Rhythmic gymnastics team show

I had a photo pass for a retirement show of the Bulgarian rhythmic gymnastics team (olympic medalists from Rio 2016). So I got Canon 1D mk IV with Canon 70-200 IS II and Samsung NX500 with 85 1.4.

It turns out that most of the time I did not had enough light with the Canon's @ 3200 ISO and 2.8 to get at least 1/200 sec. So I used Samsung combo from time to time and even that the focus was slower I got some good pictures:

They are all good, but I really like the first shot, excellent work

3 excellent images. Nice work.

ErikSnel wrote:

Nice shots!

I tried taking some pictures at a ballroom dancing competition but had quite a struggle with the focus. I used my NX30 with the 18-200 lens.

What lens did you use? And which settings for AF?

I recently acquired an NX500 with a 16-50PZ lens, looking forward to taking pictures at the next competition (this Sunday), so hope you can help!

You can't do that for such pictures with 5.6 zoom lens, as I stated even 2.8 pro zoom was not enough. Samsung 45 1.8 is a nice start if you are not that far away.

85 1.4 Samsung lens with AF, most of the time normal focusing as it was too dark for the continuous to work better.

Very nice photos! The 85mm is a nice lens, but focus can be slow or miss sometimes.

VisualFX wrote:

Very nice photos! The 85mm is a nice lens, but focus can be slow or miss sometimes.

I wonder if shooting in 4k and capturing frames would work better in this instance? Focus seems to be better when shooting video for some reason.

ErikSnel wrote:

Nice shots!

I tried taking some pictures at a ballroom dancing competition but had quite a struggle with the focus. I used my NX30 with the 18-200 lens.

There is the problem right there, 18-200 is too dark and has trouble focusing because of it, which is ironic because the AF VCM (voice coil motor) is actually very fast.

What lens did you use? And which settings for AF?

85mm f/1.4, I don't know his AF settings of course ^_^.

I recently acquired an NX500 with a 16-50PZ lens, looking forward to taking pictures at the next competition (this Sunday), so hope you can help!

noncho wrote:

ErikSnel wrote:

Nice shots!

I tried taking some pictures at a ballroom dancing competition but had quite a struggle with the focus. I used my NX30 with the 18-200 lens.

What lens did you use? And which settings for AF?

I recently acquired an NX500 with a 16-50PZ lens, looking forward to taking pictures at the next competition (this Sunday), so hope you can help!

You can't do that for such pictures with 5.6 zoom lens,

It's worse, on the long end it is f/6.3, it is the 50-200 that is f/5.6.

as I stated even 2.8 pro zoom was not enough. Samsung 45 1.8 is a nice start if you are not that far away.

85 1.4 Samsung lens with AF, most of the time normal focusing as it was too dark for the continuous to work better.

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markyboy81 wrote:

VisualFX wrote:

Very nice photos! The 85mm is a nice lens, but focus can be slow or miss sometimes.

I wonder if shooting in 4k and capturing frames would work better in this instance? Focus seems to be better when shooting video for some reason.

It definitely is, which I find infuriating sometimes because it is clearly an algorithmic difference that they could have fixed.

Things to consider when comparing stills and video af performance

1. Video does not suffer from issues related to delay between af measurement and shutter actually closing and opening and closing - in video it has already taken the image 
2. In video the aperture is already at taking value, in stills it focuses wide open (for accuracy) and then stops down to taking aperture - another delay and possible focus shift. Sony does caf at taking aperture to speed it up and people are complaining left and right about that. 
3. In video there is no blackout - it's not just us who cannot see anything while exposure happens - there is no af data during blackout as well. 

Off topic but, some of these problems will be solved by global shutters and that will enable much better af, especially in caf modes.

Lovely images. I really enjoy gymnastics.

