flash77 said:
Thanks Jed. Am still practicing to get the right timing, as well as to understand when to actually trigger the shutter release on my D70 to catch the action I really want. The 3fps always missed the in-between shots, this photo is one which I took with single shot and got the right action.
Will keep trying for the 3 more upcoming matches I've chance to shoot, and hope that you can still provide me with your comments. :thumbsup:
It's nice when people are able to take things constructively, and also nice when you can look at a picture and give nice comments, cause obviously nobody likes negative feedback even though it might be good in the long run.
This fps thing is often talked about. I shot about two seasons with a 3fps D1x as my main camera. From the D1 to the D1x, the main loss was not the 4.5fps to 3fps change, it was the slower shutter lag, a difference of about 20ms, but noticeable if you do shoot sport. The D2h after that was a revelation. 8fps is properly fast, and the shutter lag went back down to D1 standards, and marginally faster. Shooting the D1x side by side with that was no contest, and I only did it for about a month or two before I made sure I had two D2h bodies.
I've had them for a year and a half now, and today I tried to use a D2x. Oh what a nightmare. I don't like the shutter response, even though on paper they report the same timing, it's different. I've spent four days with two D2hs blasting Wimbledon and getting my timings with that, and then trying to work with the D2x today was, in all honesty, probably a mistake. And yes, the 8fps crop felt very different too. No doubt I will get used to it in time, but 5fps is miles away from 8fps (and I've said this for a long time, back to the days of 4.3fps F90x and the 8fps F5 - Fxx cameras? What are they!). And the focusing is different too.
Bottom line is, the first shot timing is crucial, even for 8fps cameras. You'll be surprised how often in football the ball's miles away from the head in the first shot, and miles away from the head in the second shot, with no frame in between. Same thing with tennis, unless you're shooting head on and the ball is headed in your direction; if not, even at 8fps, the ball's in the frame one shot and gone by the next, assuming you don't have two frames with no ball in them - very doable.
Remember as say a speed of 1/500 of a second, at 8fps, you only cover 8/500 of that second, or only about 1/62.5 of a second. That's 61.5/62.5 of that second you DON'T record. Sobering thought.
Just nail your first exposure, and away you go.