Keeping focus at 5 fps.

The folks at the camera store tell me that the D200 will keep a moving subject in focus at 5 fps. I've been shooting a lot of baseball games lately and my camera does not easily keep moving subjects in focus, so I shoot at 4 fps and it seems to help. I'm sure there is a little operator error going on as well, but it would help to know what the D200 is capable of. I would appreciate it if you could share your experience on this.

Thank you,
Bob

Do you have it set for focus priority in AF-C?

I shoot a lot of sports....and if the subject is moving away or toward the camera, my D200 bodies will NOT hold focus in any combination of focus modes at 5fps. There is an inbetween setting that is FOCUS+FPS that seems to do slightly better. But the focusing on the D200 is not even close to the D2 series cameras. The D200 focus with my 300mm AF-S 2.8 and 80-200 AF-S 2.8 seems to be only marginally better than my D70.

I would venture to guess that there's something wrong with your D200 because mine quite easily maintains focus of boats running over 120 MPH toward or away from me. I get over a 99% keeper rate in those situations.

Travis G VanDenBerg said:

I shoot a lot of sports....and if the subject is moving away or
toward the camera, my D200 bodies will NOT hold focus in any
combination of focus modes at 5fps.

Click to expand...

--
http://www.screamandfly.com/home

Over 700 shots at two motor cross events recently, only half a dozen or so binned for being out of focus, plenty of other reasons to reject but very happy with my D200's ability to track fast moving motorbikes.

Very good article here:

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/d200_multi-cam_af/

Helped me out a lot.

Bob

Greg Terzian said:

Travis G VanDenBerg said:

I shoot a lot of sports....and if the subject is moving away or
toward the camera, my D200 bodies will NOT hold focus in any
combination of focus modes at 5fps.

Click to expand...

--
http://www.screamandfly.com/home

Click to expand...

Travis G VanDenBerg said:

I shoot a lot of sports....and if the subject is moving away or
toward the camera, my D200 bodies will NOT hold focus in any
combination of focus modes at 5fps. There is an inbetween setting
that is FOCUS+FPS that seems to do slightly better. But the focusing
on the D200 is not even close to the D2 series cameras. The D200
focus with my 300mm AF-S 2.8 and 80-200 AF-S 2.8 seems to be only
marginally better than my D70.

Click to expand...

I have the same experience but it's very dependent on what one shoots.

I've done some rallying and no problems, not sure if it 5fps but in focus priority it never hesitates. Rally cars are very predictable and and distance fairly long to the subject.

Did some track and field last weekend and especially long jump and tripple jump when sitting at the end of the sand box it often hesitated when the jumper came close for the landing. I think the movement might be to fast relative distance and I guess arms and legs passing by the sensor makes it hard for the af.

I had the same experience when shooting downhill mountain bikes, when I got really close ( 5m) the camera hesitated quite often while there was no problems shooting in a distance (> 10m). All this is with the 70-200 afs.

--
http://www.eventphotosystems.com

Yes, my camera is in "Focus Priority".......I only hope for pictures in focus.

Travis, I really appreciate your comments. I'm thinking about upgrading to a D2x because I would like to run at 5 or 6 fps and have the subject stay in focus. So far I have been staying in "Single-area AF". One time I spent an hour taking pictures of a baseball game with my camera on the "Dynamic-area AF" and almost every single picture was blurred. It seemed like the other sensors were trying to control the focus.

Greg, you surprised me with your suggestion that my camera might have a problem. You are right, I think my 70-200mm VR is having an intermittent problem. Sometimes it will completely stop focusing and I have to install another lens to keep going. Then it will start working again and it does back focus. I took a couple of pictures of players on 2nd base that were out of focus, however another player, off to the side and behind, was sharp. I wish I could post one of the pictures, but I don't have permission.

Anyway, the replies really help. It's nice to know the experiences of other people. It helps me figure out what I'm doing wrong and doing right.

Thanks,
Bob

I use my D200 with fps + focus. This increases the keeper rate when photographing motorsports. I use the D200 and an 80 - 200mm f2.8 AF-S and on ocassions this lens with a TC20E II teleconverter as well. My keeper rate on ALMS, NHRA, Touring cars, and airshows is about 2 in 5 to 1 in 5 with objects coming head on or in tracking/panning shots. This could be handshake or bad monopod technique or whatever. I'm reasonably usre however that I had better results with the F100 and the same combo.
--
albion

My D100 and 70-200 lens has a 0 keeper rate when something is running (a dog) toward me, so don't complain

If you want the fastest rate, switch exposure to Manual mode, set your aperture as large as possible (lowest F number F2.8 or less if possible), DO NOT use AUTO ISO (just select the ISO compatible with the lower speed needed to fix action), select AF-C mode with the Dynamic Group option for focus, and make sure you go to the settings and select the adequate autofocus parameter for hold time and other stuff. Only then, you will get not only consistent exposures, but the highest frame rate.

The D200 is a slow performer if you ask it to evaluate metering before every shot, unlike the D2H-X(s).
My 2¢

PS: I forgot, do not select FOCUS, but frame rate as criteria.
--
Warmest regards....
G

Regarding the 70-200 VR, DO NOT USE VR on the D200 if your shutter speed is above 1/250. It slows things down because the D200 can not handle the communications with the lens motor fast enough, that affects the shooting rate.

I was able to obtain 5fps (4.8 really) with that lens and the D200 under very special circumstances, and at least EI of 15, never, repeat NEVER in low light. Those are reserved for the D2H.

