Help... I'm crap?

[Genkisan]

Ok, here goes... Ive had my EOS300d for about 6months, feel pretty happy with the usage, settings and techniques required to get a good picture. What is starting to frustrate me though is the amount of pictures that I take that are not crisp. Not sure if its focus, camera shake or something else. This came to a head when my wife ran in a race yesterday and I took along my camera to get some 'great' race shots. The weather was cloudy but quite bright so thought I had a good chance of some good action shots. It was bright enough that my shots all had settings between 1/800 & 1/1000, variable aperture settings and ISO 400 as standard.

So was really down when I got home and looked at the pictures only to find a set of mediocre shots. (I have attached 2 pictures below to show you).

At the same event was a group of Pro's with pro equipment & monopods, couldnt see what cameras but the size alone showed that they were using expensive equipment... but, they were trying to take pictures of all 1000 entrants whilst I only had my wife and 2 of her friends to capture.. I thought it was an even game.

So the first down was looking at my pictures, the second down was looking at the Pro's on their website. Now what the hell am I doing wrong??

http://www.prosportphotos.com/running/dorney-dash/index.htm (http://www.prosportphotos.com)
runner 758

With all this in mind it makes sense that the fault lies in 1 of 4 areas;

1. My camera isnt man enough for the job
2. My settings are inacurate
3. I would have benefited from a monopod
4. I just suck at photography (maybe camera shake!)

My feelings of these are:

1. My camera isnt man enough for the job
- 300d should be plenty enough camera for a crisp picture... and a bad work man allways blames his tools. So, cant be the camera (can it?)

2. My settings are inacurate
- Dont think so, had a good balance of shutter speed to ISO. No doubt could improve, but general area I think was right (Was it?)

3. I would have benefited from a monopod
- Yeah, reckon this could have helped. But I wanted close to the ground shots to bring the tarmac into the story, but if im a camera shaker maybe I have no option (No idea??)

4. I just suck at photography (maybe camera shake!)
- This seems to me the most likely. Allthough depressing to consider. Maybe its just camera shake, but would have thought at 1/1000 that would compensate for me moving??

I would welcome any and all thoughts on this issue.

[eastcoast909]

Frustrating isn't it. :(

Can you post any more of your camera settings? Can you see where the focus point of the picture is?

What lens?

Are any of your still photo's doing the same thing?

From a quick look at the pictures that you have posted it looks to me like this is a focus/dof issue. Were you using a large aperature?

It's hard to tell but in the first photo it seems like the focal point is around runner 75 in the background.

In the second it also seems that the focus is behind the runners. If you look at the cups on the ground the ones just behind the runners appear to be in focus. The cars in the background also appear to be sharp.

Is it possible to post a link to the fulls size pictures? How about a 100% crop.

The camera is capable enough.

Don't get discouraged about what the pros are able to accomplish. That is their living. ;) ;)

[Davinor]

Weeeell, I'm new here and had a 300D for about the same amount of time as you of time as you,(and got an impressive collection of less than perfect pics) but on the second one it kinda looks like the AF has focused on the car in the background rather than the runners.

David

[tim]

The problem is you've focused behind the runners, possibly because you chose the wrong focus point, or possibly because the runners were moving. To do this well you need to use a camera with AI servo (the 300D doesn't), or if you're good with it manual focus. You might manage it if you use a wide depth of field (eg F8) and focus/shoot very quickly. Maybe. It'd still be difficult.

I couldn't be bothered spending the time digging through the pros site to find his photo, I assume it was reasonably sharp.

[Genkisan]

Frustrating isn't it. :(

Can you post any more of your camera settings? Can you see where the focus point of the picture is?

What lens?

Are any of your still photo's doing the same thing?

From a quick look at the pictures that you have posted it looks to me like this is a focus/dof issue. Were you using a large aperature?

It's hard to tell but in the first photo it seems like the focal point is around runner 75 in the background.

In the second it also seems that the focus is behind the runners. If you look at the cups on the ground the ones just behind the runners appear to be in focus. The cars in the background also appear to be sharp.

Is it possible to post a link to the fulls size pictures? How about a 100% crop.

The camera is capable enough.

