Advice on shooting cycling

I went to the prologue of the Tour de France today, but my 20D and 70-200 f2.8 had huge problems focusing. This was from 2pm - 6pm on a sunny day in London. I'm used to shooting motorsports, kite boarding and kite buggying with the same setup and have never come across this sort of problem. I used AI Servo, CF04 set to 3 and selected one of the off-centre focus spots, which I kept trained on the rider's face. I was shooting in AV mode at f3.2. When I realised how much of a problem this was I changed to using the centre focus spot, but this didn't change anything. I tried focussing on other parts of the riders in case there wasn't enough contrast on the face but this didn't improve anything either.

I'm guessing that with motorsports being that much further away the percentage distance between car and camera isn't changing as rapidly as with cycling, but when shooting kite boarding and buggying I'm at similar distances as I was from the cyclists today. Is it likely that the riders were just approaching too quickly? Does anyone know what the fastest speed an object can come towards a 20D/70-200 f2.8 combo and still be kept in focus?

Not sure the answer to your question, I managed a few decent shots but I found the problem most of the time was the riders rode so close to the fence you had to lean over to get down the track to avoid others in the crowd, then as they were coming at your so fast you nearly got whacked by them and their following motorbikes!

Still a good day and no rain! I was at F2.8 and changed the focus point depending on the composure of the shot.

Ive never done this before today but used manual focus and hoped the cyclist hit the spot! Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didnt, depending what part of the road they came down. I know nothing about cycling photography so dont know if this was a good approach or not.

How close were you, could it have been the distance focus setting on your lens ?, have you got the battery grip and were shooting potrait and didn't have it turned on ?

I use the same setup , but I don't personally care for cf4. Anyway, I find the setup to be money for cycling, although I do mostly use the centerpoint for focus as it is one of the high precision sensors that an f/2.8 lens will take advantage of with the 20D.

I shoot cycling for a living so maybe I can help a bit. My 70-200 2.8 is my most used lens on my 1dmk2. I shoot portrait, cf4 on and choose a focus point that puts their head (and thus the frame) where I want it. The eyes are the most important part. CF4 helps a great deal, as it lets you look focus and exposure independantly.

I don't normally go faster than 1/320th as you tend to lose wheel spin over that. I also don't USUALLY shoot below 5.6, as at the distances i shoot, i need that much DOF to get the riders eyes and the fork/wheel in focus (important for logos for sales).

The AF on my 10d has some issues, but i can normally use this setup on that as well, so the 20d shouldn't be too slow.

for what it is worth, most photohgraphers who shoot road cycling for a living do so from the back of a moto pacing the peloton or the break.

Shot 2 weeks ago. Rider going about 40mph almost directly towards me, sitting in the dirt.

Thanks for your replies.

ies photos - it was definately easier when the riders were on the other side of the road! You have some nice shots; I notice some were on a corner which might have been a better idea.

simonSE15 - that's the approach my father used to use with his Canon A1. I was hoping we'd progressed since then! I might try it next time though, at least I'd have some decent shots.

gsgary - I was using continuous shooting from 50m out so the camera would have plenty of time to lock on. Normally when shooting on continuous the shutter will clatter away at 5 fps. Yesterday it would be pausing for up to a second while it hunted for focus, and the focus still wouldn't be right. I did try the distance switch in both settings to see if that was causing problems though! The grip was turned on.

Big Hands - I did try the centre spot but it didn't seem any better.

transcend - thanks, very informative.

I've put together five screen shots from BreezeBrowser showing the active focus point and uploaded it here. If you click 'Full Size' you can clearly see the problem. The plane of focus seems to wander in front of and behind the rider.

I have found that the achilles heel of the 20D for shooting sports is the AF system and cycling is one of the tougher sports to get conistent results from. There are lots of holes in the bike and the riders position on it and the 20D has a knack for finding them at times.

That said, it looks like you kept the AF point on target. The only thing I could offer is that I would stick with the centerpoint on the 20D as it is supposedly a higher precision sensor when used with an f/2.8 lens.

The real cure though, is a 1DMkII....

Big Hands wrote in post #3506427
The real cure though, is a 1DMkII....

I was kind of hoping that wouldn't be the answer...

I shoot portrait, cf4 on and choose a focus point that puts their head (and thus the frame) where I want it. The eyes are the most important part. CF4 helps a great deal, as it lets you look focus and exposure independantly

sorry to hijack this post but can you tell me which cf4 you use 1,2,or3

g_robins wrote in post #3506874
I shoot portrait, cf4 on and choose a focus point that puts their head (and thus the frame) where I want it. The eyes are the most important part. CF4 helps a great deal, as it lets you look focus and exposure independantly

sorry to hijack this post but can you tell me which cf4 you use 1,2,or3

Not sure which number it is, it puts focus only on the * button, and exposure on the shutter button.