EOS M5 with Sigma 56 1.4 does Basketball

Some great capture, nice one.

Assume combination generally working well for you? AF OK and generally pin sharp? Only asking as about to press the button and buy a 56mm I think

Very nicely done!

Must be the season!  I just shot a (b-ball) game on Friday night, but haven’t gotten to the pictures yet.  I was torn as to which lens to try, but settled on the 32 (I was shooting for some parents, so wanted a little wider view to include more players).

I like your captures,

R2

I tried the 32mm for volleyball and the AF was too slow for covering the sports action. It would like okay through the viewfinder, but was always off on review... the lens motor was just too slow. The 85mm 1.8 was able to keep up just fine in the same scenarios.

The ones with the 32mm look much better than my results with volleyball. I assume that because the shots are mostly jump shots that the majority of the movement is in the vertical and less in the horizontal plane... whereas I was trying to cover pin hitters where you've got to lock-on at the beginning of their approach. Or maybe you are just better at it than I am:) Were you having hit rate issues with the 32mm on drives to the basket or similar?

And FWIW... I bet you could trade some shutter speed for ISO... 1/1000 seems to be about all I needed with a 70D for basketball, and depending on the sport, I'll go all the way down to 1/500 for action... especially if I need more depth of field for celebration shots. But I really like what you've got already, so just my $.02.

Nice. The 85mm 1.8 was my weapon of choice for volleyball. I like the reach for shooting through the net so I can get the player's faces in. I recently paired it with a rented M6ii to give it a go.

You've got GREAT lighting to be running 1/1600 and ISO 250... a typical match here has me at f2.8, 1/640 and still pushing ISO6400 (using a full frame and 70-200 f2.8)

The M6ii is far more responsive than the M6, so I am sure an M5ii would be amazing.

I don't buy Canon gear early in the release cycle, the discounts are usually pretty substantial for waiting a bit. So an M6ii purchase is more likely for me if an M5ii comes out and drives the M6ii price down.

Hi Stussy,

You have some really great shots.  When my daughter played basketball in high school, I was allowed on the floor to take shots.  When I first started I was miserable at it.  After a while I learned something about the kids and was able to anticipate better thereby getting some better photos.  You are good at this.

Randy

dpeete wrote:

I tried the 32mm for volleyball and the AF was too slow for covering the sports action. It would like okay through the viewfinder, but was always off on review... the lens motor was just too slow.

Actually folks upgrading to the M6ii will find that the 32 f/1.4's autofocus is quite a bit improved (compared to earlier bodies).  Fast enough for the sports that I've been shooting so far.

R2

I was using an M6ii. The tracking indicated it had a lock, but the actual focus didn't match the tracking indicator.

dpeete wrote:

I was using an M6ii. The tracking indicated it had a lock, but the actual focus didn't match the tracking indicator.

I actually never pay attention to the autofocus indicator.  I just AF for a split second, then shoot.  I’ve had great success with this combination shooting action.  Better than any other camera I’ve ever used in fact, incl DSLRs.

What were your AF settings?  Tracking?

For fast action I like to set the M6ii to Spot AF with Servo enabled (No face tracking, Continuous AF disabled). I’ve been shooting 7 FPS bursts to maximize Servo AF tracking.

This combo has done really well for me, even for the nighttime bike race last month...

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4464775

And I really like the basketball photos I got from Friday’s game.  I was testing the 32 f/1.4’s AF with the M6ii specifically.  I can post some samples.

R2

R2D2 wrote:

dpeete wrote:

I was using an M6ii. The tracking indicated it had a lock, but the actual focus didn't match the tracking indicator.

I actually never pay attention to the autofocus indicator. I just AF for a split second, then shoot. I’ve had great success with this combination shooting action. Better than any other camera I’ve ever used in fact, incl DSLRs.

What were your AF settings? Tracking?

I started with servo enabled, continuous AF disabled, and AF tracking with the setting for starting with a spot (I forget what is called). That is a great setup, but didn't fair well with the 32mm 1.4, but worked great with the 85mm f1.8.

I also used the regular spot AF, which is what I typically use on my M6, and that was reliable as expected, but I had given up on using the 32mm for action at that point.