Don't get discouraged about what the pros are able to accomplish. That is their living. ;) ;)

Thank you very much for responding. Here is some more info to your questions

- For these shots I was using my Sigma 70/300.
- I had the auto focus set to 7 point. I often use the single point, but as I could have been taking pictures of up to 3 people I needed the spread.
- For reasonably still pictures I often get similar effects.

original untouched pictures at:

http://www.europeanaikido.com/image/photo/img_4340.jpg

http://www.europeanaikido.com/image/photo/img_4369.jpg


The settings for these pictures were:

File Name
IMG_4340.JPG
Camera Model Name
Canon EOS 300D DIGITAL
Shooting Date/Time
02/07/2005 09:33:19
Shooting Mode
Shutter Speed Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/800
Av( Aperture Value )
7.1
Metering Mode
Evaluative
Exposure Compensation
+1/3
ISO Speed
400
Lens
18.0 - 55.0mm
Focal Length
55.0mm
Image Size
3072x2048
Image Quality
Fine
Flash
Off
White Balance
Auto
AF Mode
AI Focus AF
Parameters
Contrast +1
Sharpness +1
Color saturation +1
Color tone Normal
Color Space
sRGB
File Size
2724KB
Drive Mode
Single-frame shooting



and...


File Name
IMG_4369.JPG
Camera Model Name
Canon EOS 300D DIGITAL
Shooting Date/Time
02/07/2005 09:59:56
Shooting Mode
Shutter Speed Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/1000
Av( Aperture Value )
7.1
Metering Mode
Evaluative
Exposure Compensation
+1/3
ISO Speed
400
Lens
18.0 - 55.0mm
Focal Length
55.0mm
Image Size
3072x2048
Image Quality
Fine
Flash
Off
White Balance
Auto
AF Mode
AI Focus AF
Parameters
Contrast +1
Sharpness +1
Color saturation +1
Color tone Normal
Color Space
sRGB
File Size
2607KB
Drive Mode
Single-frame shooting

[Trumper]

Looks to me as if you have focused behind the runners,did you lock the focus on anything before you took the photo and then released the trigger before you fired making the camera re focus perhaps.
The bits in focus look fine to me.

[Genkisan]

The problem is you've focused behind the runners, possibly because you chose the wrong focus point, or possibly because the runners were moving. To do this well you need to use a camera with AI servo (the 300D doesn't), or if you're good with it manual focus. You might manage it if you use a wide depth of field (eg F8) and focus/shoot very quickly. Maybe. It'd still be difficult.

I couldn't be bothered spending the time digging through the pros site to find his photo, I assume it was reasonably sharp.

I read into that, that the camera is not man enough for the job. That suprises me as I would have imagined even a compact camera could do a good job at the picture I was trying to capture (badly!)

[Genkisan]

Looks to me as if you have focused behind the runners,did you lock the focus on anything before you took the photo and then released the trigger before you fired making the camera re focus perhaps.
The bits in focus look fine to me.

the 300d doesnt take a picture unless it is locked onto to something. So yes I depressed the shutter button until I got the beep and the fully depressed to take. To be honest though, when a load of runners go by it hard to find out which of the 7 points have picked up the focus especially when one of the runners is on the left and the other on the right (as per my picture)... that is why most of the time I use single point, but in this situation that wouldnt work.

kinda thought the point of 7 point was to get a good all over focus

[tonytony]

Totally off topic but number 75 made me laugh :-)

[eastcoast909]

I keep getting "This page cannot be found" error. The European Aikido page will load fine.

From your exif I gather that you are using the kit lens.

In the first photo, the runners are back farther than the second.

Based on a distance of 15 ft. from the camera and an aperature of f7.1 there should be a dof between 12 to 18 ft approximately (see link http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html). Enough so that the subject should be sharp providing the focal point is there.

By using the 7 point the camera will choose where it wants to focus and with sports photography that sometimes is not the point you want. I use single point exclusively. Providing that the people are in a group then the appropriate aperature for a wide dof will ensure that they are all reasonably sharp.

the second is much closer and the dof become quite a bit shallower ( at 10 ft. it narrows to 2.71 ft.) It still should be quite adequate for the runner in the foreground but does not allow much error if the focal point is not bang on.


You might also want to consider using a fill flash. On the second the faces are in the shadow because they are highlit by the sky behind them.

This is all my $.02 worth and hope that it helps.

Of course if it helps you can tell your wife that I you should go get a 1DMKII with the 70-200L and you will have great success!!:lol: :lol: :lol:

[nitsch]

Firstly your camera is more than capable of getting sharp shots of objects moving towards you, so don't be disheartened!

