Sports using Manual Focus

My 70-200 just crapped out and I've got a basketball game to cover this Thursday (not a paid gig) and there is no way Sigma can repair and return my lens in time.

I thinking of going old school and shooting the game using manual focus. Has anyone done this recently? Am I wasting my time trying? Any tips?

it will be difficult for sure, but not hard. What you can do is set up some focus points. Mid court, far end, close end, etc. Then learn where your focus ring would be in anticipation. You wont get as many of the quick snag shots, but if you set up enough you can get some decent stuff. I would also shoot wide instead of tight, your chance of getting in focus should be better and then you can crop as needed.

If you have a chance to get one of those focus helpers or make one that can help. Its an attachment to put on your focus ring to help you find the relative position of the ring so you know that straight up is x distance and 90 right is x distance, etc, etc. Generally they are for video shooting, but can be used for photos as well.

figo wrote in post #16698698
My 70-200 just crapped out and I've got a basketball game to cover this Thursday (not a paid gig) and there is no way Sigma can repair and return my lens in time.

I thinking of going old school and shooting the game using manual focus. Has anyone done this recently? Am I wasting my time trying? Any tips?

Manual focus sports photography went out of fashion with the debut of the Canon EOS system and autofocus EF mount in 1987.

The main obstacle to manual focus action photography is that current caneras are not equipped with focus screens that ease manual focus, especially the split-prism focus screens that were common in the manual focus era.

Also, basketball, with its relentless action up and down the court and constantly changing distances to the subject, is a sport where autofocus is pretty much mandatory,

You may be able to get some usable basketball images with manual focus, but you'll need to spend as much much time on the focus ring as on the shutter button.

You'll need to tolerate many soft focus frames since basketball's low light means no chance to stop down for an increased depth of field.

I had to do this for an NFL game. Keepers were few and far between, but this is what people did back in the day.

Zone focus. Focus on an area that the play is likely to come to and wait for the play to come there.

I don't know about canon, but some Pentax have this function called "Catch-in-Focus" that is very useful for manual focus, basically you assign a focus point then move your focus ring while keeping the shutter pressed and the camera will snap as soon your subject enters in focus on the designated point, very handy for with old manual lenses.

figo wrote in post #16698698
Any tips?

Shoot relatively stationary captures where you have time to focus. Some shots:

1. The coach yelling or motioning from the bench.

2. Player attempting a free throw. Include the scoreboard in the background if possible.

3. Players blocking out and then attempting to rebound a missed free throw.

4. Go real wide and shoot the team huddled around the coach during a time out.

5. You could slow your shutter speed a stop to allow you to shoot at f/4.0 for a forgiving dof. For the huddle and free throw shots.

6. You already know where a player will be when he shoot a layup. Have a preset (use tape?) distance on your focus ring to give yourself a chance to shoot a layup under the basket.

7. That same preset should work for rebounding.

Remember that a short focal length means a larger DOF and hence more forgiving focus.


Phil

Thanks for the help. I'll share the results later.

Thomas Campbell wrote in post #16699276
I had to do this for an NFL game. Keepers were few and far between, but this is what people did back in the day.

Zone focus. Focus on an area that the play is likely to come to and wait for the play to come there.

This. If you've been shooting this team all season you should have a good idea of where the keeper shots are going to be, pre focus and wait for the timing. I did it last weekend for a while with my 50 mm when the camera kept wanting to grab focus on the stands behind the players.

peeaanuut wrote in post #16698722
it will be difficult for sure, but not hard. What you can do is set up some focus points. Mid court, far end, close end, etc. Then learn where your focus ring would be in anticipation. You wont get as many of the quick snag shots, but if you set up enough you can get some decent stuff. I would also shoot wide instead of tight, your chance of getting in focus should be better and then you can crop as needed.

If you have a chance to get one of those focus helpers or make one that can help. Its an attachment to put on your focus ring to help you find the relative position of the ring so you know that straight up is x distance and 90 right is x distance, etc, etc. Generally they are for video shooting, but can be used for photos as well.

Yeah, I can only imagine how difficult it is. I tried manual focusing in a gym with low light yesterday. I thought I had the focusing perfectly while viewing live in Canon 5DIII. Turns out that it was focusing in the background. This was with Sigma 35 1.4.

It can be done but you do need to stop down a lot to get a wider area in focus, maybe f/8 or something, then you have a bigger margin if you miss during your manual focusing. It's still not easy but stopping down makes it slightly less challenging.

/ Magnus

figo wrote in post #16698698
My 70-200 just crapped out and I've got a basketball game to cover this Thursday (not a paid gig) and there is no way Sigma can repair and return my lens in time.

So how did the manual focus go?

Manual focus was not fun. Not a lot of keepers but did teach me to anticipate the action. I really had to think about the shot I wanted before it even happen so that I could get the focus right. Overall an interesting experience but I miss my AF.

It was much easier back in the day using the split prism screens that cameras had. You'd also develop muscle memory and have a feel for which direction to twist and how much. Today I would be lost, forced to shoot completely different subjects within the same event to get anything useful.

Magnus3D wrote in post #16705945
It can be done but you do need to stop down a lot to get a wider area in focus, maybe f/8 or something, then you have a bigger margin if you miss during your manual focusing. It's still not easy but stopping down makes it slightly less challenging.

/ Magnus

Definitely stopping down would help if conditions allow. Giving yourself a larger margin of error to start with should be beneficial in a situation like this.

jrafael wrote in post #16699373
I don't know about canon, but some Pentax have this function called "Catch-in-Focus" that is very useful for manual focus, basically you assign a focus point then move your focus ring while keeping the shutter pressed and the camera will snap as soon your subject enters in focus on the designated point, very handy for with old manual lenses.

I had a Pentax for my first DSLR and this feature is one that I wish Canon had. It was great for using older Pentax lenses.