FZ10 @ ice-hockey match

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

They look great to me

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

I think it is a very admirable job. Too much motion blur but you have the composition and such correct. Shoot at a faster speed and get that killer shot of the puck flying towards the enemy and you've got it. It usually takes several outings in a new environment to see how to make it better. Just look at my horse pix. The second day went much better than the first. Unfortunately they are now gone until next July...

Keep practicing. I think you've nearly got it.

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

--
Rick Insane Diego...

Good work here. Despite the motion blur in a few places these shots work well. Sometimes a little motion blur in sports photography is a good thing ... reminds us that the players are in ACTION and not just posing for the camera.

As said by others, watch for the timing. The "puck shot" is the goal for a photog shooting hockey.

Were you using a tripod and cable release or shooting handheld with IS?

If you were shooting handheld I'd suggest a tripod ... even with the FZ10's great IS. Sometimes the difference between a great shot and a so-so shot comes down to mounting the camera on a stable tripod ... even at speeds of 1/200 or 1/320.

I am curious to see how the FZ10's AF would have handled some of the action here ... I doubt it would have worked as well as pre-focusing, but I'm still curious.

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

Thanks for feedback.

Yep I was shooting handheld with IS. I didnt really get any shots that were blurry because of shaking of the camera. I agree that tripod and cable release would have been great help in some situations to keep the framing how I wanted it to be.

I tried AF in the beginning of the game and the results werent that nice. While camera was taking its time to focus I had already missed the action. When using continuous autofocus mode the Ice reflections confused camera and it was focusing back and forth. So what I did was to wait untill player came to a spot where I wanted camera to be focused, used the manual focus and then hoped that there would be some action around that location.

rustedborg said:

As said by others, watch for the timing. The "puck shot" is the
goal for a photog shooting hockey.

Were you using a tripod and cable release or shooting handheld with
IS?
If you were shooting handheld I'd suggest a tripod ... even with
the FZ10's great IS. Sometimes the difference between a great shot
and a so-so shot comes down to mounting the camera on a stable
tripod ... even at speeds of 1/200 or 1/320.

I am curious to see how the FZ10's AF would have handled some of
the action here ... I doubt it would have worked as well as
pre-focusing, but I'm still curious.

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Pre-focusing is something I have to do even with my D70 and D100. I didn't expect the FZ10 AF to be able to work miracles on the ice ... but I was curious.

I'm considering buying the FZ20 as a personal camera when I don't want to lug around my DSLR kit. The idea of a compact 400mm+ f/2.8 IS lens and 5mp sensor for $600 is very nice. My 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens on my D70 is huge, heavy and expensive. I was considering buying a 400mm f/2.8 lens for my DSLRs (more than $4,000.00), but decided that it didn't make sense. Most of my paying gigs are weddings, portraits and events/parties, and spending that kind of money on a lens that will mostly be for personal use/fun seemed stupid.

Samu81 said:

Yep I was shooting handheld with IS. I didnt really get any shots
that were blurry because of shaking of the camera. I agree that
tripod and cable release would have been great help in some
situations to keep the framing how I wanted it to be.

I tried AF in the beginning of the game and the results werent that
nice. While camera was taking its time to focus I had already
missed the action. When using continuous autofocus mode the Ice
reflections confused camera and it was focusing back and forth. So
what I did was to wait untill player came to a spot where I wanted
camera to be focused, used the manual focus and then hoped that
there would be some action around that location.

Samu81 said:

As said by others, watch for the timing. The "puck shot" is the
goal for a photog shooting hockey.

Were you using a tripod and cable release or shooting handheld with
IS?
If you were shooting handheld I'd suggest a tripod ... even with
the FZ10's great IS. Sometimes the difference between a great shot
and a so-so shot comes down to mounting the camera on a stable
tripod ... even at speeds of 1/200 or 1/320.

I am curious to see how the FZ10's AF would have handled some of
the action here ... I doubt it would have worked as well as
pre-focusing, but I'm still curious.

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Great results!

I'd love to see the exif info for the pictures, what shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings did you use?

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

I agree and could you mail me the full size images? They would make a great desktop for my machine!

I love these, really well take, bright and sharo

Lewis
http://chilipalmer.devianart.com/gallery

WaqasUsman said:

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Ooops... that should be sharp

chilipalmer said:

I love these, really well take, bright and sharo

Lewis
http://chilipalmer.devianart.com/gallery

WaqasUsman said:

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

You can check out the originals with the exif information from following links:

[] http://personal.inet.fi/surf/smau/valokuvaus/HOCKEY/hockey_orig1.jpg[/]
[] http://personal.inet.fi/surf/smau/valokuvaus/HOCKEY/hockey_orig2.jpg[/]
[] http://personal.inet.fi/surf/smau/valokuvaus/HOCKEY/hockey_orig3.jpg[/]
[] http://personal.inet.fi/surf/smau/valokuvaus/HOCKEY/hockey_orig4.jpg[/]

Just copy the area in between [] marks. Didnt know any other way to link them so that explorer wouldnt view them as pictures.

The photos on the first message of this topic went through the following post processing:

1. Noise reduction in Neat image
2. Little bit of cropping

3. Adjusted colors by using autolevels, shadows/highlights, on some photos I used Kodaks Digital ROC plugin.
4. Downsizing image
5. Little bit of sharpening

I'm not sure if my workflow is in right order, but I'm used to do it in this way.

chilipalmer said:

chilipalmer said:

I love these, really well take, bright and sharo

Lewis
http://chilipalmer.devianart.com/gallery

WaqasUsman said:

Samu81 said:

I went to try how FZ10 would perform at hockey match held on a
small arena (capacity of 5000). I used ISO 100 and ISO 200 with
shutter speeds ranging from 200 to 320 on F2.8

Didnt really expect that autofocus would perform fast enough so I
used manual focus to prefocus on a specific point.

Pictures arent technically that good, but someone with more
experience it should provide more than satisfactory results.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...