Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have never tried it, but does anyone successfully shoot action with an M camera? I don't mean someone walking down the street, I mean a sports event where you can get in close, or something similar..... Is anyone good enough with their M lenses to be able to get a large percentage of sharp shots with an M when shooting sports? At 12:07 PM 5/16/98 -0400, LEICAMAN56 wrote: >George, > >I've been shooting my kids' Little League for the past 5 years. As much as I >love my M cameras, they are virtually useless for sports (don't start up about >Viso's, LUGgers). The only use for the M might be for dug out candids or team >photos. For actual game pictures, the 80-200 would be the minimum you should >use. The 300 should be very useful. Use a monopod for camera support. I >presume you are shooting color neg. Use 400 Fuji or Kodak during the daytime, >800 Kodak Max for evening or night games. > >The 80-200 will be good for shooting kids on base or pitching. The 300 is >needed for shooting the batters and outfielders. Shoot wide open most of the >time to keep your shutter speed up and to blur your background. > >I don't know what your SLR is, but autofocus is helpful, but not neccessary. >I use a Nikon (God forbid!) F4 or F5, 80-200/2.8 and 300/4.5 EDIF. I also use >the 400/5.6 and 560/5.6 Telyts with the Nikons using a special adapter. These >are really excellent image wise, fast to use and don't cost anywhere near what >the modern long lenses cost. I got both lenses at a total cost of less than >$2,000. The Televit really works almost as good as AF. > >Anyway, this is probably getting into overkill for what you want to do. > >The main problem is reach, so use the longest lens you can get. Baseball is a >good sport to shoot because it is more predictable than say, soccer. You know >where the pitcher, batter and other players will be most of the time. You can >focus and compose easier because of this. There isn't constant motion, so AF >is not really neccessary. Use the monopod because with longer lenses you need >the stability for optimum image quality and a tripod is too cumbersome. > >With practice, you should do just fine. > >Bill Rosauer > Francesco Sanfilippo, Five Senses Productions webmaster@5senses.com http://www.5senses.com/