In baseball are you presetting your focus on the pitcher?

[Strnge]

In your baseball shot are your settings for AI Servo for the batter and one shot for pitcher? Are you focus locking the pitcher in AI Servo?

Mike

[cstewart]

Mike:

I pretty much keep things on AI Servo for both. For pitcher, depending on if you are shooting him from behind the plate or from the side, he will move considerably from even with the rubber to a spot 5 or 6 feet in front of the rubber and if you lock on him in one shot on the rubber, depending on your aperture and DOF, he may be well out of your focal plane by the time he follows through.

For batter, (note I use * button on back for focus), I will bang the * once to lock focus on the batter, then recompose as needed, then once I start shooting and tracking the batter through his swing and out of box, I will hold down * button again so that the Servo tracks his motion.

Hope I described that well enough but in summary, keep away from the "one shot" setting and just learn how to use the * button to pre-focus

Cheers!

Chris

[Strnge]

Isn't the * button for exposure lock, not focus lock?

[Strnge]

In messing around with my camera right now, I see that if I set it to Custom function C.Fn-04 I can basicly use the * button to set the focus and exposure and then recompose to get the shot. I then push the * button again to start the AI Servo "focusing" to start to work again. Is this what you were refering to?

[bobbyz]

Set C.Fn 4 to 3. That way you can use * button to focus. Leave camera in AI servo mode. If you want to keep focussing keep * button pressed and shoot with shutter button. If you need to focus/recompose, lock focus by pressing and releasing the * button.

This way you get 1 shot AF and AI servo mode without changing AF modes.

[cstewart]

Mike:

The * button is for focus only...exposure is set when you click shutter. This is another advantage of using the * button is that your exposure will not also be set based on your focus. e.g. if the batter runs from sun to shade, your servo and the * button depressed will track focus, but the shutter will control what exposure gets used so it will change depending on light. Again I am not sure I am explaining that correctly but when you use the *, you separate the focus and exposure control and this is more often a good thing.

[cstewart]

Set C.Fn 4 to 3. That way you can use * button to focus. Leave camera in AI servo mode. If you want to keep focussing keep * button pressed and shoot with shutter button. If you need to focus/recompose, lock focus by pressing and releasing the * button.

This way you get 1 shot AF and AI servo mode without changing AF modes.

Right! Yes that's right...sort of the best of both worlds and certainy more flexibility.

Chris

[40Dude6aedyk]

Don't get confused by * and AF-ON buttons on the back of your camera. Some folks don't have an AF-ON button on their cameras, so they use a CFn to make the * button the AF-ON button. Folks with an AF-ON button can simply use it.

BTW, the AF-ON button on the back by default turns on focussing and stops focussing when you take your thumb off. You don't need to mess with a C.Fn. to have this happen. Try it.

OTOH, you may wish to REMOVE focussing from the shutter button. There is a C.Fn. for that whether you use the back button AF-ON and/or * or not.

[DDCSD]

Don't get confused by * and AF-ON buttons on the back of your camera. Some folks don't have an AF-ON button on their cameras, so they use a CFn to make the * button the AF-ON button. Folks with an AF-ON button can simply use it.

BTW, the AF-ON button on the back by default turns on focussing and stops focussing when you take your thumb off. You don't need to mess with a C.Fn. to have this happen. Try it.

OTOH, you may wish to REMOVE focussing from the shutter button. There is a C.Fn. for that whether you use the back button AF-ON and/or * or not.


The 1DII doesn't have an AF-on button.

[TheFloridaShooter]

DDCSD

I'm using a 50D are there any custom functions I should turn off to avoid any noise when shooting above 800 ISO?

[DDCSD]

DDCSD

I'm using a 50D are there any custom functions I should turn off to avoid any noise when shooting above 800 ISO?

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the 50D or its features, so I don't really know how to answer your question.


I will say that I personally don't worry much about noise. I don't hesitate shooting at ISO1600 or 3200 if I need it to get the shot. I also rarely, if ever, bother with noise reduction.