Monkeying around

[JeffKohn]

While at the zoo last weekend I spent some time at the Patas Monkey exhibit trying to get some action shots. Man, those little fellas are fast. These were all shot with the 70-200vr handheld, using HSC mode to boost the frame rate. My keeper rate was pathetically low, I think this is something I need more practice with including experimentation with different AF modes and settings (had a lot of shots where AF locked onto the background as I was tracking). Comments/critiques/suggestions welcome as always. Click on an image for full PBase page with full shooting info.

Hand-stands

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Airborne

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Catch me if you can

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[dmwphoto]

Jeff,
this had to be fun! based on the focusing issues you mentioned try looking at this link in kevin scotts post. it will tell you a way to set your AF not to lock on the background or other distractions. but I think if you use AF-C, dynamic area, focus priority, AF lock -on it will be better next time.
Dave

 

[dmwphoto]

the second shot is precious! dont forget to change the year in your copyrite signature

 

[Desert Rat]

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: These are quite something.. What I am not sure..:biggrin:

Sorry but had to say it..

About your focusing troubles did you have AF with lock-on or off? If you are shoothing these guys running around everywhere you might try putting focus tracking with lock on ON. that way your camera does not refocus as quickly if you loose track of your target in the focusing grids.. :

Hope that makes sense??

 

[twig]

welcome to my world!
This is what shooting sports is like!
Shootin AF-C and plan on discarding a good % of your shots.

Part of your issue is focus lockign on backgrounds (which is simply a fact of life, unfortunately, even more so when the background has more contrast than your tan subject)

You also have DOF issues. For example your first photo is awesome, but your focus could have easilt locked ont he front monkey making the back of his head nice and sharp and the monkey behind him a bit OOF- another words ruining the shot. TEchnically both monkey might be within the zone of your focusing sensor and either could be grabbed.

Anyway, I try toi tap my finger on the focus button to constantly try to aquire the proper subjects, and live with many throw aways.

As mentioend you could also use one of the more dynamic modes, and/or stop down a bit more to get more forgiving DOF, and/or use some flash.

Though I see the benefits of some of the dynamic focus modes when tracking a bird flying through an empty sky, or a soccer player chargin up an empty field, when things are more complex (like under a basketball hoop, or your monkey cage here with action in multiple planes), I end up getting best results with single area AF - because my aperture is generally wide open and if the group focus guesses wrong I have no shot.

 

[dmwphoto]

look at this thread https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=61630&highlight=fear
the ooprtunity was there for the same problems and this is not a bird in a clear sky.
I would read the article and draw your own conclusions

 

[JeffKohn]

Thanks for the feedback and tips, guys. I recall the discussions a while back about the AF Lock-on setting. It seemed that in some cases it could actually slow AF operation down so I've always had it disabled. But when looking at the results after I got home Saturday it occurred to me that this might have been one of those situations where it could have been helpful (too bad I didn't think of it while I was there). I'll have to give it a try next time I'm there. I've always used single-point AF-C with the AF-On button. I've avoided the dynamic/group modes for the same reasons twig mentions but maybe I'll play around with that as well (can't hurt, after all :smile

 

[twig]

AF-lock on is a must, as mentioend it will keep your camera from jumping to the background if your subject moves slightly. What often happens with contrasty backgrounds IME is once your AF jumps from your subject to the background, it grabs that and you cannot get it back untilk you re-acquire focus (tap AF on).
As mentioned by others AF-lock ON keeps it from jumping away from your subject, which will make a BIG difference.

Still, shooting thigns like this you should be happy with 40% keepers.

To simulate HS sports, put those same monkeys in a cave, and then try to shoot them!

Also, the third picture is showing you that 1/640th is not quite fast enough for monkeys, I would have pushed the ISO to 640 like your other shots to try for 1/1000th