Auto AF or center point?

I shoot Rugby (that being the only sport my boys play). I moved from the center point to the upper focus point as per Primoz. Overall, good experience but I clearly have issues remembering to use that point (versus continuing to use the center point).

I'll be shooting more rugby this weekend - we see how that goes.

I love the conversations here - as a complete amateur I find myself constantly pushed to rethink how I am doing things.

fugu wrote in post #12202559
I shoot Rugby (that being the only sport my boys play). I moved from the center point to the upper focus point as per Primoz. Overall, good experience but I clearly have issues remembering to use that point (versus continuing to use the center point).

I'll be shooting more rugby this weekend - we see how that goes.

I love the conversations here - as a complete amateur I find myself constantly pushed to rethink how I am doing things.

I like it, but what I don't like is that it doesn't auto-shift when you rotate from landscape to portrait. I find that I'm doing that a lot in lacrosse now, and that upper center point in landscape becomes the left side point in portrait. Went back to using center point.

I don't know how it's on 7d (or any other body except 1d), but on old 1d bodies my solution was to set one af point to * button on back (I always use this as main af button, and never have af connected to trigger button), and second af point was set to assist button (left of * button).
Now with 1dmk4, there's custom function which does exactly that... when you rotate camera to vertical it automatically switches to previously selected point. And when you have * button as main af button, and af-on button as secondary, you can actually have 4 af points to choose from... 2 horizontal and 2 vertical.

OwensSi wrote in post #12200667
you can even focus on the ground where their feet are.. it all depends on the moment.. quick thinking comes with experience.

I use that tactic as well when shooting pitchers at release. I'll focus on where his/her landing foot hits or maybe a little behind that spot, compose and wait for his/her delivery to fall into frame.

primoz wrote in post #12198600
I never said sports photography is easy Problem with your solution is, that with lens wide open (especially when using 300, 400 or 500mm lens) you will end up with perfectly sharp stomach and out of focus face And that's not something you normally want

Possible, for sure. But in general I think for field sports and long prime lenses there's enough dof to focus on a constrasty spot at the chest or belt line of the subject and still capture a sharp face.

Most of my experience lies on the baseball field, and it's not often that a player's head is a foot or more outside the focal plane of the chest. If there is a chance, it's usually with a quick action play and my main goal is to get the camera in position, put the red square on the main subject, compose quickly and rattle off a few shots ... leaving no time to focus on a small target such as a head.

Hmmm, so are some of you (like RonnieA) suggesting to not bother landing on the face? It is something I am still trying to do when shooting Rugby.

fugu wrote in post #12215896
Hmmm, so are some of you (like RonnieA) suggesting to not bother landing on the face? It is something I am still trying to do when shooting Rugby.

Being a former pro athlete, I'd like to think I have solid hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Maybe that's not the case? At any rate, I find it difficult to keep continuous focus on a subject's face while shooting action during field sports ... or basketball or hockey for that matter. I find it's easier to go with the flow of the play by focusing on the belt line or chest. It works for me reasonably well.

I think it depends on the sport though. Primoz shoots lots of ski racing and each racer is generally moving along the same line. I can see how one could get in a groove and effectively pan while maintaining good focus on a racer's head.

RonnieA wrote in post #12226044
Being a former pro athlete, I'd like to think I have solid hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Maybe that's not the case? At any rate, I find it difficult to keep continuous focus on a subject's face while shooting action during field sports ... or basketball or hockey for that matter. I find it's easier to go with the flow of the play by focusing on the belt line or chest. It works for me reasonably well.

I think it depends on the sport though. Primoz shoots lots of ski racing and each racer is generally moving along the same line. I can see how one could get in a groove and effectively pan while maintaining good focus on a racer's head.

This is what's working for me shooting lacrosse. Even w/ a 300mm or 400mm lens, the players head is pretty small when you're shooting across the field, and it is easy for it to move out of the focus point. I've also found, that even at f/2.8, there is sufficient DoF to get the player's face in focus if you're putting the focus point on their chest or belt line. With a 300 f/2.8 wide open, with a distance to subject of 20 yards will give you a depth of field of ~ a foot and a half. At 40 yards, that goes to ~6', and at 10 yards, it's ~5". So if I'm standing on the sideline, shooting the goalie, I'm ~30 yards away, and will have a DoF of ~3', which will certainly have his face in focus if I put the focus point on his chest. If they're getting closer than ~10 or 15 yards, I'm switching from my 300 f/2.8 to my 70-200 f/2.8, and probably zoomed in. At 10 yards @ f/2.8 and 200mm my DoF is a little less than a foot, and @ 100mm it's over 3'.

I don't see much of a downside in focusing on the chest or belt line in this kind of a situation. Closer distances w/ a long, fast lens, absolutely.

It works also for any other sport Believe it or not, personally I actually find it a whole lot easier to keep af point on face of athlete with basketball, soccer or handball then with skiing. All these athletes are moving slowly, while skiers are coming down at you at 100+km/h, and even though it might look like they are moving on same line, it's far from true.
I don't think being (ex) pro athlete has much to do with all this (unless you were shooting guns ). I was this myself too (xc skiing), but I doubt it helps me with this. It comes with enough of experiences and I guess shooting long enough is only way to get this feel.

thanks for all those informations guys

Mk1Racer wrote in post #12203676
I like it, but what I don't like is that it doesn't auto-shift when you rotate from landscape to portrait. I find that I'm doing that a lot in lacrosse now, and that upper center point in landscape becomes the left side point in portrait. Went back to using center point.

The 7D can be programmed to auto switch the selected focus point when you turn the camera. Set it up once and it's one less thing to think about on the field.