This picture was taken with my 300D using the Sigma 70-300, ISO400 and shutterspeed of around 1/1600 (doesn't sound too disimilar to what you were using does it?), however the object in question was moving slightly faster than your wife :D (I'd estimate 80-90mph)...

http://www.nitsch.co.uk/photos/f1_021.jpg

I'm far from being an expert in these kind of shots but I found the following worked well for me:

- Use AF set to a specific point, if you allow the camera to decide which of the 7 points its going to use there is no knowing what it is going to lock focus on.
- Install the Hack, it will not harm your camera but will give you access to extra AF options. I used AI mode for this shot. Frame the shot and then half press the shutter, when the camera detects movement in the subject it instantly kicks into Servo mode which will keep the moving subject in focus. All that remains for you to do is pan with the subject and when the time is right fully depress the shutter to take the shot. Note - don't put the camera directly into Servo mode as it doesn't work correctly.

On the day I took this picture, over 90% of my shots of moving cars were keepers using this method, and most of the ones which weren't were my fault for not panning with the car quickly enough.

You could experiment with slower shutter speeds which will allow the background to be a bit more motion blurred which will give more of a sensation of speed. As my technique improved I found a shutterspeed of around 1/200 gave a nicer image in this regard.

I know I'm talking about cars and you're talking about runners but it's a similar concept so hopefully this info will be helpful to you. :)

[GeForceFX]

I also think the biggest problem here is the lack of Al servo focus

[tzalman]

For shots like this my usual practice is to lock focus on a convenient spot on the road and take the picture when the runner gets there. Unless it's one of the leaders you're after, in an event like this you have plenty of time to plan distance, focal length, and angle by using some of the faster runners. If it is the local star (or an international one) that you want to photo, get someone to stand in the road for you before the race. Planning is always better than on-the-fly.
Elie

[Genkisan]

Thank you all for your comments so far. I really appreciate your time to help me get over this problem. Especially thanks to eastcoast909 who has given me some things to think about and consider for next time and nitsch who has showed me my camera SHOULD be able to take great pictures. As a petrol head your example is perfect as that is also just the sort of thing I would like to capture, also your pictrue looks GREAT and would LOVE to be able to do that. I will seriously consider the upgrade to the firmware now. I have one question on something you and some other have said though, what is AI mode?

Thank you all again for your continued help! (its VERY much appreciated)

[Orogeny]

I think you should stay away from the seven autofocus points, using only one point instead. When you choose the seven, the camera chooses what to focus on, not you. If you pick one point (the center one, for example), you have control over your subject.

Tim

[kenyc]

the 300d doesnt take a picture unless it is locked onto to something. So yes I depressed the shutter button until I got the beep and the fully depressed to take. To be honest though, when a load of runners go by it hard to find out which of the 7 points have picked up the focus especially when one of the runners is on the left and the other on the right (as per my picture)... that is why most of the time I use single point, but in this situation that wouldnt work.

kinda thought the point of 7 point was to get a good all over focus

Seems a focus issue, particularly in the second image which appears to be focused on the car in the background. May also be a "shake" issue. I'm doing a lot of sports/softball shots and have a heck of a time getting it to focus on exactly the right spot. :)

KAC

[Hellashot]

When you set the camera to "green square" which is the same AF as telling it to use all 7 AF points, the focusing is hit or miss. The camera doesn't know what you want to fous on, it's not very intelligent. You need to tell it which point to use or try A-DEP instead and you may get better results.

[David1943]

The 300D does have A1 Servo - See page 121 of the user's manual.

However, although many here will regard me as a dynosaur, something I probably am in photographic terms, if I were taking pictures of people or objects coming towards me, I'd use manual focus set on a point where I intended to snap the people.

For the type of picture you were taking, 500th sec would have been ample giving you an aperture small enough to obtain an adequate depth of field.

If you read forums, you'll find there are people who'll deride the 300D but it really is capable of taking very good pictures, so don't be tempted to upgrade just yet until or if you know you really need to.

Regards, David :)

[PhotosGuy]

I agree that it's a focus issue.
For shots like this my usual practice is to lock focus on a convenient spot on the road and take the picture when the runner gets there. Me, too. Instead of a lot of crappy shots, I settle for 1-2 good ones on each pass. Not a technique that would make IndyJeff happy, but it works for me.
You just need to learn to work within the limitations of the cam.

You can get servo focusing without the hack on the 300D, but I don't like wondering if it's going to work on each shot, so I just ignore it.
Another way would be to use center point focus & shoot at the right "finger speed" to get the shot just as the cam is finished focusing.