But something about this thread is striking me as odd.  Canon 1d mkiv vs nx500 low light performance?  The 85 1.4 on a crop sensor is equilivent to f 2.1 anyway. And the 1d has excellent low light performance, and is full frame. 3200 or 6400 on the 1d probably looks better than 800 or 1600 on the nx500.

otto k wrote:

Things to consider when comparing stills and video af performance

1. Video does not suffer from issues related to delay between af measurement and shutter actually closing and opening and closing - in video it has already taken the image
2. In video the aperture is already at taking value, in stills it focuses wide open (for accuracy) and then stops down to taking aperture - another delay and possible focus shift. Sony does caf at taking aperture to speed it up and people are complaining left and right about that.
3. In video there is no blackout - it's not just us who cannot see anything while exposure happens - there is no af data during blackout as well.

Off topic but, some of these problems will be solved by global shutters and that will enable much better af, especially in caf modes.

Video suffers from rolling shutter. I would never use a low-quality 4k video mode and extract a still from it, just because i needed to capture fast action. This should be done properly with a physical shutter. There are still too many disadvantages of electronic shutters.

http://www.red.com/learn/red-101/global-rolling-shutter

I don't think one or three have any bearing here because these are observable without taking any shots (i.e. just using half press for CAF).  I don't think it is two either, but I would need to double check to confirm it, but I think it holds true shooting video wide open as well.  In video the AF is just much less likely to hunt to the background and things like that.

parakalien wrote:

Lovely images. I really enjoy gymnastics.

But something about this thread is striking me as odd. Canon 1d mkiv vs nx500 low light performance? The 85 1.4 on a crop sensor is equilivent to f 2.1 anyway. And the 1d has excellent low light performance, and is full frame. 3200 or 6400 on the 1d probably looks better than 800 or 1600 on the nx500.

You are wrong

1. 1D mk IV is with quite old 1.3 crop APS-H sensor, which have nearly the same noise at 3200 ISO with the NX500. But the NX500 has better dynamic range.

2. Equivalent to 2.1 is only in terms of DoF, otherwise 1.4 is 1.4

P.S. You can check my blog, where there are pictures with both combos:

http://www.nonchoiliev.com/blog/4241

markyboy81 wrote:

VisualFX wrote:

Very nice photos! The 85mm is a nice lens, but focus can be slow or miss sometimes.

I wonder if shooting in 4k and capturing frames would work better in this instance? Focus seems to be better when shooting video for some reason.

I don't believe that currently the video would be better for low light fast moving objects. Even if it's fine with focussing you'll get blurred frames. And the cropped 4k on NX500 with the 85 1.4 would not allow me to shoot from the position where I was.

noncho wrote:

parakalien wrote:

Lovely images. I really enjoy gymnastics.

But something about this thread is striking me as odd. Canon 1d mkiv vs nx500 low light performance? The 85 1.4 on a crop sensor is equilivent to f 2.1 anyway. And the 1d has excellent low light performance, and is full frame. 3200 or 6400 on the 1d probably looks better than 800 or 1600 on the nx500.

You are wrong

1. 1D mk IV is with quite old 1.3 crop APS-H sensor, which have nearly the same noise at 3200 ISO with the NX500. But the NX500 has better dynamic range.

2. Equivalent to 2.1 is only in terms of DoF, otherwise 1.4 is 1.4

P.S. You can check my blog, where there are pictures with both combos:

http://www.nonchoiliev.com/blog/4241

Interesting. I stand corrected!

I had no idea the 1d wasn't full frame and didn't have stellar low light performance.

noncho wrote:

parakalien wrote:

Lovely images. I really enjoy gymnastics.

But something about this thread is striking me as odd. Canon 1d mkiv vs nx500 low light performance? The 85 1.4 on a crop sensor is equilivent to f 2.1 anyway. And the 1d has excellent low light performance, and is full frame. 3200 or 6400 on the 1d probably looks better than 800 or 1600 on the nx500.

You are wrong

1. 1D mk IV is with quite old 1.3 crop APS-H sensor, which have nearly the same noise at 3200 ISO with the NX500. But the NX500 has better dynamic range.

2. Equivalent to 2.1 is only in terms of DoF, otherwise 1.4 is 1.4

No, it is not only DoF.

P.S. You can check my blog, where there are pictures with both combos:

http://www.nonchoiliev.com/blog/4241

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