URGENT:HELP/ADVICE USING DYNAMIC AF WITH D700/D300S

good day fellow shooters..after all these years i'm still learning nikon's af system.i have an upcoming shoot photographing fast moving dancers/hip hop performers and want to know if any of you can share some of your experiences using the dynamic af modes on the d700/d300s cameras for fast, erratic/unpredictable subjects.i'm a big fan of using af-c single point with 11pt/21pt options..i like to manually select my own af point..but at times my subjects are too fast for me to select the desired points,and was wondering if dynamic af is a trusted option..i tried it a couple of times and failed miserably..focused on wrong subjects to many times.looking for help/advice to properly use dynamic af. the samples posted below were shot using af-c single point.. i like this mode..but for REALLY fast unpredictable subjects..i'm not good enough to always toggle the af point on my intended target..the 2 pictures of the skateboarders is one example,they were moving VERY FAST AND CHANGING DIRECTION..and i couldn't toggle my af point to their faces quickly enough..i gave up and set my d300s/d700 to 3d auto area af..and was surprised the camera nailed the shots..and "saved" me.is dynamic af useful in that situation?any advice/input greatly appreciated.


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nikonshooter


shot using af-c single point af..i manually toggled the af point on her face


fast moving dancer twisting and turning shot in af-c mode single point af manually toggled on her eye


af-c single point..center point used


used 3d auto area af here,was surprised that the camera actually nailed this..the skate boarders were moving REALLY fast and changing direction..i couldn't manually select MY desired af point quickly enough so i turned it over to the camera ..i have no idea what af point the camera used,but it came out sharp


same as the above picture,3d auto area af mode


af-c using single point af manually toggled on the mans face


af-c single point

Here is a very good primer on using a multi-cam 3500 AF camera like the d300/d700/d800 for sporting events. Most of his tips can be easily adapted to most any kind of shooting that involves moving subjects. http://johnfriend.blogspot.com/

good luck

Kerry

Glad that I could be of some help. Thanks for the very kind comments.

Kerry