This was at 1/320 sec at about 30' away. (It's full-frame, BTW)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/WHRRI/Sunday%20July%2004/CRW2_0051.jpg

[Bruce Hamilton]

I had the auto focus set to 7 point. I often use the single point, but as I could have been taking pictures of up to 3 people I needed the spread.

Looks to me like your spread should've been a little smaller... In both images posted, the camera focused on something in the background, and not on the runners.

[GyRob]

Doesent sport mode go into A1 Servo on the 300d ?
Rob.

[PhotosGuy]

Sport mode? That's fine if you don't mind some geek in CanonLand choosing your ISO, F-stop, & shutter speed. Personally, I don't think he has a clue how I want my pic to look! ;-)

[Croasdail]

Don't feel bad - you have a couple of things going on here. First - the reason the higher end cameras with 40+ focus points are better at capturing the right subject to focus on is the likelihood of the subject falling on to one or more of the focus points is much higher. Take for instance your first image - the gentlemen in the green is in the middle - and your center focus point picked him up with the contrast line of his jersey and pants. Samething happened on the second image - the window line of the Benz is right on the focus point. If you really want to see exactly what focus point the camera was using, use the EOSViewer utility and it will show you which focus points were being used by displaying them highlighted superimposed on the image... it is a good learning tool. That is why like mentioned by others that you will get better results if you manually select a focus point and make sure your subject is lined up over that focus point. Both car images have the advantage because the subject matter filled the frame more and more of the focus points and therefor the camera had a much better chance of picking the right subject. The other thing is to make sure your subject fills the view more leaving fewer gaps for the camera.

The other thing you mentioned is that you didn't want to use a monopod because you wanted to shoot low. These are not mutually exclusive of each other. I have learned from others here that shooting low is key - but you simply reduce your monopod to as small is can go and sit on the ground. It will increase your keeper ratio with long focal lengths a lot. But in this case - this was not the issue.

[PhotosGuy]

Both car images have the advantage because the subject matter filled the frame more and more of the focus points Yes, & no. What you said is true about filling the frame, but my image was pre-focused & shot in M. ;-)

[Croasdail]

That works too!

[DavidEB]

AI servo is nice, but isn't the problem here. Runners in a long distance race aren't moving fast enough to require servo mode if you have decent depth-of-field on a sunny day.

In both photos, if you plot out the location of the 300D's focus points, most are not on the subject. The problem is that the subject is not centered, and is not very large. The camera didn't have a chance.

Even in AIservo mode, the center focus point has to be on the correct subject for the camera to acquire focus and enter servo mode.

I took the following photo with a 20D, but the difference isn't important. My camera wasn't in AIservo mode at the time (one-shot mode). I almost always use just the center focus point. Note that to photograph a runner, the best orientation is portrait, and you should wait till the runner is large in the viewfinder, else you get a postage-stamp image.

If you want to photograph two runners, then I agree with advice that you should pick a location, pre-focus, turn of autofocus, and wait for the right timing.

Suggest you have wife or other willing accomplice run around in backyard while you practice.

good luck next time,

[SkipD]

Something that's been totally missed in this thread is what I used to do for auto racing all the time. MANUAL FOCUS. Focus on a spot on the track and shoot when the subject gets there. It's simple, absolute, and predictable.

Sometimes I track the moving subject with manual focus as well. I have done many seqential shots taken with a Nikon F (totally manual camera) with each shot in focus. You just keep tweaking the focus ring as the subject moves towards (or away from) you.

Manual exposure control is usually my choice as well, because I don't want the camera changing exposure settings on a whim.

[PacAce]

Something that's been totally missed in this thread is what I used to do for auto racing all the time. MANUAL FOCUS. Focus on a spot on the track and shoot when the subject gets there. It's simple, absolute, and predictable.

Sometimes I track the moving subject with manual focus as well. I have done many seqential shots taken with a Nikon F (totally manual camera) with each shot in focus. You just keep tweaking the focus ring as the subject moves towards (or away from) you.

Manual exposure control is usually my choice as well, because I don't want the camera changing exposure settings on a whim.
Manual focusing with a manual focus camera is not a big deal. I used to do that all the time with my manual focus camera. However, with the AF cameras, I personally think that that's easier said than done unless one has the option of trading out the stock viewfinder screen with one which has some type of focusing aid on it. I have a hard time even when I use the Angle-finder C adapter on my camera in X2 mode.

