eiva
Sophomore
Posts: 124
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Post by eiva on Sept 14, 2005 15:38:58 GMT -5
We all know it is hard to shoot indoors and stop an armswing with a digital camera. It seems easier to find a decent video camera. Any thoughts on what cameras/lenses work great indoors for a VB game?
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Post by cyberVBmidwest on Sept 15, 2005 19:18:34 GMT -5
sjaysuess bought a new lens for his camera last spring and shared some photos from the ff. maybe he can help. I just chose a digital camera that allowed me to make manual adjustments (the more the merrier) and then take practice shots in the lighting before the match. My current camera is 4 years younger than my last and I get a lot better clarity than my old one. Also check out artic ferret site www.arcticferret.us/index.htm I think he/she shares some tips.
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Post by skillzthatkillz on Sept 15, 2005 20:32:58 GMT -5
any type of SLR should be fine it just depends on the lighting inside the gym.
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Post by vballmom on Sept 16, 2005 7:02:46 GMT -5
The latest digital SLR's will take great action photos. You can also get a gadget that allows you to take several pictures in a row very rapidly, so you don't have to worry about the delay as much. Even with my old SLR, I have to "take" the picture before the player hits the ball because of the delay.
If you use a 35mm camera, use high speed film to get the stop action. 1600 is best, but 800 or 1000 will work in the right light.
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Post by BearClause on Sept 16, 2005 14:04:36 GMT -5
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eiva
Sophomore
Posts: 124
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Post by eiva on Sept 26, 2005 20:22:38 GMT -5
ummmm thanks......but is there anything on a students budget? Cannon Rebel-with $210 (70-300 zoom lens)
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Post by fabulous on Sept 27, 2005 2:11:54 GMT -5
polaroid cameras are the best for a student budget -- oh and for porn too for that matter
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Post by BearClause on Sept 27, 2005 19:39:34 GMT -5
ummmm thanks......but is there anything on a students budget? Cannon Rebel-with $210 (70-300 zoom lens) Well - you said "best camera", so I gave out the name of the #1 digital SLR for professional sports photography. I know someone who has the original Canon EOS 1D he bought used. He also has a Canon EF 600mm lens we affectionately call "The Bazooka". The lens is so big that he mounts it to a monopod and the camera body hangs off the lens. Personally, I use a Canon PowerShot S1 IS. It's reasonably compact and uses AA batteries (I prefer Energizer NiMH rechargeables) and I can take hundreds of pictures on a freshly charged set. Alkalines will give me maybe 50 shots if I'm lucky; that's just the way it is with digital cameras. It has 10x optical zoom (5.8-58mm) and up to 32x combined optical/digital zoom; I almost always use at least 5x zoom even for "wide" shots. It's only 3.2 MP, but most of my pictures are 2 MP (1600x1200) and I downsize my pics in software before I load them to my webspace. I set it to the maximum ISO 400, (maybe) -1/3 exposure, and F3.1 (when in zoom). Here's a sample of what I took last weekend. All shots were at 1600x1200 and downsized to 640x480 (and compressed to ~60KB each) using GraphicConverter for Mac OSX using the "Smooth" algorithm. The original pictures seem a bit grainy/noisy full-sized, but the noise goes away when I reduce the size.
BTW - High megapixel cameras sound great in theory, but rarely will anyone need more than 2MP for sports photography it unless making portraits or cropping images. I will say that volleyball is an extremely difficult sport to shoot with a consumer-level digital camera. They are extremely slow because there's a lot of information that's needed to properly balance an image from a digital sensor. A digital SLR will be almost instant. Even a Canon Digital Rebel should react almost as fast as you press the shutter. A film SLR will be considerably faster, but then you need to process film and possibly use a scanner.
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Post by cyberVBmidwest on Sept 28, 2005 12:12:30 GMT -5
I use the Canon PowerShot S1 IS also. I don't use automatic or sports settings. I make manual adjustments. I take several practice shots and then view the histogram information to improve my shots. Info on histograms: www.livingroom.org.au/photolog/tips/histogram_tips.php
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Post by BearClause on Sept 28, 2005 12:37:20 GMT -5
I use the Canon PowerShot S1 IS also. I don't use automatic or sports settings. I make manual adjustments. I take several practice shots and then view the histogram information to improve my shots. Info on histograms: www.livingroom.org.au/photolog/tips/histogram_tips.phpI find decent results with ISO 400, image stabilization (IS) on, and widest aperature. I don't go for full manual settings, since the lighting may not be the same from one end to the other. Focusing is slow though - maybe 1-1.5 sec and sometimes it'll go batty focusing in and out before it locks. It only has single-point focusing. I need to figure out where I want to shoot well ahead of pressing the shutter. If I want to capture action during warmups, I'll prefocus, then turn on manual focusing. It's almost as fast as a DSLR if I do that. At a baseball game I would just set MF to infinity and let 'er rip. With enough light, I'd even knock down the ISO settings to 50 or 100, although I find 400 in daylight isn't noisy. The results are nowhere near what the friend with the EOS 1D and assortment of lenses can get. However - I only spent $400 (+accessories) and can carry the camera and binoculars in a small bag. If a camera has to be built to a low price-point, there are going to be flaws if you need it for indoor sports photography.
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Post by Nutter on Sept 28, 2005 12:51:47 GMT -5
BearClause, how far were you sitting from the floor when you took the photos? You must have been pretty close!
Oh yeah, nice pics!
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Post by BearClause on Sept 28, 2005 16:13:26 GMT -5
BearClause, how far were you sitting from the floor when you took the photos? You must have been pretty close! Oh yeah, nice pics! Thanks. I know this is "Men's Volleyball" but I just wanted to show what one might be able to accomplish with a relatively inexpensive camera and decent lighting. The pictures are usually noisy when I've shot men's VB in a poorly lit gym. The old gym at UC Davis doesn't have great lighting although the RSF Field House at Cal isn't well lit either. Either the pictures are going to be underexposed (and later brightened) or blurred because the camera picks a slower shutter speed. I got right in the first row for some of the shots. Many of the pics were taken from maybe the 3rd/4th row (my usual spot). The extreme zoom helps. Also - many of my shots are framed OK, but sometimes end up blurred because of excessive camera motion (even with image stabilization). I take a lot of shots to get some good ones. Data storage is so cheap these days that it's not like "wasting film". And no - I am not picking on Mick. He always looks like that.
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Post by cyberVBmidwest on Sept 28, 2005 20:57:44 GMT -5
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Post by vb on Sept 29, 2005 0:58:47 GMT -5
Will a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT work with just its standard lens?
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OC4
Sophomore
Posts: 213
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Post by OC4 on Sept 29, 2005 2:02:24 GMT -5
Will a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT work with just its standard lens? Yes, it will "work". The thing is, most likely with a standard packaged lens you will not have any zoom functionality. You could buy the Rebel XT without one of those standard lenses and just pick find a decent zoom lens to give you a bit of flexibility if you're not up close to the action.
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