Boxing Day Test with E-300, 50-200, EC14, cable release and tripod

I recently had the pleasure of taking my E300 to the Boxing Day test at Melbourne. Below is a link to some of the images. (day 1 and 3)

http://home.pacific.net.au/~jsj/boxingday/boxingdayimages.html

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • What I learned - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The sports setting seemed to be using ISO 100 giving me only a 500th of a sec. Much better results using aperture priority. Could at times get down to f4.9 at 2000th of a sec using ISO 200 an 400. Much better

The earlier poster who suggeted not screwing in your cable release was a genius

With the cable release plugged in the camera sort of goes to sleep and you need to wake it up with a half press while the bowler is running in. (manual focus mode)

AF is no good for this kind of thing (when using a cable release) unless you want good shots of the other side of the ground in focus.

You can pre focus using AF and then swith to MF to hold the focus distance and not rely on your focusing ability. The writting on the stumps was most helpful for this

A one touch delete button after exposure is a must for this kind of thing as you have to shoot each delivery then discard the boring shots (please olympus please)

Using a cable release and tripod you can actually watch the cricket as well

Even though much disdained (E-300) I love my camera

The pros there were using 1D mark II's with an F4 600mm lens (after 1.6 crop factor 960 focal length?)

And last point I have learned that Symonds desreves his spot on the team

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PS I am not a photographers a/hole just a designer who really enjoys his hobby

PPS has anyone ever tried using two EC14's on a 50-200 would it work
784mm equiv at around F7? Not much for the DOF but fun to play with

I like them.

Really nice shots. You did a great job. Just so you know, the 1Dm2 has a 1.3X not 1.6X. How far were you from the action?

Nice shots of Cricket isn't it?

You had me fooled with the title...Boxing for me is another sport... a la Muhammad Ali...



Carlos

I was on the fence

The closest stumps felt like they were about 50 to 60 metres away but very hard to judge

Those Cricket shots are FANTASTIC! (I dont understand the game, being from the US, but I do like to watch it. )

They prove it isnt the camera, its the photographer.

The E-300 is a much maligned, but very capable camera, and these shots prove it.
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L.L.
Mystic, Ct.

Great Pictures! It's not easy getting this quality of action and your timing on those you showed are excellent.

I was interested in your use of cable release - it is a good way to set up for the action

Re: the wake-up problems... It would be possible (at the expence of battery life) to stop the camera from going to sleep using the menus (it is on the E1) would this solve the delay issue?

Would have been even better if at the Oval ;-) but then it would have been of Kevin Pietersen & Andy Flintoff
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Jerry (London!)

Any chance of them being injured for the next Ashes Series

You must be a student of the game to have gotten that shot, just as the wicket is being spilled. Did you have it in "motor drive mode" — and if so, was this the first shot of the sequence?

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Barry

Equipment in profile.

Fantastic shots, now I want to get to the cricket.

I don't believe you can use the 50-200 with 2 teleconverters.

Which lens? I presume it was the 50-200 with 1.4x?

How much cropping did you do to these shots?

I almost went to the Perth test with Bertha (300mm 2.8 tamron), but I might just go to a state game now and give it a try perhaps with you technique of pre-focusing. I also have a 2xtc that fits Bertha, so that would make her 600mm f5.6 (1200mm equilevent), I wonder if that would be too long though?

Cheers
Wazza

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Life is what happens in the middle of making plans.....
(John Lennon)

bloody good pics.. and great, great anticipation. I can't imagine you'd need anything closer?

will you be there tomorrow to see the last day? - could be a pretty short one. ozzies rule ;-)
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adrianox

my stuff: http://www.pbase.com/adrianox

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http://www.australianimage.com.au

Only on eteleconverter used. can only afford one. Was asking if anyone had tried it

cool...... i like it......

Single shot - dumb luck and por timing = great shot

The closest stumps to the members end did not need to much cropping. Will post some uncropped when I can get back into the office. Love the sound of how close you can get. I reckon 900mm would have been ideal

37 degrees sitting on the boundary fence in the full sun is one sacrifice I won't make. Can't believe they actually play and perform in that heat.

Great shots!!!

I have been watching the test on TV and most of the shots you got I can remember from the game.

How you got that shot of Pontings catch I don't know. They said on the telecast that that was the fastest reaction time that they had recorded ever, and you cought the ball in mid air....great work.

I think I may go to Sydney test after seeing these.

Milton

See link below for uncropped shots (180k each)

http://home.pacific.net.au/~jsj/boxingday/uncropped.html

firstly, i'm living OSfor a while in a VERY cold place right now so THANK YOU so much for posting these.

Secondly, you managed to catch some FANTASTIC moments, you must have been firing away all day yes???

As for the titlte of my reply, the images have an odd appearance to them, they look like shots from a compact ... a lack of crispness ....odd backgound jaggies/marks/?? not sure what you'd call them.

You've shown that one can capture the images with the right lens combination and correct technique but the virtues of the E300 are certainly not "proved" or "unproved" so to speak.

Overall, well done, i do admire your patience and go pidgeon!!

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