[miklav]

While I completely agree with what was said above, setting the aperture to 11 or even 16 would have helped too...

[Bob_A]

Based on a distance of 15 ft. from the camera and an aperature of f7.1 there should be a dof between 12 to 18 ft approximately (see link http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html). Enough so that the subject should be sharp providing the focal point is there.

For this example the DOF is only 2.5 feet in front of the runner, so you would have to take the shot before she even made one stride towards you. Even at f22 the DOF would only be 5.9 ft (a couple of strides) in front of the subject, so you couldn't waste any time between locking focus and taking the shot.

I don't have a 300D, so I know nothing about the hack to give you AI Servo. However, if it works as well as AI Servo does on the 20D then I would think you should really look into it. Also, I agree with the other posters recommending to select only the center focus point.

[snappa]

Don`t panic ! Despite many years of using film SLRs I am struggling desperately to get to grips with digital photography and particularly getting sharp shots with the 18-55 lens.
It is not the fault of the lens it is the fault of the user, in my case at least. However after several failed attempts I have managed a few very decent, very sharp, piccies.
Does anybody know where I can get a new delete button ?

[Brianbar]

If you require A1 servo on 300d, the following should help.

Canon Digital Rebel 300D (Read this on another post)

Tricking AI servo, three ways I know... (works in ANY mode)

1. Achieve focus lock on a subject and then whilst keeping the shutter half depressed and the subject centered, move the lens focus ring - camera drops into AI servo and will stay there as long as the shutter is kept half depressed. (Only works with lenses that support full time manual focusing such as Canon USM and Sigma HSM lenses)

2. Achieve focus lock on a subject and whilst keeping the shutter half depressed use the lens zoom mechanism to zoom in slightly. Camera drops into AI servo and will stay there as long as the shutter is kept half depressed. Obviously only works with zoom lenses and doesn't work with parfocal lenses.

3. Achieve focus lock on a relatively close subject and then whilst keeping the subject centered, and the shutter button half depressed take a step forward. Camera drops into AI servo and will stay there as long as the shutter is kept half depressed.

All three methods take a little practice and some methods work better with some lenses than others. Fairly easy to do though.
________________________________________
Last edited by PeaPicker : 05-19-2005 at 08:00 PM.

Hope it helps
Brian

[Icecamp]

Back in the old days we used to manually focus our cameras all of the time, there was no such thing as auto focus. Auto focus has definitely made things easier, and AI Servo has made tracking a moving subject a lot easier. When a subject is moving you have very little time from acheiving focus to snapping the shot.
When I am shooting moving subjects without AI Servo, I half press and release multiple times, watching the focus points and making sure the one I want is lit and on my subject, when it all comes together I continue the half press to full. If my AF is having trouble picking out my subject, I will switch to the center point and track with that in the same manner with mulitple presses.
In your photos something behind your subject is focused sharply, as if your camera acheived focus, maybe even to your satisfaction, but then you didn't full press right away and your subject was out of the focus point by the time the shutter was released. Remember your camera will hold the focus it has acheived until the half press is released or a photo is taken, if your subject moves out of that focus plane and you are still half pressed and your subject has moved out of the DOF it will be out of focus. Or maybe with all of the clutter around you subject maybe the camera picked something with more contrast behind your subject.
You can make your camera more manly by installing the hack that will unlock AI Servo in all creative zones.

[wiselion]

David hit it on the head....


AI servo is nice, but isn't the problem here. Runners in a long distance race aren't moving fast enough to require servo mode if you have decent depth-of-field on a sunny day.

[Genkisan]

Thanks again to all for your help...


I am now trying to absorb and apply your comments (lots of info)... I already had some success a couple of days after writing this post with some kart shots at a local circuit, not stunning pictures by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasnt trying to get a masterpiece, just learn and resove some gremlins...

[KenW]

Hi Genkisan,

According to your posted information it looks like you used the kit lens for those shots at 55mm which is a lot to ask for from that lens. Did your pics with the Sigma lens fair any better? Maybe post those also.

Ken :confused:

[cfcRebel]

Those racing carts look sharp to me!

I don't understand why people keep saying 300D does not have AI Servo. :rolleyes: It is just not letting you to select it like the 20D does. But it is THERE, and NO, it is NOT limited to Sport mode only. I just tried it in Av mode and AI Servo kicked in just fine as I moved away from my subject while halfpressing the shutter button. I don't install any hack firmware. What i don't know is if it only works with certain lenses.

