Fun with the 85 f1.8 at a Volleyball Tourney

I was standing between courts yesterday, 30D and 85 in hand, waiting for play to resume, and a guy walks by, does a double take on the camera, and hollers "Is that the 85"... When I reply Yes, he comes back, High Fives me, says "Glad to see someone here knows what they're doing". We commiserated a few moments over the parent with kits lens and PSs trying to shoot in the dark, dealing with color cycling lights, and the joys of the 85. Found out later he's a coach for one of the top clubs in the area. (Are you on here somewhere?)

Out of 16 courts of volleyball, 3-4 teams to a court, I was the only person I saw with a fixed lens, but I know there was one other woman there (who inspired me to get my 85) later in the day.

One of my parents came up with an advanced PS came up and asked for help, and I couldn't push it above 1/200 at f2.7 (wide open) at ISO 1600. Gotta give her credit though, she skipped the tourney the day before to take a beginning photo class. Next tourney, I'll grease the slope by letting her play with my camera.....(insert evil laugh here)

Got lots of Nyah pictures again, busy backgrounds, OOF, the usual. But that one interaction made the pain a lot less, knowing very few people probably had any better luck.

I've been shooting a lot of indoor sports lately and I've seen a lot of parents out there with slow (f/4-5.6) telezooms and hyperzoom P&S cameras. I imagine they are frustrated with what they get.

A lot of these places are just plain dark. These parents don't realize that what they are trying to shoot (indoor sports) ranks right up there with many of the more difficult photography subjects (birds comes to mind as another).

For dark's sake....here is ISO3200, f/2 and 1/320. I was surrounded by parents shooting Rebel XT's with f/5.6 lenses. I hope the disappointment in their shots gets them here to POTN to learn how to do better (and hopefully not break the bank doing it). An 85/1.8 goes a long way.

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I could live with that noise. Nice shot Jeffrey. 30D?

Someone feel free to tear me apart here, as that's what i come to this forum for....TO LEARN....but, i have an 85 1.8 which i bought for the AF speed as well as the 1.8.

anyway, i keep finding that I'm missing shots due to the fixed lens, and find myself using my 17-55 2.8 a lot more. Truthfully, my workhorse, is my 70-200 2.8 IS...but again, the ability to recompose shots with a zoom seems critical for a higher percentage of "keepers".

all that being said, i know a lot of sport shooters out there use the 85, so am i missing something?

coleygm wrote in post #4851573
Someone feel free to tear me apart here, as that's what i come to this forum for....TO LEARN....but, i have an 85 1.8 which i bought for the AF speed as well as the 1.8.

anyway, i keep finding that I'm missing shots due to the fixed lens, and find myself using my 17-55 2.8 a lot more. Truthfully, my workhorse, is my 70-200 2.8 IS...but again, the ability to recompose shots with a zoom seems critical for a higher percentage of "keepers".

all that being said, i know a lot of sport shooters out there use the 85, so am i missing something?

Shooting indoor sports with a prime lens requires a good understanding of the sport so that you can place yourself in the best spot.

Sometimes it is easy....in gymnastics most events are on fixed equipment so you know where the shot will be.

Others like volleyball and basketball can range from under the net to the top of the key. For these shots you need to plan to be positioned to frame the best action properly (driving the lane for instance) and just crop the others (a jumper from the 3 point line).

Incidentally this is why people often find they don't need as much reach as they first expected. 85mm on the baseline in basketball on a 1.6X camera is probably too long. A lot of people find a 50mm is better.

Finally, a basketball game is long and even H.S. involves 30-40 shots on each end. Swap lenses and move around. You can't get every single opportunity but you can get a variety of good shots.

Thank you very much. I'm an amateur (I shot that wrestling match for some friends) so I take any compliments I can get. The noise does look pretty fair....especially since I just quickly slapped a 100%- 0.5 - 0 sharpen on it after I resized it to post here.

JeffreyG wrote in post #4851655
Shooting indoor sports with a prime lens requires a good understanding of the sport so that you can place yourself in the best spot.

Sometimes it is easy....in gymnastics most events are on fixed equipment so you know where the shot will be.

SO True!!

I use my 50mm a lot shooting indoor sports; and people have joked with me about having such a tiny lens.. Then they see me chimping and peek at my pictures and walk away in a huff with their point and shoot.

I have a few of them.. But a big white lens isn't always the answer!

In my own bag I have fast primes and slow zooms. It isn't that I wouldn't like f/2.8 zooms in some situations, but that I often find that when f/4 won't cut it f/2.8 isn't enough "faster".

But to your point.....indoor sports really don't always need long reach. That is field sports....which at the ages of my kids are all played in daylight (thank goodness).

I'll cross the night field sports EF 300 f/2.8L IS bridge when I come to it.

I'm contemplating the 135 f2 rental for presidents day weekend tourney, just to see if the reach is worth the $$. I found years ago (FD days) that the zoom really fouled me up, my zoom focus shoot at basketball wasn't fast enough. Without the zoom, I focus more on the shot, getting the background as best I can. My camera drives others nuts when I loan it to them, but I get in focus, non blurred pictures of action. My sportraits kinda suck, but I'm OK with that. I let them take those. Works well as a team.

I"m pretty much sticking with primes for both of my daughters' sports (gymnastics and volleyball). First time shooting volleyball I had the 24-70 and the 200 prime. All my 200 prime shots came down to being "sportraits", way to close to catch action. I think the 85mm is going to work out great, will find out in two weeks for the next tourney. I've since purchased the 135 f/2. Which won't bring me in so close as the 200 2.8, plus allows for twice the shutter speed