D-100 Tracking

Larry Hickmott · Oct 21, 2002

One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

Joe Hoddinott · Oct 21, 2002

The D100 AF tracking is acceptable for most things with AFS/HSM lenses. The camera seems less certain when using it's in-body motor.

The 50-500 would be a good choice for a low priced mega zoom, but I don't particularly care for that lens for many reasons, outside of image quality, which is good to satisfactory. Do a forum search for some detailed accounts of the 50-500.

--
Regards,
Joe H.

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

(Sarcasm Included - some assembly required.)

mx5 · Oct 21, 2002

Larry,

Not exactly the type of cycle racing that you are interested
in....however....

Take a look at:
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/bmx2.htm

I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

My primary application for the D100 is motorsports photography.
See:
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/runoffs/runoff.htm
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/runoffs/runoff2.htm

My estimation is that about 3% of my sports shots
are out of focus. I attribute that to operator error.

-Cheers,
-Wayne

Larry Hickmott said:
One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of
subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed
opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the
Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long
lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for
this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any
thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

Gabriele Sartori · Oct 21, 2002

mx5 said:
I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

Same here I bought that lens for fun (waiting for the wife approval for an AFS or HSM lens) and I was amazed by the continuos focus tracking.

I bought it import at B&H for $99. The construction is worse than any Sigma or TOkina but optically is very decent and the tracking works for me

--
Regards
Gabriele Sartori

John Parham · Oct 21, 2002

I use my Tamron 70-300mm and 1.4tc for football in continuous focus. It works just fine. Everything is in focus accept my panning shots (I need more practice). I will sell this lens and get the Sigma 50-500 in the Spring. Just in time for lacrosse season. Will give the Tamron an extensive workout this weekend down at the Duke Tournament.

Gabriele Sartori said:
mx5 said:

I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

Click to expand...

Same here I bought that lens for fun (waiting for the wife approval
for an AFS or HSM lens) and I was amazed by the continuos focus
tracking.
I bought it import at B&H for $99. The construction is worse than
any Sigma or TOkina but optically is very decent and the tracking
works for me

--
Regards
Gabriele Sartori

--
Dr. John

w4npx · Oct 21, 2002

I would say that tracking is excellent (continuous focus) using a Nikon 28-105 AF D lens. I have been shooting packs of dogs running at very high speed directly at the camera (retreiving a ball). Getting perfect focus and great pictures shooting at about 1500 to 2000th sec, F9 to F11 and ISO 400 to 800--zooming the whole time the dogs are running and it still follows focus.

Bob

Larry Hickmott said:
One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of
subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed
opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the
Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long
lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for
this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any
thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

Larry Hickmott · Oct 22, 2002

Thanks Wayne -- actually BMX is a sport that comes under my "breif" and I just interviewed a guy over there in the states, Jamie Staff, who just won at Tampa and also represented GB on the track in Denmark. Great pix!

Thanks to all for the replies.. I'll keep an eye out for the lens too -- was thinking of the 50-500 but may get away with the Nikon and an extension?

Larry

mx5 said:
Not exactly the type of cycle racing that you are interested
in....however....

Take a look at:
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/bmx2.htm

I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

My primary application for the D100 is motorsports photography.
See:
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/runoffs/runoff.htm
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/runoffs/runoff2.htm

My estimation is that about 3% of my sports shots
are out of focus. I attribute that to operator error.

-Cheers,
-Wayne

Larry Hickmott said:

One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of
subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed
opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the
Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long
lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for
this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any
thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

Click to expand...

SoftD100 · Oct 22, 2002

well the d100 will never compare to a real camera like a f100,f5,d1 etc but it is okay depending on the lens and the light ,but i think maybe my f801 is sometime better but it will be far better than a e20(even though e20 is awsome camera)

manual focus is as good as you are !!!

Larry Hickmott said:
One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of
subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed
opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the
Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long
lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for
this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any
thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

Joe Jensen · Oct 22, 2002

How do you have the focus modes set? I currently shoot with only the center focus area active, continuous focus...joe

Gabriele Sartori said:
mx5 said:

I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

Click to expand...

Same here I bought that lens for fun (waiting for the wife approval
for an AFS or HSM lens) and I was amazed by the continuos focus
tracking.
I bought it import at B&H for $99. The construction is worse than
any Sigma or TOkina but optically is very decent and the tracking
works for me

--
Regards
Gabriele Sartori

michaeladawson · Oct 22, 2002

You seem to be implying the D100 is not a real camera. It is obviously not as good as the cameras you mention but I think it's a bit of hyperbole to suggest it's not a real camera.

SoftD100 said:
well the d100 will never compare to a real camera like a f100,f5,d1
etc but it is okay depending on the lens and the light ,but i think
maybe my f801 is sometime better but it will be far better than a
e20(even though e20 is awsome camera)

manual focus is as good as you are !!!

Jeikei · Oct 22, 2002

michaeladawson said:
SoftD100 said:

well the d100 will never compare to a real camera like a f100,f5,d1
etc but it is okay depending on the lens and the light ,but i think
maybe my f801 is sometime better but it will be far better than a
e20(even though e20 is awsome camera)

manual focus is as good as you are !!!

Click to expand...

