Hi Cory, Cory Waters wrote:
It's different shooting with a 400mm Prime.
I'm still looking for the Tokina SD 400/5.6 since it's a PK-A and will be a little more convenient and familiar to you.
It's important to remember it's not an "A" lens and you're shooting in manual. (I never shoot in manual on my K10)
It's not that big a deal. From about 0900 through about 1630 (at Petit time of year) you can just use 1/250 of a second at f/11 (f/13 maybe) with the camera at its default 200 ASA setting. It's often helpful to set the camera to manual and some reasonable settings instead of leaving it in (Hyper)Program mode ... you can avoid some blown exposures caused by sunlight glinting off race cars, windshields, stuff in the crowd, spectator cars, etc.
It's important not to forget to look for your mono-pod when you're going
Definitely. I love my Bogen 3218 (I think) ... big hefty 3-section unit that works as a bludgeon, too. I use a Bogen 3262 (I think) medium ball head on it due to the speed at which I have to work sometimes. Most of the time it stays locked in place. Sometimes I'll tilt it a bit and lock it to accommodate a sloped surface. Occasionally I have to do something more radical, like flip the camera to portrait orientation.
It's important to focus correctly.
"Zone focus" is your friend. At f/11 or f/13 you get decent DoF, even on the 400, at the distances you're working. Often I'll focus on something mid-track, about half way through the depth I'll be working, and leave the focus there. Don't forget to configure the custom settings to allow the shutter to trip even without focus confirmation.
This approach also eases some of the "lock time" problems, presumably by shortening the lock time. By "lock time" I mean the time between the shutter contact closing and the shutter movement actually starting.
For 1/250th "crossing shots" (shots of cars moving across my field of view) of cars crossing at any sort of speed, the lock time runs about one focus point horizontally in the viewfinder. That is, if you select the center focus point for AF, and the shutter contact closes when that is the "point of focus", the shot will end up with the "point of focus" about on the next AF point to the left or right, in the direction of travel of the subject.
The shutter "run time" also has an effect, assuming the Pentax DSLRs use horizontal-travel shutters, which seems to be the case. At 1/250th you wouldn't think it's much, but it's four times longer than 1/1000th and eight times longer than 1/2000th. This difference can be visible on the photos in some circumstances, as a difference in the amount of "point of focus" shift on these crossing shots.
To those of you familiar with Road Atlanta, the effect is most pronounced when shooting from close to the pavement on turns six and seven and the "chute" between them ('cause even a spectator can get pretty close to the pavement on those turns). Get the shutter speed down slow enough during panning and you'll start to see the "cylinder of focus" effect produced by the car's turn and your pan having different radii.
My keeper rate was down significantly because of these considerations.
Practice, practice, practice. I haven't been shooting as frequently as in the past, and my keep rate definitely shows it.
Thanks Doug!
You're welcome, Cory! -- Thanks, DougF (KG4LMZ) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
