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X-T1 any good for sport photography ?

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philippe luyckx

philippe luyckx

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I'd like to change my heavy Canon equipment for something much smaller and lighter but i do need it to be efficient for sport photography.I was thinking of buying the new Canon 7d mark2 which is supposed to work perfectly with my very fast Canon 70-300mm L but it's going to weight more then 2kgs.

I was first thinking of an Olympus OMD-EM1 with lenses like the new 700mm f/4 , 40-150mm f/2.8 but now i'm thinking of the Fuji X-T1 which looks like it could do the job , i read that it had a good speedy AF and efficient AF-C .

Does anyone have any experience shooting fast events like motorsport ? any pics ?

I'm just a bit scared about the ergonomics , don't like the position of the ISO button , i do often like to control this manually...impossible while composing without leave the eye from the viewfinder.
 
I can only comment on image quality on these two cameras: If you have once worked with Fuji X-Trans RAWs you might be unhappy with micro 4/3 RAWs. I wouldn't have thought it if I hadn't used both cameras. More detail and better color out of the Fuji 16MP immo.
 
I think it's more in the realm of "can do a bit of sports photography" rather than "made for sports photography".

When you're comfortable with the camera, you can go full manual with it up to your eye. Things that seem fiddly at first become non-issues with practice.
 
It's not as fast as a DSLR but it certainly is good enough for most situations...



58108aa6e1e84cfe9a36a97fd3ae93fe.jpg



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www.juliussantosphotography.com
 
This picture is not a situation to demonstrate a fast camera. Since your object in motorsport is not sitting at one point (like this Golf player) you need a fast autofocus. At this picture you focused at the man and press the shutter after he punched the ball. So the fact that the racket is sharp has nothing to do with a fast camera. It is only based on the Shutterspeed which was 1/125.

At the moment I have some trouble with the X-T1 and fast Autofocus. It is very unsteady at differs from situation to situation. In sunlight it is very fast. In low light it is so unsteady that I can't say on which situation which speed is based on. But very often it is very slow. Especially on moving objects (which does not mean they have to move fast) I get often focus issues. I am testing...
 
philippe luyckx said:
I'm just a bit scared about the ergonomics , don't like the position of the ISO button , i do often like to control this manually...impossible while composing without leave the eye from the viewfinder.
Click to expand...
The viewfinder displays the ISO as you change it, so you can see where the knob is with your eye on the finder. You'll get faster at it with use, especially if your just moving it a stop or three.

You might try to rent one first.
 
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I don't think the Olympus has the high ISO chops to handle sports, not when compared to the Canon 7D Mk II or a Fuji X-trans sensor.

I use an XE-1 all the time for sports, but with manual focus lenses which is the hard way to do it. I can't speak to Fuji's autofocus speed. I image most folks will be using autofocus for sports. Part of the performance will come from the camera and partly from the lens itself.





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philippe luyckx said:
I'd like to change my heavy Canon equipment for something much smaller and lighter but i do need it to be efficient for sport photography.I was thinking of buying the new Canon 7d mark2 which is supposed to work perfectly with my very fast Canon 70-300mm L but it's going to weight more then 2kgs.

I was first thinking of an Olympus OMD-EM1 with lenses like the new 700mm f/4 , 40-150mm f/2.8 but now i'm thinking of the Fuji X-T1 which looks like it could do the job , i read that it had a good speedy AF and efficient AF-C .

Does anyone have any experience shooting fast events like motorsport ? any pics ?

I'm just a bit scared about the ergonomics , don't like the position of the ISO button , i do often like to control this manually...impossible while composing without leave the eye from the viewfinder.
Click to expand...
 
To the OP: So, to sum up this discussion, the XT-1 is not much good for sport photography, unless it is muscle-building where the participants are striking poses. You are thinking wishfully. Stick with the Canon and its lenses, like most pros.
 
It can be done, but it depends on the sport. I don't use AF lenses, so I cannot comment their performance. My guess is that they do pretty well outdoors in adequate sunlight. I use manual focus lenses for my sports work because its the fastest lenses I have for night sports.





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Whitesands said:
https://flic.kr/p/o4h7mh

https://flic.kr/p/o4c2We

https://flic.kr/p/mxk4TR

https://flic.kr/p/mBiN7a

Look how awful it is for motor sports

http://www.brianwhite.com.au/2014/06/fujifilm-xt-1-motocross/
Click to expand...
Really nice work and further proves that most of the comments about the X-T1 being poor for sports are likely from people who've never really tried to master it. Are higher end DSLRs (e.g. Canon 7DMkII) better at shooting action, particularly in low light conditions? Probably yes (for now at least). However, once you've come to terms with how to set the X-T1 up for action and become accustomed to dealing with a small amount of VF lag, the X-T1 can do a fantastic job with action, as witnessed by these images.
 
Whitesands said:
https://flic.kr/p/o4h7mh

https://flic.kr/p/o4c2We

https://flic.kr/p/mxk4TR

https://flic.kr/p/mBiN7a

Look how awful it is for motor sports

http://www.brianwhite.com.au/2014/06/fujifilm-xt-1-motocross/
Click to expand...
With all due respect, the home plate baseball images at the four links Whitesands provided don't prove much about the general sports performance of the X-T1. Nor do all the other pictures posted so far on this thread, EXCEPT for those terrific manual focus action shots of night time football. If you're willing to mount high speed MF lenses on your -T1 like AdHoc did, and are willing to hone the kind of ability required to get shots like those (viz., sharp reflexes, the ability to anticipate peak movement and to figure out where on the field the key plays will occur), then I'd say yes, you can use the -T1 to shoot sports.