Genkisan, as others suggested, use the center AF point. When u halfpress to focus on your wife/friend running, u should see 300D's AI Servo kicks in and hear the lens making small noise. ;)

[Icecamp]

Those racing carts look sharp to me!

I don't understand why people keep saying 300D does not have AI Servo. :rolleyes: It is just not letting you to select it like the 20D does. But it is THERE, and NO, it is NOT limited to Sport mode only. I just tried it in Av mode and AI Servo kicked in just fine as I moved away from my subject while halfpressing the shutter button. I don't install any hack firmware. What i don't know is if it only works with certain lenses.

Actually you are wrong, look at the chart on page 122 in your manual. The only place AI Servo focus is available is in Sport mode. Something I didn't know though, and probably what you are refering to, is AI Focus mode is available in all of the Creative modes P, AV, TV, and M. AI focus differs from AI servo in that for non moving subjects it acts like a single shot focus, if the subject is moving, then it switches to AI Servo predictive focus.

[ed2day]

Here's a shot I took of a runner using, yes, sports mode. I think it shows the capability of the 300D.

[Genkisan]

Here's a shot I took of a runner using, yes, sports mode. I think it shows the capability of the 300D.

Thats a good picture..

Ive not used the preset modes pretty much since I bought the camera. I may force myself back to see what results I get.

[MartinLewis]

Ok, here goes... Ive had my EOS300d for about 6months, feel pretty happy with the usage, settings and techniques required to get a good picture. What is starting to frustrate me though is the amount of pictures that I take that are not crisp. Not sure if its focus, camera shake or something else. This came to a head when my wife ran in a race yesterday and I took along my camera to get some 'great' race shots. The weather was cloudy but quite bright so thought I had a good chance of some good action shots. It was bright enough that my shots all had settings between 1/800 & 1/1000, variable aperture settings and ISO 400 as standard.

So was really down when I got home and looked at the pictures only to find a set of mediocre shots. (I have attached 2 pictures below to show you).

At the same event was a group of Pro's with pro equipment & monopods, couldnt see what cameras but the size alone showed that they were using expensive equipment... but, they were trying to take pictures of all 1000 entrants whilst I only had my wife and 2 of her friends to capture.. I thought it was an even game.

So the first down was looking at my pictures, the second down was looking at the Pro's on their website. Now what the hell am I doing wrong??

http://www.prosportphotos.com/running/dorney-dash/index.htm (http://www.prosportphotos.com)
runner 758

With all this in mind it makes sense that the fault lies in 1 of 4 areas;

1. My camera isnt man enough for the job
2. My settings are inacurate
3. I would have benefited from a monopod
4. I just suck at photography (maybe camera shake!)

My feelings of these are:

1. My camera isnt man enough for the job
- 300d should be plenty enough camera for a crisp picture... and a bad work man allways blames his tools. So, cant be the camera (can it?)

2. My settings are inacurate
- Dont think so, had a good balance of shutter speed to ISO. No doubt could improve, but general area I think was right (Was it?)

3. I would have benefited from a monopod
- Yeah, reckon this could have helped. But I wanted close to the ground shots to bring the tarmac into the story, but if im a camera shaker maybe I have no option (No idea??)

4. I just suck at photography (maybe camera shake!)
- This seems to me the most likely. Allthough depressing to consider. Maybe its just camera shake, but would have thought at 1/1000 that would compensate for me moving??


I would welcome any and all thoughts on this issue.
Why didnt you ask us? www.prosportphotos.com (http://www.prosportphotos.com) is: Martin Lewis (also: www.martinlewis.biz (http://www.martinlewis.biz) ): D2H plus 80-200 Nikon f2.8 and Graham Russell ( www.grahamrussell.info (http://www.grahamrussell.info) )1D Mk11 plus 70-200 f2.8. I believe the key to your problem lies purely in focus points / cropping and understanding how the camera focus tracks. Top cameras & pro / fast lenses help - but we both used to shoot pro am cameras with about a 95% + success rate. Each brand and combination of lens and body varies and neither of us have good experience of yours. I used to shoot film and manual / manual focus though - so yours would be fine!! Mono pods arent necessary for most conditions (we use them as camera are v heavy for continuos shooting) and we often shoot down to 1/250th (at a push). Take a look at where we might be in 2006 in our future events and look us up - we'd be happy to chat to you if you'd like - most of your theory was right though. Hope this helps - Martin