Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Albert Wang wrote:; >>I was just wondering whether how good are Leica cameras in terms of taking sports or action shots where a fast focus/high shutter speed is necessary? I know that the Leica R8 has its fastest shutter speed at 1/8000 although it is entirely manual focus which makes it very difficult to capture a hockey game for example... is that the reason that I hardly see any Leica cameras at the Philly Flyers games? :)<<<< Albert, Dismiss any thoughts about R cameras and in particular the R8 without A/F not being good for sport action. The R8 with it's 1/8000 shutter speed is fine, although I must say I can't ever recall using a shutter speed that high on any camera while shooting the Olympics, NFL, NHL, World Championships, Pan American or Commonwealth Games. F1 or Indy cars. It isn't required, although I suppose some non-sport shooters may think you require that high a shutter speed. The autofocus is handy sometimes for sports, yes it does allow one to capture more "sharp images" not necessarily better pictures than manual focus. Those of us over the years who've done a considerable amount of sport photography learn where to focus before the action happens or we just follow focus the athlete on the run. No we're not always 100% successful, but then neither is A/F! ;-) As far as shooting hockey with manual focus it's a piece of cake as the main pictures come from just in front of the net with the action of the goalie and players scrambling for the puck. or a goal being scored and the red light on. As far as the movement up and down the ice much of that isn't relevant because they are just skating hard going in a direction away from you or coming at you... another piece of cake. Now don't take this as being anti A/F, it's not. I just feel too many people put their trust in autofocus far too much and if the autofcus stops, they haven't developed the manual focus re-action skills in handling the camera to still get solid in focus images. ted