Action photos with the S2 Pro

After reading all the reviews and your comments here on the board I decided to purchase an S2 Pro. I've only had the camera for one week, but I couldn't be happier with my decision. This is my first digital camera and it was not an easy decision to go digital—I have been shooting film my whole life. After seeing the results from the S2 I regrett not going digital sooner.

After seeing all the debate on this board about the S2 not being a good camera for sports, I thought I would post one of my shots up here to see what you guys thought. All I shoot is motocross and I have found the S2 to work very well. There are a few quirks with the camera, but they are easy to overcome.

Let me know what you think of the photo.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

http://www.pbase.com/image/4651021

Chris,

Looks like a great shot to me tell me about your settings and lens choice you used I have been wanting to photograph some mx where I live any tips I have been worried a little about the dust conditions
Enjoy your S2,
Ray

Chris Hultner said:

After reading all the reviews and your comments here on the board I
decided to purchase an S2 Pro. I've only had the camera for one
week, but I couldn't be happier with my decision. This is my first
digital camera and it was not an easy decision to go digital—I have
been shooting film my whole life. After seeing the results from the
S2 I regrett not going digital sooner.

After seeing all the debate on this board about the S2 not being a
good camera for sports, I thought I would post one of my shots up
here to see what you guys thought. All I shoot is motocross and I
have found the S2 to work very well. There are a few quirks with
the camera, but they are easy to overcome.

Let me know what you think of the photo.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

http://www.pbase.com/image/4651021

Click to expand...

Great pic really shows the action....what was the lens and camera settings ?
Karl

Ray Oubre said:

Ray Oubre said:

After seeing all the debate on this board about the S2 not being a
good camera for sports, I thought I would post one of my shots up
here to see what you guys thought. All I shoot is motocross and I
have found the S2 to work very well. There are a few quirks with
the camera, but they are easy to overcome.

Let me know what you think of the photo.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

http://www.pbase.com/image/4651021

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Chris, great shot. What where your settings ?

Also, what were the quirks you encountered and how did you go about overcoming them ?
Congratulation on your camera.
Best.
-MG

The settings: 100 iso, 1000sec, f4.5 (bright sun)

The lens: oldschool Nikkor 180mm 2.8 (I'm getting an 80-200 2.8 afs in the next couple days)

The quirk I encountered was a lag when depressing the shutter. On some shots, after depressing the shutter release halfway, it wouldn't fire on the follow through. It usually happened after the camera was in auto-shutdown for a while. But after it "warmed up" I didn't have the problem again...until there was another break in shooting. It was anoying, but I was able to compensate for it by firing a "blank" just before the riders got to me.

The dust and dirt of shooting motocross is a concern to me as well, but I guess you just have to bite the bullet and take measures to keep your camera clean and avoid changing lenses out on the track.

If you want to get into shooting motocross I guess the best place to start is at a local track near you. Find out when they hold races, go there and ask the track owner for permission to shoot on the track. Long lenses are a must...I have found 200mm to be the perfect lens for MX. I also try to keep the shutter speed on the high side, usally 500 to 1000 (unless I'm shooting fill flash).

Hope this helps

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

Hi Chris,

Congrats on your S2. After telling us that this is your first digital
camera, it is with great relief that I note that you did'nt say that
this image is your first digital picture ( it is'nt .... Is it ?

I think I would have broken down weeping.
It would not have been a pretty sight ....

Absolutely great picture, nice work !

Keith

--
http://www.pbase.com/keith2

'If your ship does'nt come in, swim out to it'

Hi Chris,

Looks like a fantastic shot to me...

Am a relative beginner to Photography, and have only just purchased my S2.. its really refreshing to see some great shots...(The last couple of days seem to have seen many posts knocking the S2)

Its great to see one... showing what it can do....

Kindest regards.

Chris Hultner wrote:
)

Chris Hultner said:

After reading all the reviews and your comments here on the board I
decided to purchase an S2 Pro. I've only had the camera for one
week, but I couldn't be happier with my decision. This is my first
digital camera and it was not an easy decision to go digital—I have
been shooting film my whole life. After seeing the results from the
S2 I regrett not going digital sooner.

