Sports / Wildlife - shooting - 1/8000th sec, SD1M (Merrill)...

ELSOK4ME wrote:

Hello:

As I think more about my SD1M (Merrill) camera, and "limitations" (or 'perceived') short comings, I was thinking, for the camera being able to shoot at the high shutter speed of:

1/8000th of a second, (which is pretty FAST to me), wondering WHY (myself of course included), there are NOT many - hardly any "sports / wildlife" actions types of shots, with that camera?

If the camera's designs are providing us (owners / users) - doesn't it seem "logical" that we should be able to (would be), using this camera for those types of scenes / subjects?

We also have the ability on the other end of the spectrum, to (default) shoot - B (Bulb) = 30 secs, and IF we enable the "Extended Mode" - up to 120 secs (2 minutes).

Now, as previously discussed, shooting with the Higher ISO (beyond) ISO 800 - there is a mix bag of opinions on the IQ capable - as the resulting noise levels are too "unusable".

So, just thinking, nothing at all scientific - IF all these potential "settings" are available for us to choose from, must be (perhaps), the Foveon sensor, IS NOT quite able to (designed to), adequately capture things / photos - at those extremes of settings?

Sort of a sad bummer, per se, in that IF the engineer's included those available setting, I would tend to think then, we should reasonably produce decent photos.

Any thoughts? (Examples)?

Hi Ed

What you describe as the highest shutter speed available is not intrinsically related to sports widllife. Most cameras, film included have been reaching this number for decades. As you may know with mechanical curtain shutters, the highest speed you get is the flash sync i.e 1/200 in the case of the SD1M. This is the fastest speed you can reach to have the full window open at one single time to illuminate the sensor (or film in the past). The fastest SLR I know and had was the Minolta 9xi which reached 1/300 sync and a very fast 1/12000!!!

These high shutters exist to be used on extreme situations i.e you are in the tropics, bright sunshine, with a very fast lens, want to use shallow DOF f2.0 or less and you can easily have to crank up the speed to find the right pairing for exposure.

Bear in mind that above the sync speed the exposure will not be made at the full window, that is a slit will run down the sensor film to expose it. For instance if you use 1/1600, the slit will be 1/8 of the horizontal length, running down pretty fast.
The mecahnical shutter of the SD1 is very capable, one of the very best and will have no problems whatsoever to perform adequately.

So... Sports, Wildlife, what are the limitations of the SD1 / Sigma? They reside mostly on the AF capability which struggles... a lot. In most of these situations you will be using a long lens 200mm and above (with or without OS) for which you are trying to follow the action very quickly. No way you will be able to compete with a Sony A99II that has 80??? focusing points and will always find something to shoot at, any type of moving object.

A sunny day in Masai Mara National Park you can use ISO100 easily plus any f stop with any very capable Sigma tele and SD1. Will you get the shot of the lion charging towards you? Unlikely. You will be eaten before the SD1 can find a locking point and if you use burst you will run out of shots in 10 seconds and will have to go for lunch before you can use the SD1 again.

Sports outdoors is the same as the Masai Mara situation without being eaten. If you go for artificial lighting on evening night sports indoors / outdoors, you start having limitations on the ISO capability of the Foveon. In order to get a decent shutter speed to be used with a tele lens 1/200 and above, you are looking at ISOs of 800 plus. That will never be good enough... plus the AF will be struggling even more in low light.

You should avoid using very high shutter speeds for action sports and wildlife, because of the "slit" movement of the shutter you will end up with deformed objects specially if they are moving horizontally in your frame.

Thanks for your time,

Have a nice day / evening -

Ed

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