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Shooting Sports, which AF mode should be used AF-A or AF-C

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esmall

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I have an A300 and I shoot a ton at my 2 son's baseball and football games. For the baseball games I find that setting to AF-S is useful for taking shots while at bat or in the infield. For football, I'm having a tough time figuring out what mode would be best, AF-A or AF-C. So far AF-A seems better but reading the manual makes me think AF-C should be the way to go.

Maybe my understanding of the modes is lacking. can someone provide any suggestions and maybe a short explanation as to why one setting is better than the other. Thanks!
--
Ernest
http://www.ernestsmallphotography.com
See my PhotoStream
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I would NO use AF-C; the few times I have used it I noticed it made me lose pics as the system is trying to focus continuously. For me, at least, panning and shooting has worked much better, and under S priority under plenty of light. Of course it also depends on the lens used.

Looking forward to others' comments.
 
esmall said:
I have an A300 and I shoot a ton at my 2 son's baseball and football games. For the baseball games I find that setting to AF-S is useful for taking shots while at bat or in the infield. For football, I'm having a tough time figuring out what mode would be best, AF-A or AF-C. So far AF-A seems better but reading the manual makes me think AF-C should be the way to go.

Maybe my understanding of the modes is lacking. can someone provide any suggestions and maybe a short explanation as to why one setting is better than the other. Thanks!
--
Ernest
http://www.ernestsmallphotography.com
See my PhotoStream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernestsmall/
Click to expand...
AF-A lets the camera determine the focus mode IIRC. I have never used it. When I shoot sport - soccer mostly - I use AF-C.

--
Rick
 
I think the AF-A should transition to AF-C when the subject moves. Now what to do when the subject is already moving? I still use AF-A in my BIFs and seems to be ok even with smaller subjects.
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Cheers,
gil - San Jose, CA
Cheap Lens, JPG and 100% Handholding Provocateur
Like happiness, photography is often better created than pursued.
 
Ernest,

As Rick has told you AF-A allows the camera to choose between single shot and continuous focus. This is a Sony (inherited from Konica-Minolta) exclusive. I actually had quite a discussion with Gary Friedman about it while reviewing his A700 e-book, and he included my comments as a sports shooter.

I usually use AF-A when shooting baseball. The reason is that I quite commonly want to fix focus on, for example, 1st base when expecting a pick off move there. You want the focus there before the move. There's really no reason to use AF-S. My experience is that AF-A is quite good at deciding when to shift to continuous mode, although it's not perfect.

I don't shoot football, but I do shoot basketball. I usually use AF-C for basketball and I think I would do the same for football. It's really because I can't imagine a situation where I would want to pre-focus in football.

That's the key. If you want to be able to pre-focus use AF-A. If you want the camera to focus constantly use AF-C.

I use AF-S only for portrait, landscape, and macro type shooting.

Gary
esmall said:
I have an A300 and I shoot a ton at my 2 son's baseball and football games. For the baseball games I find that setting to AF-S is useful for taking shots while at bat or in the infield. For football, I'm having a tough time figuring out what mode would be best, AF-A or AF-C. So far AF-A seems better but reading the manual makes me think AF-C should be the way to go.

Maybe my understanding of the modes is lacking. can someone provide any suggestions and maybe a short explanation as to why one setting is better than the other. Thanks!
--
Ernest
http://www.ernestsmallphotography.com
See my PhotoStream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernestsmall/
Click to expand...
--
Gary

 
I was just passing through and thought I mention that AF-A is not a Sony exclusive feature. Canon has this same function. I wouldn't be surprised if every camera manufacturer has something similar at this point in time.

If one is shooting in RAW format at a limited burst rate and not burning frames up like a machine gunner shooting Jpeg, AF-C is the way to get more frames in focus on moving targets.
garykohs said:
As Rick has told you AF-A allows the camera to choose between single shot and continuous focus. This is a Sony (inherited from Konica-Minolta) exclusive. I actually had quite a discussion with Gary Friedman about it while reviewing his A700 e-book, and he included my comments as a sports shooter.

Gary
esmall said:
I have an A300 and I shoot a ton at my 2 son's baseball and football games. For the baseball games I find that setting to AF-S is useful for taking shots while at bat or in the infield. For football, I'm having a tough time figuring out what mode would be best, AF-A or AF-C. So far AF-A seems better but reading the manual makes me think AF-C should be the way to go.

Maybe my understanding of the modes is lacking. can someone provide any suggestions and maybe a short explanation as to why one setting is better than the other. Thanks!
--
Ernest
http://www.ernestsmallphotography.com
See my PhotoStream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernestsmall/
Click to expand...
--
Gary

Click to expand...
 
Thanks for your replies!

What I find when shooting baseball with AF-A is that for example, when trying to capture a sequence of the pitcher throwing a pitch, every now and then the focus is lost as the pitcher moves. I assume its because I don't pan very well and the lens tries to focus on something beyond the pitcher. I'll usually have 1 or 2 shots out of focus in the sequence.

