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Is the D100 good for sport photo's

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mmartin

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I sold my Canon D30 because of the slow auto focus. Would
the D100 auto focus be good enough for sports photography.

Thanks
 
Before anyone replies... I have the same question. Even though it cant shoot the 8fps. Will it still capture just as good results as lets say a Canon 1d
mmartin said:
I sold my Canon D30 because of the slow auto focus. Would
the D100 auto focus be good enough for sports photography.

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
aflath said:
mmartin said:
I sold my Canon D30 because of the slow auto focus. Would
the D100 auto focus be good enough for sports photography.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
The Nikon D100 will do sports without much of a problem, but it would not me my camera of choice for the job. I shoot sporting events with a D1x and use the D100 as a backup. In my trials with the D100, it yielded very similar results (image quality wise) but was not as versitile in it's "cameraness." The D100 AF system is accurate - especially in low light, but it's not lightning fast by any means with it's built in cam900 AF system. I use the D100 with AFS lenses (comprable to Canon's high end USM lenses) and it makes up for the AF speed, allowing me to do indoor sports (ice hockey, etc.) without a problem.

Now comparing it to the 1D is not exactly fair as the 1Ds is made for sports (AF sensitivity, build, fps,) but image quality IMO is as good if not better with the D100 because of the rez and low noise at high ISO. You'll just get 3 good frames to the 1D's 3-5-8 good frames.

--
Regards,
Joe H.

PPA
---------------------------------------
http://www.biggerboatstudios.com

(Sarcasm Included - some assembly required.)
 
My 70mm to 300mm is very slow and often hunts when the light is low. On the otherhand my 24mm to 85mm f2.8 is very fast.
 
It sure does depend on the lens and the light levels.

The D100 needs more contrast to focus than Nikon's Cam 1300 cameras, thus it's focusing system thrives on fast, contrasty AF lenses in lower light, and fast, AFS teles for long shots in lower light (where the lens motor drives the AF). As for shooting a high speed sequence, only the pro cameras, like the Canon 1D and to a lesser extent, the Nikon D1H, can do that well.

I am coming to the conclusion that any lens slower than f2.8 is at risk of having autofocusing problems on the D100 as the outdoor light begins to fade at dusk, or in indoor sports shooting settings.

If all you need is the "decisive moment," the D100 should do quite well. Motor drives are not always the best way to capture to peak action moment, anyway. Your anticipation of that moment is the key. But it never hurts to fire away with free digital film with the hope of catching something unexpected.

I tested the D100 this summer at a major league baseball game in Pittsburgh, PA, and got some great shots from 30 rows into the stands with a slow-focusing 300 f4 AF with 1.4X Tamron extender (630 mm FOV) on a monopod. (Note, this is not the newer AFS model.) In good, contrasty lighting situations like a day baseball game, I had no problems whatsoever getting quick and sure focusing, and decent action sequences.

Whereas, by contrast (no pun intended), even with the F100's faster focusing system, this 300mm AF lens without the extender had a lot of trouble recently in Mexico shooting Brown Pelicans flying in formation and low over the deep blue ocean in the late afternoon, the best shooting time. Wrong lens for top notch AF action performance. Can anybody trade me for one of the new AFS 300mm f4s?
bdougr said:
My 70mm to 300mm is very slow and often hunts when the light is
low. On the otherhand my 24mm to 85mm f2.8 is very fast.
Click to expand...
--
Bill Adams
http://www.pbase.com/bill_adams
 
Thanks for the advice. I bought my D100 last night.
The few snaps I took in my house last night already told the the
autofocus is much better then my D30.
My first real test will be sunday at the Bengals, Steelers game.
 
……… the D100 uses the CAM900 AF engine which is not a powerful beastie at all. It will have difficulty pushing those telephoto lenses so beloved of sports photographers. The best chance one has is with AF-S lenses.

Tracking is also rather hit and miss on the D100, it works but even for slow fashion show type events it failed to keep up on the run and I found, once the model stopped, the second and subsequent shots were adequately sharp. That means that in the circumstances I was in last night, with the D100 and 80~200mm D (non AF-S* AF-S lens is highly recommended, I am currently awaiting delivery of one) lens tracking a model iin C-AF as she walked towards me and I shot four on the move, all OOF, she stopped and I continued shooting a further four shots, the first was very slightly OOF and the rest were focussed accurately.

If one translates this in a sport, similar results may be expected – however, one may be further away in a typical football match ergo, like for like the performance at the football match will be better.

I tend to find that the D100 will S-AF close focus dynamic very well and swiftly. This is a single shot mode, even if the camera is in continuous shooting – so this may prove very useful – a little experimentation will reveal a lot.

As for the D60 v the D100 in AF, the D100 is noticeable better all round and has better low light performance – so one should see an improvement if the D60 was “just not enough”.
mmartin said:
I sold my Canon D30 because of the slow auto focus. Would
the D100 auto focus be good enough for sports photography.

Thanks
Click to expand...
--
Firmware -- the straw that .......
 
http://www.pbase.com/image/5608229/medium

D100, Tokina 80-200, shutter priority, continuous autofocus

Are there faster cameras out there? Undoubtedly. But the D100 fills the bill for me. Another photo I shot at this game was just published in my local paper this morning.
 