Even the motorcross shots, as fine and action packed as those are, don't tell me much about the camera's ability to provide quick and accurate AF for sports where the speed and direction of movement are highly erratic and unpredictable. I'm talking, for example, sports like football, soccer, rugby, water polo.

However, the OP did mention motorcross specifically, so if that's your main concern, I cede the point.

IMO, I think one would be better off with a Canon or Nikon DSLR, where you already have a broad selection of high speed tele primes and tele zooms, many with OIS. If one were to commit to the Fuji X system now, I think he might have a long wait, not only for Fuji's AF to reach a feasible level for satisfactory capture of a broad range of fast activities, but also for the kind of high performance AF lenses required for photographically challenging sports like the ones I've mentioned above.
 
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These pictures are great.
But they don't show a fast camera. They show a camera with fast shutter speed. Nearly every camera can take these shots.
So a fast camera in my eyes mean a fast Autofocus. So get a shot of a football player which runs directly toward you. And get this with autofocus. These baseball player stay at one place. You have time to focus and press the shutter in the right time. All what changes between sharp and unsharpen is the shutter speed. The focus distance on this pictures doesn't change. So this is not special for a camera to take this shots. Also with the motorcross. The motorbike have to pass the same corner every round. So no problem to get the right focus. Just press the shutter in the right moment. So I think football player which doesn't run parallel to you is hard work for a camera.
I would like to see pictures like that. Yes I can't take it. But I am interesting in what the X-T1 can do.
 
Jensano said:
These pictures are great.
But they don't show a fast camera. They show a camera with fast shutter speed. Nearly every camera can take these shots.
So a fast camera in my eyes mean a fast Autofocus. So get a shot of a football player which runs directly toward you. And get this with autofocus. These baseball player stay at one place. You have time to focus and press the shutter in the right time. All what changes between sharp and unsharpen is the shutter speed. The focus distance on this pictures doesn't change. So this is not special for a camera to take this shots. Also with the motorcross. The motorbike have to pass the same corner every round. So no problem to get the right focus. Just press the shutter in the right moment. So I think football player which doesn't run parallel to you is hard work for a camera.
I would like to see pictures like that. Yes I can't take it. But I am interesting in what the X-T1 can do.
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OK. Here are a couple of links that you might want to check out. Both are concerned with action photography using an X-T1, but the first involved a direct comparison with Canon. See if this doesn't change your perspective a bit:

https://bencherryphotos.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F90442938726

http://www.lightwith.me/how-to-shoot-sports-with-a-fuji-x-e2-and-x-t1/

I have taken some test images of bicycles heading right for me using my X-T1 and 55-200 lens and have managed a keeper rate of around 80% or so. I'd probably do better if I was better at tracking head on movement with an EVF. It can be a bit tricky as you have to learn to anticipate movement just a bit, but it's doable and more than one pro has seen success with it, including the couple of examples here. Also, as the second article emphasizes, settings are critical. High Performance, Pre-AF, VF image display off, etc are all critical for success.

Hope this helps.
 
These pictures are impressive. Mostly the ones with the dogs.

On lightwith.me he mentioned the important things to make the camera as fast as it can. I have all these settings done. But Pre AF + AF-C? Don't know what this combination should do. Pre AF simply does continous focus without pressing a button. AF-C does continous focus while holding the shutter at the first stop. So after holding shutter at first stop, Pre AF does not take effect in AF-C mode. So these modes are the same but activation is diferent.

I definitely try out my XT-1 in this Continous modes and test it. Something that I realize is that if the focus area is to small the amount of slow focus is higher. Lightwithme mentioned it too.
 
Jensano said:
These pictures are impressive. Mostly the ones with the dogs.

On lightwith.me he mentioned the important things to make the camera as fast as it can. I have all these settings done. But Pre AF + AF-C? Don't know what this combination should do. Pre AF simply does continous focus without pressing a button. AF-C does continous focus while holding the shutter at the first stop. So after holding shutter at first stop, Pre AF does not take effect in AF-C mode. So these modes are the same but activation is diferent.
Click to expand...
Good question... not certain as to the answer other than the fact that Pre AF would possibly allow you to lock focus more quickly since it tracks in advance. Possibly others who've used both modes can comment on how they work together.
Jensano said:
I definitely try out my XT-1 in this Continous modes and test it. Something that I realize is that if the focus area is to small the amount of slow focus is higher. Lightwithme mentioned it too.
Click to expand...
If you've been using S rather than C mode, then any difficulties you've had in tracking are easily explainable. By the time you took the shot, your subject may have well been out of focus. So C mode is critical for tracking. The focus point size is also important since tracking (particularly with a little EVF lag) is challenging. The only caveat is that if you have a busy background, the AF system can get more easily confused and lose acquisition on your subject. You'll have to experiment with different point sizes and subjects to find a formula that works for you.

Bottom line, a number of credible pros have made a big commitment to the X-T1 for action photography. I would never argue that it can keep up for all types of action photography with a good DSLR coupled with a good quality lens. However, I believe strongly that the DSLR's reign in this area will be very short-lived... maybe one or two more generations will do the trick IMHO and best of class mirrorless AF will be competitive across the board.
 
Jerry-astro said:
If you've been using S rather than C mode, then any difficulties you've had in tracking are easily explainable. By the time you took the shot, your subject may have well been out of focus. So C mode is critical for tracking.
Click to expand...
I'm not shure. I took single shoots with AF-C indoor (low light) on people which doesn't move fast and it takes much longer to get the image than in AF-S mode. In AF-C mode focus has not been done completly after pressing to the first stop. When you press down completly there happen something to the focus again. I thought AF-C brings focus near to the point the focus has to be. So after pressing down the focus have to be modified only a little bit I thought. You see the pulsation in AF-C mode? So this seems it is brought in position to do the rest very fast.

My thinking of AF-C has some mistakes.
 
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