The percentage of keepers you might expect should be at least 50%, and quickly grow as you become proficient handling the lens. Also, if the action moves perpendicular to you, try releasing the AF-ON switch to freeze focus. Always use shutter to release picture and AF-ON to focus, Do not use the shutter to do BOTH!!!
Those are our experiences in our two newspapers.
Enjoy you pictures and may the light be with you!
--
Warmest regards....
G

rmphoto,

Thanks for sharing your personal experience with me. It helps a lot to know how far I can push the camera.

I plan on hiring a professional photographer in about a week. The photographer will come to the ballfield to provide training. In the mean time I want to learn as much as I can.

Thanks,
Bob

rmphoto said:

Regarding the 70-200 VR, DO NOT USE VR on the D200 if your shutter
speed is above 1/250.

Click to expand...

Doesn't seem to hurt here.

rmphoto said:

never,
repeat NEVER in low light.

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Not a (major) problem here.

rmphoto said:

Do not use the shutter to do BOTH!!!

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Not at all a problem here.

--
Guy

My 'work' photos are at http://swarbrick.com/photos
The 'fun' stuff is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/swarbrick

Equipment in profile

Sunnyjim said:

rmphoto,

Thanks for sharing your personal experience with me. It helps a lot
to know how far I can push the camera.

I plan on hiring a professional photographer in about a week. The
photographer will come to the ballfield to provide training. In the
mean time I want to learn as much as I can.

Thanks,
Bob

Click to expand...

It might be helpful if he were a Nikon guy (not Canon).... good luck.

Those were our suggestions to getting 5fps CONSISTENTLY (at least for 20/30 shots) with a D200 body, a ProSumer kind of camera. Being a professional organization, we do not carry flags, we have Canon, Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad, Arca Swiss, to name a few. Each tool has its ideal job to be used upon. It is sad to see all the comments trashing one brand, or one camera. Useless as the comment you made.

No company makes PERFECT products, but they do indeed made very good ones, even spectacular some times, but not perfect. We love the Nikons for the human factor and ergonomics, fantastic in that sense. Not perfect.

When you are at a sports event, and you miss some of the shots because of camera settings, you loose money. Our best photographer, knows the sports he shoots, and rarely (RARELY) takes more than 2 or 3 shots in a sequence. 90% of them are just single perfect shots. How he does it? He knows when to press the shutter and factors in the delay of the camera. What body? D200. He makes 3 times the money the other photogs do. Lens? VR 200 F2.0, and he almost never sets the VR on. Go figure!
--
Warmest regards....
G

rmphoto,

That was great hearing about the professional sports photographer you work with. Even though a person may not have the highest skill level or may not even be able to use the techniques that pro's use, the information is still helpful.

People are amazing creatures and it's a real treat to see the best of the best in any field or occupation. I would love to see a Sports Illustrated Special about the skills of a sports photographer, just like a show about athletes.

Thank you,
Bob

rmphoto said:

Our best photographer,
knows the sports he shoots, and rarely (RARELY) takes more than 2 or
3 shots in a sequence. 90% of them are just single perfect shots. How
he does it? He knows when to press the shutter and factors in the
delay of the camera. What body? D200. He makes 3 times the money the
other photogs do. Lens? VR 200 F2.0, and he almost never sets the VR
on. Go figure!
--
Warmest regards....
G

Click to expand...

Now this photog knows how to manage his work flow. additionally if he uses a 200mm, he's at the fence at the races.

Us amateurs need 300 - 400mm or more and have to deal with 6' high cyclone fences... ahhh but I rant.....

Your suggestions are very helpful and very much appreciated.

Sure...mine tracks moving objects such as cars or sprint runners that are moving at a constant speed.....it's the sports like basketball, football, tennis, etc, where the athlete is moving in an erratic fashion and is changing speeds and direction that the D200 performs no better than the D70 and absolutely under par compared to the D2 series cameras.

Let's cut through some of the garbage.....

First, it doesn't matter if you use A, M, S, or P program modes as to focus accuracy or FPS speed, unless the chosen shutter speed is slow.

Second, using single-area focus will usually result in more in-focus shots than using dynamic-area as long as the correct sensor is kept on the area where focus is required. Furthermore, the camera requires more computing in dynamic mode (determining the proper sensor) than in single area and will not respond as quickly as in single-area mode.

Third, your aperture setting will have nothing do to with how quickly the lens focuses because the lens is always wide open until the exact moment of exposure, where it closes down for an instant. However, the camera will focus faster in a low-light situation with a larger aperture lens such as a 300mm 2.8, compared with a 300mm 5.6 because it has 2 more stops light constantly to obtain focus.

Fourth, the D200 focus system is not as fast and does not track moving objects as well as the D2 series cameras do.....period.

Fifth, you would be hard pressed to see any speed difference in regard to focus between the D70 and D200. The D200 does have a slight advantage in low light and with screw-driven lenses. Other than that, the lack of numerous cross-type sensors in both the D70 and D200 make them disappointingly similar for those expecting a huge leap up. The numerous cross sensors in the D2 do make a big difference.

With all that said...if you adjust your technique and push the button at the right moment, you should be able to get publishable shots with any of those cameras. After all, there were a lot of great shots in Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated even before autofocus existed.

My setup is the worst ever. A D100 with a BROKEN AF assist lamp and a screw drive 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 lens. My other lenses focus much quicker, but tracking is extremely off.