basketball shooting

[soydios]

As many of you may know, I'm much more familiar with Nikon in my hands than Canon. But, I'm shooting my first basketball game today for the college newspaper, and the other more senior photographer wants to use the D2H. So I'm using a 1DmkIIn and 30D, with a 24-70mm, 70-200mm, and 300mm (all f/2.8). I've never seriously shot with Canon before. Does anyone have any tips (other than to retrain my mind in half an hour that the zoom/focus rings turn the other way)? predicted exposure is ISO1000, 1/500th shutter, f/2.8. I will be using manual exposure.

some questions I can already think of:
- up to what frame rate will the 1DmkIIn maintain AF tracking?
- I don't have to worry about battery life, do I?

 

[OdiN]

The only real difference is the menus and controls being different. Use AI Servo focus mode for sports - it will track the subjects. Should work really well on that 1DmkII. (Or N as you edited )

It should keep AF up to its max which is around 8FPS I believe. Battery life - no worries assuming the batteries are in good condition. I can shoot an entire wedding with my 20D or 40D with just two batteries in the grip. The 1 series has much longer lasting batteries.

For that 30D - I'd say you could easily get at lesat 800 shots out of it with a single battery. It depends on if you're using IS and how much you're using IS.

 

[soydios]

Thanks for the help Odin. The other photog ended up taking the 1DmkIIn, so I got a pair of D2H bodies, one with a 70-200/2.8 and the other with a 300/2.8. It was pretty intense, and tiring swapping between the 70-200 and heavy 300 all the time. The 300 is good for close shots of basketball on a 1.5x body, but the ideal for a crop-frame is a 24- or 28-70 and 70-200. A 70-200 and 300 would be ideal on a full-frame, though. There was plenty of lighting; I was using ISO1000 and got 1/640 shutter speed at f/2.8, and the resulting files have this subtle film-looking grain to them. It would be preferable to use ISO6400 on a D3 at 1/1000sec and f/4, but the lack of outer AF points on a D3 using a 300mm for basketball would be somewhat limiting, as it might hunt focus through a hole between players.