On Jan 10, 2011, at 6:46 AM, Christine Nielsen wrote: > So... yesterday, my daughter competed in her first gymnastics meet. > And (please pardon the bragging..), she did very well. Well enough, > that I think there just might be many more meets in our future. Which > is all well & good, but photographically speaking, it's like shooting > soccer in a cave.. and the cave-dwellers forbid flash.
I can empathize entirely. A lot of my photography (dancing, aikido) faces very similar challenges. > > With my k-7 & 50-135, the results were reasonable, for what they are, > shot at 3200iso, f2.8, 1/125 sec. (I put some snaps up here: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/23028...@n04/sets/72157625788531640/with/5341649434/) That's a great set. You did an excellent job of it. > But, I could do with less noise. And even higher iso (or wider > apertures) could get me faster shutter speed, which would also improve > matters. Although, sometimes a little motion blur is a good thing. > > So, I'm trying to decide where to focus my longing... > 1) a k-5? (for all the obvious reasons) This will give you another stop or two of ISO on all of your lenses. I think that this would eventually be a good thing to do. The question is whether to do it now when you might get more money for the K-7, or wait a few months for the price to drop. > 2) faster lens? (most shots are within the 50-85mm range) My 77/1.8 is my favorite lens. I agonized over buying it for a while, but when I saw one for a good price, I got one and didn't regret it for a moment. Looking through the viewfinder with that lens on my camera can be enough to make me smile. However, that extra stop and a half also means less depth of field, and the need for your focus to be that much more accurate. Photographing Aikido, where people are moving all over the mat, has helped me to appreciate zoom lenses. > 3) noise reduction software? (I only have what's available in > ACR/cs4... open to suggestions, thoughts on this) This might be the most cost effective solution, because it'll improve any shot that you've taken so far. However, it's also something that you can do at any time and go back and fix photos later. > > What do you think? Embrace the power of "And", get all three. Seriously though, I didn't see anything to complain about with the shots that you posted. But that might be because you're good at editing out everything that isn't excellent and we didn't see the 1200 frames with missed focus, bad noise, too much motion blur and so forth. It seems that this is a case where the more you spend, the more you get. Do you use a monopod? I found that using one made a huge difference in my low light keeper ratio. Then again, my definition of low light is ISO 6400 and under 1/15 Sec shutter speed. I found a benro carbon fiber monopod that'll fit in my fastpack 350 (without head) on a hong kong based website for $85. New software ($250?): Will improve all of the photos that you've taken, maybe by as much as a stop in the noise. But you can also get it and go back and reprocess any photos that you take between now and then. New lens ($700-1000): It'll give you a stop or two of speed, but you'll lose depth of field. K-5 ($1500, $800 if you sell the K-7): It'll give you more speed and better noise without losing depth of field. It should also give you better metering, faster auto focus, brighter teeth and fresher breath. What I think you should do is start looking around for a good deal on the 77/1.8. It's an amazing lens that you'll absolutely love. Buy one and shoot with it for a while. The extra stop and a half will help, and by the time that you realize that you really do need the convenience of a zoom, and that you often lose as much in cropping as you get in shutter speed, the price of the K-5 should have dropped by a few hundred dollars, which will partially finance the cost of the 77. Since the laws of physics only allow us to do so much, pushing the ISO harder, even with a better sensor, will still leave you with noise to deal with, around the time that CS6 comes out, you'll get around to upgrading the software, but that'll be perfectly timed for you to go back and use it to process all the best photos from this event on, and make a photo book of gymnastics photos to give to all of the grandparents. Or, you could try shooting a few more meets with the gear that you've got, and as you gain practice photographing gymnastics and your skills improve, you may find that what you've got works perfectly well. > > FWIW, I've considered asking her to switch sports. But it wouldn't > help much -- she also plays hockey... :) Sounds like you need a K-5 and a bigma. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- 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.
