Moving Target with S400/IXUS 400

[carl.h]

There was a boatrace (ProoVee, Offshore 3) in Arendal (Norway) that I went to see a couple of weeks ago. Brought my new Ixus400 with me.
The weather was very cloudy/rainy so the lighting wasnt good at all.

http://home.no.net/shape01/pictures/SmallThunder3.jpg
http://home.no.net/shape01/pictures/SmallEscape.jpg

Any comments?

[MeGotsACanon]

There some brilliant photos. What zoom do u have, to get that close u must of had an add on.

How did u get the boat to be picture perfect and the background to be blurry?

[Andy_T]

Great photos!

Even more so given you used an Ixus 400 to take them, that most likely has longer shutter lag and a slower focus than an SLR.

Regards,
Andy

[carl.h]

Thanks for your comments!
I am using x3 optical zoom for the first picture, no addons. ISO-setting is 200. "Best resolution", and white balance is set to "cloudy".
The technique I used for getting the boat clear and background blurry was "simply" to follow the boat with the camera, and squeeze the trigger carefully.

Looking forward to hear all comments from you other.
/Carl.H

[Littlenose]

Hi
I used the same method with my ixus at the world superbikes a week ago... here's a link to a couple of my pics...


http://www.mikeyscott.eclipse.co.uk/photos/photos_worldsbk2003/images/128_2851.jpg

http://www.mikeyscott.eclipse.co.uk/photos/photos_worldsbk2003/images/128_2850.jpg

I'm fairly happy with the quality of pic I got using the previously mentioned method.

Mikey

[Guillermo Freige]

This technique (subject tracking) in also useful in "not so fast" objects but at long shutter speeds. I've used it to "track" a fish using a 1/6 sec shutter with my EOS 5 (and using an 28-135 IS lens) with excelent results. Same effect achieved(motion blurred background) so it adds a more dinamic feeling to a pretty static shot.

[carl.h]

LittleNose:
Wow, these are great pictures! Full of colour and really cool blurred background. How close to the track were you? What settings did you use?
Really brilliant!

Guillermo Freige:
Where is that fish in your gallery?

[Guillermo Freige]

No Carl, is an old "pre digital lab" picture, and thinking about it now, even I'm not sure if it was taken with the EOS or with my 30-years old Pentax Spotmatic SP. If I can find it, I will scan it and post it here.

[Littlenose]

-Deleted repeat msg-

[Littlenose]

[quote]carl.h wrote:
LittleNose:
Wow, these are great pictures! Full of colour and really cool blurred background. How close to the track were you? What settings did you use?
Really brilliant!


Hi Carl,

Thanks for the praise, we were over th emoon when we looked at the photo's on computer that evening.

We we I would guess approximately 4-5m from the apex of the corner, I used full zoom, and it was o manual mode, with all settings normal, other than the ISO being changed to 50.

In order to capture the shot, I locked both focus and aperture setting on the point where i expected to take the shot, before then panning and shooting when as they came by.

Is there a method to get the setting from a photo once it's on my PC?

Mikey

[Moly]

I was there too but my photo's were much better than his.. hehe :-)

only joking, great shots Mikey (littlenose)

Mikey didn't mention it, but there was one guy who's bike was spitting flames... we spent all day trying to capture it and were very chuffed indead when we got it!

Martin

[Littlenose]

yes, the foggy petronas bike when the throttle was relaxed going into some corners, and sometimes as it was increased to come throught he corner caused a "lick" of flame to allpear at the exhaust... it was indeed very challenging getting this caught on camera, and i thik Martin may be fishig here, as his image of this foggy petronas with flame is better than mine ;-)

go on, pop it up mister.

Mikey

[Moly]

hehe, nope... no fishing involved as I don't even have it as i lost my stuff when the machine crashed.. doh!

anyway, I think the ones up there are pretty much the best of the bunch and give a good indication of what can be done with the lowly s400.

martin