Wish me luck!

[garethhhhh]

After spending the last few months scrimping & scraping, I've finally come up with the money to afford a decent lens for shooting sports (see sig). I've been given the opportunity to shoot the rugby match between Cambridge University's 1st XV and the London Wasps on Tuesday night.

Problem is, I've been very busy at work lately and the weather has not been helpful either. As a result, I have not had much practice with the new lens. I'll be going to a Safari Park on monday, and weather permitting this will be the first proper outing the lens will have had since it arrived earlier this week.


...any advice/words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated :)

Wish me luck!




btw. I've never shot a Rugby Match before, and I've had no experience at shooting sports at night either... :shock:

[sGu]

Is the game gonna be held during the day or evening?

With 300mm 2.8 IS, make sure to use a monopod to support it, DON'T use IS on a monopod, DON'T use focus preset, focus distance, minimum to infinity.

Then it's just a matter of practice to get a hang on it.

How much did you pay in total in the end if you don't mind me asking?

[garethhhhh]

kick off is at 7:15pm so it should be quite dark by then. The lighting at the ground doesn't look too bad though and I've got a monopod.

Why no IS on a monopod? I was always told that using it was recommended.

Price was £2,050.10 for the Lens (Adorama - gray market version) and £477 import charges. That's at least a £1000 cheaper than here in the UK

[Scottes]

I *always* use IS on a monood. A mono is not vibration free, so the IS will help.


Edit: Added the word "not" which I apparently forgot.

[sGu]

IS is great when handheld or in less sturdy situations, on a monopod, you're unlikely to have much shake to cause the blur, secondly, IS mechanism might operate internally while camera is very steady to cause blurry shots(I've read a thread on ss board); thirdly, IS will eat up more battery power and finally, you might not have enough time to let IS to work if actions take place in a split second, it might slows down focus speed.

Those just some of my thoughts and what I read else where, and not to use IS when shoot on a monopod in pro level sports is also suggested by a lot of pro shooters I've known.

If you take a look at my Premiership football gallery, non of them were shot with IS on, yet they come out very sharp.

[Cadwell]

Strange... I know KennyG nearly always uses IS with his 300 f/2.8 when on a monopod and I use IS all the time with the 100-400L when on a monopod...

To be honest you are never going to be steady enough on a monopod to induce the kind of IS mechanism induced blur which you may see with a tripod.

It does use some battery (obviously) but I've not found it to be that much, I've not noticed a significant decrease in battery life use whilst using IS.

The spin up time is an issue, but can be easily overcome by half pressing the shutter release about half a second before you intend to shoot.

[sGu]

Maybe that only applies to 400mm 2.8 IS?

Before I start shooting with the 400mm, I asked around here, RobGalbraith forum and dpreview, from all the response I received, none suggested me to use IS.

Could this be a lens specific thing? :roll:

[garethhhhh]

It's probably down to individual preferance. Some people are just more steady than others. I guess I'll just have to try both and see which works best for me ;)