After seeing all the debate on this board about the S2 not being a
good camera for sports, I thought I would post one of my shots up
here to see what you guys thought. All I shoot is motocross and I
have found the S2 to work very well. There are a few quirks with
the camera, but they are easy to overcome.

Let me know what you think of the photo.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

http://www.pbase.com/image/4651021

Click to expand...

Chris,

Great action shots! Very clear.

For the POSSCOV shot, did you use flash there? If yes, was it front curtain synch? I just saw a bit of shadow there and wonder how you did that?

Thanks for sharing,
The'

Chris Hultner said:

After reading all the reviews and your comments here on the board I
decided to purchase an S2 Pro. I've only had the camera for one
week, but I couldn't be happier with my decision. This is my first
digital camera and it was not an easy decision to go digital—I have
been shooting film my whole life. After seeing the results from the
S2 I regrett not going digital sooner.

After seeing all the debate on this board about the S2 not being a
good camera for sports, I thought I would post one of my shots up
here to see what you guys thought. All I shoot is motocross and I
have found the S2 to work very well. There are a few quirks with
the camera, but they are easy to overcome.

Let me know what you think of the photo.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

http://www.pbase.com/image/4651021

Click to expand...

--
'To acheive immortality, share your knowledge'

Keith

Actually, I had never shot with any kind of digital camera before picking up the S2 Pro last week. I do know a lot of digital photographers and I have been asking them a lot of questions over the last 6 months. Plus I did a lot of research on the S2 before buying it.

The photo in question was shot the second day I had the camera. I went to a race the night before and I posted a couple of those pics as well @ http://www.pbase.com/mxwest/ .

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

This was shot about 20 minutes after sunset, while there was still a little glow in the sky. I shot it in manual, exposed for the sky and then stopped down a half stop. The Lens was a Nikkor 85mm f1.8 D. The flash was set to TTL at f4, front curtain, and the shutter speed was around a 15th sec. The shadow is caused by variations in panning with the rider.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

Chis,

You can change the delay after which the camera goes to sleep. Change it to 2 minutes, and you won't have this little problem anymore.

Outstanding pictures,

Seb.

Seb

Thanks for the tip. How, exactly, do you change it?

Chris

It is Custom setting number 12:

Turn the mode dial to CSM.
Power camera on

Rotate the dial under the top lcd display in the back of the camera until you read custom setting 12 in the menu. CSM 12 is called Auto power off.
Change it to 2 minutes with the dial under the shutter release button.

Seb.

Chris Hultner said:

Seb

Thanks for the tip. How, exactly, do you change it?

Chris

Click to expand...

Chris Hultner said:

........
The dust and dirt of shooting motocross is a concern to me as well,
but I guess you just have to bite the bullet and take measures to
keep your camera clean and avoid changing lenses out on the track.
......

Click to expand...

Hi Chris,

Great shot and great colours. But on the dust side, do I detect a few dust spots in this shot that could be cloned out with PS? Near the rider's elbow and along the skyline. Could be dust in the air but I am getting close to needing my first CCD clean myself and am becoming "paranoid" about dust spots
--
Doug Jones
Canberra
http://www.panamagic.com.au

Chriss,

Another great shot! Now a rookie question I have a 80 -200 3.5 nikkor how big a diffrence is there shooting with a 2.8 If I'am going to get serious about shooting outside action do I need to go invest in another lens? or can I get by with what I have for a while.Thanks and look forward to seeing more of your work.
Ray

Chris Hultner said:

This was shot about 20 minutes after sunset, while there was still
a little glow in the sky. I shot it in manual, exposed for the sky
and then stopped down a half stop. The Lens was a Nikkor 85mm f1.8
D. The flash was set to TTL at f4, front curtain, and the shutter
speed was around a 15th sec. The shadow is caused by variations in
panning with the rider.

Chris Hultner / Motocross West

Click to expand...

Ray

I personally think the best investment you can make in photography is in good glass. I do think it will improve the quality of your work to move up to, say, an 80-200 f2.8. I have been without that lens for a couple years, but when I did have one it was by far my favorite. It was bright, the contrast was great and the photos it produced were tack-sharp. My second favorite lens is my 300 2.8 for all the same reasons. Top quality lenses make all the difference.

Chris Hultner