at who? All the 1D owners who weren't on standby to answer questions during the 10 hours between your posts but spending a nice Sunday out? Or the rest of us who have no experience or knowledge of the 1D series but could fill up pages with "I'm not sure but...." or "Well my Acme D90xi TDi always focuses spot on so I think...."

Do a search for the Kirk09 thread and observe how rapidly things can go downhill.

On the charitable side, I'll assume you were having a bad day and you're forgiven by us all :) :p
 
Ziploc said:
If my understanding of the way the focus system works is right you have answered your own question. If theres not enough contrast the system will hunt on focusing. Before you go off to sell your canon gear and buy Nikon I have seen this happen with there gear. Hopefully you was just having a off day. A service might also be needed.
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Yeah, that was my excuse to myself ;) No contrast = No focus. The Nikon switch was mainly rooted back in the fact that I'd left a load of settings for cricket set up and then shot a football match, all the while wondering why it wasn't keeping up with the focus points.

Once I realised my mistake, I shot a stunner last weekend. I think the standard of football on Saturday didnt help...as someone very helpfully put it, a game of subbuteo would have been more interesting and entertaining. :gag:

So I suppose combining carp football and a carp setting (ie. no contrast) led to a very off day.
 
MisterE said:
On the charitable side, I'll assume you were having a bad day and you're forgiven by us all :) :p
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Yes definitely...a definite bad day yesterday with me racking my brains to try and figure out what was going wrong. It's only the second game for a new agency and I'm trying to make a good impression.

Plus the FTP server was being very slow...

Plus my girlfriend is one week into a new job and has so far hated it and cried every night when she's come home. So all in all, not a great day.

Sorry for the :dummy:
 
See..... I knew there was a good reason. Now have some nice chocolate, save some for the girlfriend, and buy her something pretty to make her feel better. :lol:
 
MisterE said:
See..... I knew there was a good reason. Now have some nice chocolate, save some for the girlfriend, and buy her something pretty to make her feel better. :lol:
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Pah...I've already bought enough pretty things!!! Including nice chocolate (mmmmmm... Hotel Chocolat).

Ironically, the FTP cleared up in the afternoon...I think I'm comfortable with the camera gear.

Just the girlfriend needs sorting now! :thumbsdown:
 
jamesb84 said:
Plus my girlfriend is one week into a new job and has so far hated it and cried every night when she's come home. So all in all, not a great day.
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Tell her to jack it in now, of she can afford too!

My missus has been in this situation twice. I've worked with her myself, she's very accurate and the model employee, however, both times she's worked for these types of jobs it's completely destroyed her self confidence.

Which in turn, means you're going to spend a while comforting and reassuring her!
 
Harvey_nikon said:
Tell her to jack it in now, of she can afford too!

My missus has been in this situation twice. I've worked with her myself, she's very accurate and the model employee, however, both times she's worked for these types of jobs it's completely destroyed her self confidence.

Which in turn, means you're going to spend a while comforting and reassuring her!
Click to expand...

She's actually trying to negotiate a return to her old job, which she now realises she enjoyed immensely and the difference in pay for the new job is largely negated by her having to drive to work every day.

It's all a bit up in the air, but her old employers may have seen this happening, and as a result left her job open for a month after she left...so she's got 3 weeks to try and negotiate a move back.

It is going to involve a lot of supporting, comforting and reassuring...you're right on that count!
 
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