Well - I bought the new lens!

[Chrissie]

I went and splurged on the Nikon AF Nikkor 80-200mm 1:2.8D for my D70. I bought it to take pictures of my local AHL hockey team. I have been playing around with the settings and can't quite seem to get it right. Any suggestions on what you set you camera at for action shots, it would be greatly appreciated! What looked okay in my viewfinder doesn't look as good on my computer.... Also, the pictures don't seem as crisp as I expected them to be with the new camera so I think my settings may be off.

Any guidance would be appreciated as I am just a beginner!
Chrissie

[JSPhoto]

OT may be able to help you Chrissie. But if you can try upping your in camera sharpness.

JS

[jorgemonkey]

I normally don't shoot action sports with my D70, I find it kinda slow for some things (I do lots of Mountain Biking & some Hockey). But here are the settings I used last weekend on my D1h:

AF-C

Single select AF point

Center weight metering

Image sharpness- Normal

Tone- Normal

You'll also want to check your shutter speeds to make sure they are fast enough. Good luck with the new lens!

[mjs1973]

Welcome to the Forum Chrissie. Could you be more specific as to what you don't like about your images? Are they blury or out of fucos? Is the color off? If you could post some examples for us, we could give you much better advice.

[Chrissie]

Welcome to the Forum Chrissie. Could you be more specific as to what you don't like about your images? Are they blury or out of fucos? Is the color off? If you could post some examples for us, we could give you much better advice.

Thanks for the welcome Michael - although I have been on the forum for a while - just haven't posted for a while!

The photos with the new lens aren't as in focus as I expected. I have found that they come out much better in PP with the new lens as opposed to the old lens.

Thanks!
Chrissie

[Old Timer]

I used the same setup for sports for about a year and half before I got the D2H. The one thing that I will say is don't expect every frame to be SI quality. It just isn't going to happen because you bought a top of the line lens. I kind of fell into this when I first got the 80-200 f2.8. I thought that now every pictures would be great, it just isn't so. Did it improve my keeper rate? You bet from the first time I put it on the camera, but it didn't make me a better photographer, that I had to do on my own. The D70 is still a slower focusing body than the pro bodies and will not always track or focus as well or as fast as the pro bodies. I did find that the quality of images improved when I started paying more attention to the basics and switched from program mode and started shottoing in manuel of in a priority mode. Depending on the situation and lighting I also got better results when I went to center weigth metering and made sure my primary subject was expsed right. Don't know if this will help any, I hope so, but I guess what I am trying to say is you still need to pay very close attention to other aspects of you photography and not depend on the equipment to do it all for you. I see other photographers getting much better images than I do with what I consider inferior equipment, but I just have to face it, at this time they are better than I am. I just have to work harder and get better.

[JSPhoto]

Thanks for the welcome Michael - although I have been on the forum for a while - just haven't posted for a while!

The photos with the new lens aren't as in focus as I expected. I have found that they come out much better in PP with the new lens as opposed to the old lens.

Thanks!
Chrissie

Chrissie,

As OT says, then add in the following to the basics:
1: make sure that when your pressing the shutter button you are not moving the camera and lens
2: make sure you are panning correctly if it is panning thats giving you out of focus issues.

Your new lens is probably heavier than you are used to, and you may be moving somehow that it's causing the blur your seeing, or you could be pushing the shutter button too hard and moving the camera.

What I suggest to people is to actually stand near a road and practice panning and pushing the shutter button. Have someone watch you and see if the camera moving smoothly, especially when the the shutter button is pushed, you might be surprised by the results!

JS

[Old Timer]

Chrissie,

As OT says, then add in the following to the basics:
1: make sure that when your pressing the shutter button you are not moving the camera and lens
2: make sure you are panning correctly if it is panning thats giving you out of focus issues.

Your new lens is probably heavier than you are used to, and you may be moving somehow that it's causing the blur your seeing, or you could be pushing the shutter button too hard and moving the camera.

What I suggest to people is to actually stand near a road and practice panning and pushing the shutter button. Have someone watch you and see if the camera moving smoothly, especially when the the shutter button is pushed, you might be surprised by the results!

JS

Very good point John. I should have pointed out that my first outing with the lens were not very fruitful. I stuck it on a monopod and the images improved by leaps and bounds. I had to learn to control that big piece of glass better. I now hand hold just fine, it took a while to get use to.

[Chrissie]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. We have a game tomorrow night so I can't wait to try them out. I'll let you know how it goes. I have posted a couple from the first night I had the lens on my website www.pirateshockeyfan.com. Go to the team roster and click on Shane O'Brien. I am still working on the site so it is still in a little disarray!

Thanks!
Chrissie