As I'm taking pics' at the ice arenas (which means bad light etc) I'm pretty happy with D100. I shoot mostly with 80-200/2.8 AFS. This shot was taken couple of weeks back in an international figure skating competition here in Helsinki, Finland. Yes, I know it's not tacky sharp but the results suit my needs so I don't complain.

http://www.skategrafix.com/testi.htm

Happy shooting

Jyrki

Group Idiot · Oct 22, 2002

JeiKei said:
As I'm taking pics' at the ice arenas (which means bad light etc)
I'm pretty happy with D100. I shoot mostly with 80-200/2.8 AFS.
This shot was taken couple of weeks back in an international figure
skating competition here in Helsinki, Finland. Yes, I know it's not
tacky sharp but the results suit my needs so I don't complain.

http://www.skategrafix.com/testi.htm

Only a few of the real "anal" types would think that's not a satisfactory. It looks pretty sharp to me.

These freaks that think cameras like the D100 and Canon D60 are not "real cameras" need to take a lesson from the large format and Leica users.

"If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all"--(my momma).

Compared to A LOT of cameras, the D1-series, F5, and F100 are toys and are not professional or serious cameras--or so many would say.

Brendan
--

Newbie requests inspection and critique of new photos at: http://www.pbase.com/bgetchel/root

Ger Bee · Oct 22, 2002

-------------- the tracking is not great on the D100 with standard D lenses.

It is better with AF-S lenses.

It is likely to be poor with other lenses.

It like F2.8 or better.

Even if you feed it all these it is still not a great tracker, however, distance and speed all play a part - cyclists are very, very fast as one tends to be closer to them and so on.

--
A new me .................

))

Ger Bee · Oct 22, 2002

mx5 said:
I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

This IS tracking -- it's automatic once C-AF is engaged.

Ger Bee · Oct 22, 2002

you motorsport shots are not employing any significant tracking and should not represent a problem. You are demonstrating a good panning technique and the lens has to focus over a small area and is no challenge for the D100.

Your bike shots, head on are indeed pretty impressive and provided they were actually tracked – then this shows the capabilities to good effect.

Larry Hickmott · Oct 22, 2002

If I can results like that from a Nikon D100 shooting inside cycling velodromes where the E20 let me down big time at the Commonwealth Games, then I'll be more than pleased. Excellent image and thanks for your input to my question.

Jeikei said:
As I'm taking pics' at the ice arenas (which means bad light etc)
I'm pretty happy with D100. I shoot mostly with 80-200/2.8 AFS.
This shot was taken couple of weeks back in an international figure
skating competition here in Helsinki, Finland. Yes, I know it's not
tacky sharp but the results suit my needs so I don't complain.

http://www.skategrafix.com/testi.htm

Happy shooting

Jyrki

Ger Bee · Oct 22, 2002

-------------- the D100 is what it is -------- it suits some and not others, others again, like myself, can see the other posters point of view and I actually agree with it – but I do like my D100 but I don’t feel the urge to defend her honour – I think she does that well enough herself.

Baywing · Oct 22, 2002

I have used the 80-200 F2.8 EDIF-D on my D100 to shoot moving aircraft and have yet to have the camera fail to track. Granted, the aircraft are old and slow, under 100mph, and the day is bright, but the results are good. No comparison to that lens on my F5, but it works well for me. My non-AFS lens seems to work just fine thank you, and I don't have that annoying lock-up problem that seems to be mentioned here with regularity.

Larry Hickmott said:
One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of
subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed
opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the
Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long
lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for
this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any
thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

Darrel60784 · Oct 22, 2002

I would think that the D100 should track fine although I'm no expert. I am looking very seriously at the D100 and will probably end up with one soon. I shot this and more with my cheap little CP995. I would think the D100 would do even better.

Larry Hickmott said:
One of the subjects mentioned here has been the tracking of
subjects using auto focus by the D-100. There seems to be mixed
opinions. I shoot cycle racing (pedal, not motor) and find the
Olympus E-20 is hit and miss and I want the facility to use long
lenses.

Can anyone using the D-100 confirm that it would be suitable for
this type of sports photography?

Also, the Sigma 50-500mm lens has been recommended to me so any
thoughts on that would also be appreciated.

And if tracking is not 100 per cent, what's the manual focus like?

Larry Hickmott
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk

mx5 · Oct 22, 2002

Thanks Gerard,

I wanted to keep it simple...likely a mistake.

The mode I use is AF-C . What I call
continuous-servo mode. Single area AF was selected.
I did not think I was using "Predictive Focus Tracking".
I could (easily) be wrong. A glance at the D100 owners
manual did not satisfy me that Predictive Focus Tracking
is avoidable.

To be even more specific about the focus mode I use:
Closest Subject Priority: Off
Focus Area Selection: Manual

As for the motorsports photos.... The range was changing
greatly in a significant number of the shots that I have taken.
If you are interested in motorsports, also see:
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/msport/worscca.htm
http://home.woh.rr.com/mx5/msport/worscca2.htm

-Cheers,
-Wayne

Gerard. said:
Ger Bee said:

I use the cheap nikon 70-300 G lens ($150 here in the States).
For sports I use the contunious focus mode (no special tracking).

Click to expand...

This IS tracking -- it's automatic once C-AF is engaged.

D-100 Tracking

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