Well, my son has a football game tomorrow so I'll have plenty of chances to practice. Last game I took 876 shots. Yikes! I still haven't finished processing them.
--
Ernest
http://www.ernestsmallphotography.com
See my PhotoStream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernestsmall/
 
I've used AF-C for sports like football and basketball (AF-S for baseball most of the time), and it's worked well for me. I also use the center AF point, in A Priority with the lens opened up as much as possible to ensure a fast shutter speed, but still maintain a good level of sharpness.

I started taking shooting my son's football games more seriously last year, and found that with a lot of practice, I was able to get some pretty good results. I also tried many different lenses in the process - most worked pretty well, but the 70-300 SSM G was the best of the bunch. This year, I'm going to use the Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM - first chance to use it will be this coming weekend, so hopefully I can share some results early next week.

Here are a few from last year:







--
Keith
http://keithinsp.smugmug.com/
http://www.pbase.com/themitty/
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/themitty
 
You'll find the same thing happens in AF-C mode because your camera is using continuous focus anyway.

If you're parallel to the movement of the pitcher - 3rd base line, for example - then you could lock focus on the pitcher by switching to MF until you finish the sequence.
esmall said:
What I find when shooting baseball with AF-A is that for example, when trying to capture a sequence of the pitcher throwing a pitch, every now and then the focus is lost as the pitcher moves. I assume its because I don't pan very well and the lens tries to focus on something beyond the pitcher. I'll usually have 1 or 2 shots out of focus in the sequence.
Click to expand...
Gary

 
I shoot sports all the time.

This is what I would suggest.

Shoot on "C".

Turn off the liveview (yes the focus is just as fast but there is a micro-second delay in what you see and what's really happening... unrelated to focus).

Switch the focus area to "spot" and put the focus on the subject as they run. This is the key to making it work. If you're on wide or local the sensor will pick up on the item at any sensor point but will always go to the one closest to the camera first. This is often the grass/field/forground of the photo and not the actual player. If you go with spot focus and keep it on the player it will work best.

The 70-300 G lens is great for outdoor sports, I used one for skiing last winter.
The 70-200 is better for indoor sports because of the faster aperture.
The 70-400 G is nice but is a bit of a beast... I use it for soccer and skiing.

The 300mm is my go to lens for football and baseball.

Don't lock or hold the focus on the pitcher.... they are moving more than you think.

Most of my sports photos are NFL, MLB and NHL..... You can check out my sports photos at

http://www.thepicturedesk.ca

and I did a video on shooting soccer at....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZiXg7TZR_Y&feature=channel_page

and one on hockey at...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDMcQFD3PbU&feature=channel_page

You can also view some indy car photos using this same system at ...
thepicturedesk.blogspot.com

Hope this is useful.

-Rob
 
I thought that AF-C would focus only once for the first shot and then refocus for every shot in a continuous sequence.

AF-A seems to re-focus all the time, even for the first shot.

Am I right?
 
Nice shots, Keith, esp. the first one. I must have missed these before.
--
FEM2008
Shoot now; process much later!
 
...the A700 manual says:

"When the focus mode is set to Continuous AF or Automatic AF, the focus is set separately on each image.
When set to Single-shot AF, the focus is fixed on the first image."

That should help.
Frank43 said:
I thought that AF-C would focus only once for the first shot and then refocus for every shot in a continuous sequence.

AF-A seems to re-focus all the time, even for the first shot.

Am I right?
Click to expand...
--
FEM2008
Shoot now; process much later!
 
FEM2008 said:
"When the focus mode is set to Continuous AF or Automatic AF, the focus is set separately on each image.
When set to Single-shot AF, the focus is fixed on the first image."

That should help.
Frank43 said:
I thought that AF-C would focus only once for the first shot and then refocus for every shot in a continuous sequence.

AF-A seems to re-focus all the time, even for the first shot.

Am I right?
Click to expand...
--
FEM2008
Shoot now; process much later!
Click to expand...
I have tried shooting with AF-C for indoor sports (roller derby) and I can't get it to do 5 FPS. I will get the first one and then pause a bit before firing off another 2 or 3 frames. In AF-S the camera will do 5 FPS until I let off the shutter button. Is it just my camera or does anyone else have this happen?
 
ViCorp said:
FEM2008 said:
"When the focus mode is set to Continuous AF or Automatic AF, the focus is set separately on each image.
When set to Single-shot AF, the focus is fixed on the first image."

That should help.
Frank43 said:
I thought that AF-C would focus only once for the first shot and then refocus for every shot in a continuous sequence.

AF-A seems to re-focus all the time, even for the first shot.

Am I right?
Click to expand...
--
FEM2008
Shoot now; process much later!
Click to expand...
I have tried shooting with AF-C for indoor sports (roller derby) and I can't get it to do 5 FPS. I will get the first one and then pause a bit before firing off another 2 or 3 frames. In AF-S the camera will do 5 FPS until I let off the shutter button. Is it just my camera or does anyone else have this happen?
Click to expand...
Same for me. I think it is the expected behavior. To get closer at 5FPS in AF-C, set in the recording menu 3, "priority setup" to "release". Then, when shooting follow you target and press frequently half way down and release the "shutter button". That will keep the camera in close focus with the target at all time. Once you decide to fire keep the button down. That works very well. I mean, I get overall best results doing that (for soccer).
 
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