50 mm F/1.8.............

[Zamora3]

...... is acting really weird. I just got that lens and used it today for the very first time at a basketball game tonight. The lens captured the motion very well but it was doing something that was really pissing me off. I would focus on a player, hold the shutter button 1/2 down and shoot. For some odd reason it would focus on the background and blur whatever was in the immeadiate foreground. WIth my other lens's at previous games that never happened. Before the whole image would be sharp and now the foreground id being blurred. Is there something wrong with the camera or lens or maybe a setting on the camera I could change? Below is a sample of the problem I am having.

http://img94.exs.cx/img94/2228/img45812cn.jpg

Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/200
Av( Aperture Value )
1.8
ISO Speed
400
Flash
Off
Color Space
sRGB
Noise reduction
Off

[Jesper]

This is most likely user error.....

What focus point selection setting did you use? Are you just using all focus points, or the center point only?

The Digital Rebel automatically goes into "AI servo" mode when things are moving in the image, which means it doesn't lock on to one target, but it constantly focuses to keep track of the moving target.

I think that what happened is this: your camera went into AI Servo mode and you had all focus points selected, and the camera thought that it could best focus on the background somewhere, because there is more light there.

Tips: Unfortunately, you can't force the Digital Rebel into One Shot AF mode only (that's one of the limitations of the Digital Rebel). Maybe you can if you install the firmware hack, I don't know. Select only the center AF point instead of all AF points.

[mapollo]

Yes you can "force" one shot (on the rebel/300d) if you install the firmware hack....

David.....

[Zamora3]

Yes, i was using all focus points.

So, if I use only the center focus point. The camera will only focus on the center part of the image? If for some reason the player is not exactly in the center of the image it will blur whatever isd not in the center focus point, am I correct?

The weird thing is that I never had this problem with any of my other len's. With my 18-55 or my 75-300. The problem arose this first time I used the 50mm f/1.8.

Would a flash correct the lighting and possible fix this problem? If so what would be a good flash that you would recomend? Ive looked into the 550ex, but that may be a little bit too much for me at this piont in time.

[Cadenza]

For sports, you're expecting way too much
from the humble 50 f1.8's AF mechanism.
You'll be better off focusing manually with
this lens in such circumstances. Also attempt
some manual pre-focus; it might give you
a higher percentage of useable shots.