Well now that I know you are interested in football you might not be interested in my contribution...also you bought the camera which is a good thing; the first weekend I had my D100 I was at the national gymnastics championships indoors no flash poor light; I shot at about 500-600 ISO; here is an example: http://www.pbase.com/image/3833616 ; I was very impressed with how much like my N80 the camera responded as well as the resulting image quality...though it is probably not as fast as that more expensive Canon cousin...it may rival image quality

good luck and post some pics!

ps I did have a 2.3 lens leftover from my film days
 
Great shot Kevin, I will be at the Bengals, Steelers game sunday, hope to do as good.
 
mmartin said:
I sold my Canon D30 because of the slow auto focus. Would
the D100 auto focus be good enough for sports photography.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi I use the d100 with af-s 80 200 f2.8 lens for soocer, volleyball, etc. Love it. Cam 900 sometimes shows it's sluggishness, but overal very happy. Below is a link to a recent UCLA womens volleyball match.

shot everything without flash, iso 1600, f2.8. Suprised how low the noise was and was still able to keep relatively decent shutter speeds.

http://www.pbase.com/shc52/ucla_womens_volleyball
 
Use of AFS lenses makes a huge difference on this camera. I have been using the 300F4 AFS lens with excellent results, no comparison to the 70-300 zoom or non-afs 80-200 lens that I rented to try out.

Some photos in both daylight and low-light (ISO1600-3200) can be found by following the link on this webpage that takes you to my photoreflect site. On the main site http://www.mvpshots.com you can see some samples at the bottom of the page and there is also a link to a full size file so you can see the detail that is available with this combo. The photoreflect site compresses your images alot so the ISO1600-3200 don't look great here but I have printed some and they are very nice up to 8x10 size. The best high ISO examples are under th "Penn vs. Saginaw" listing.
 
mmartin said:
Great shot Kevin, I will be at the Bengals, Steelers game sunday,
hope to do as good.
Click to expand...
I would love the opportunity to shoot an NFL game. But, I'm just getting started in the published arena. I have a meeting with the photo editor at my local paper, and he wants me to shoot a H.S. game friday night.

Gotta start somewhere.
 
As you can see I do not own a D100, but from what Nikon makes, I have the closest thing to it as far as focus speed goes. I shoot my N80 with my Nikkor 70-300ED all the time for races and track events. I use a monopod and it work great. All the pictures of cars on the track in this gallery http://www.pbase.com/daytontp/pca_cmp_oct2002 were taken with this combination. I used Fuji NPH 400 color negative film. I then scanned the negatives with an Epson 1650 Photo scanner. In the type of light conditions I get shooting, I have no problems at all, unless something get between he and the subject, like a fence. Many of these other galleries were shot with Fuji Superia ISO 200 film in the daylight with this zoom lens.

--
Dayton http://www.pbase.com/daytontp/
Nikon N80 w/ MB-16 Grip
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Nikkor 70-300 f/4-5.6D ED
Sigma 28-105 f/2.8-4 Asp
 
I have used the d100 to shoot various sporting events including
road racing and bicycle motocross (BMX).

Here are links to some of my web pages:
2002 Valvoline Runoffs at Mid Ohio Sports Car Course
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/runoffs/runoff.htm
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/runoffs/runoff2.htm
BMX
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/bmx2.htm

The lens used for all of these shots is the 70-300 G.

-Cheers,
-Wayne
daytontp said:
As you can see I do not own a D100, but from what Nikon makes, I
have the closest thing to it as far as focus speed goes. I shoot
my N80 with my Nikkor 70-300ED all the time for races and track
events. I use a monopod and it work great. All the pictures of
cars on the track in this gallery
http://www.pbase.com/daytontp/pca_cmp_oct2002 were taken with this
combination. I used Fuji NPH 400 color negative film. I then
scanned the negatives with an Epson 1650 Photo scanner. In the
type of light conditions I get shooting, I have no problems at all,
unless something get between he and the subject, like a fence.
Many of these other galleries were shot with Fuji Superia ISO 200
film in the daylight with this zoom lens.

--
Dayton http://www.pbase.com/daytontp/
Nikon N80 w/ MB-16 Grip
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Nikkor 70-300 f/4-5.6D ED
Sigma 28-105 f/2.8-4 Asp
Click to expand...
 
Great shots Kevin, Ger Bee seems too caught up in the technology and forgets what a little preshot planning can do........... Possibly I have listened to him posture for too long.

Mark http://www.pbase.com/image/5648951/large


Kevin said:
mmartin said:
Great shot Kevin, I will be at the Bengals, Steelers game sunday,
hope to do as good.
Click to expand...
I would love the opportunity to shoot an NFL game. But, I'm just
getting started in the published arena. I have a meeting with the
photo editor at my local paper, and he wants me to shoot a H.S.
game friday night.

Gotta start somewhere.
Click to expand...
 
Some of the best sports pix I ever made (and had published in Sports Illustrated) were with a non-motorized Nikon F and a 400mm pre-set Kilfit lens.

Autofocus came in just as my eyes went!
 
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