First time for shooting gymnastics, and first time shooting sports with my 5D. Coming from a D200 and D2H, 3 fps is slooooowww...
Anyone have suggestions with coping with this?
There's plans roughly in the works for a Mark III, but not till summer.
C&C on the shots, any comments on the settings appreciated.
Damn, I hate it when someone's first time shooting gymnastics is better than my 50th time.........but I'm getting used to it.
First of all, good job. Your timing is excellent, although possibly a little off on #2 if the athlete does a complete split leap. Your settings are also fine (really, where else can you go as you're maxed out with aperture and iso, at least for the 5D, so you take what you can get for ss). It also looks like you know where to be, position-wise, and these are very good angles for getting action shots on beam.
One nit would be that you're missing the beam in #2 (I think) so you can't really tell if this split leap occurred on floor or beam. In other words, try to orient the viewer.
Great first time shots...........sure beats my take for today.
Would push the ISO for better SS. Pretty nice vantage point for FF with 2.8 aperture. No context in #2 - don't like it. Others are better and I like the inclusion of the coach.
Very nicely done for first outing. Personally of everything I've done, shooting gymnastics is probably the hardest to do. Looks like you had decent lighting there, typically I found even 2.8 aperture lenses too slow for most places I had to shoot.
Depending on the levels of gymnastics you plan on shooting, don't worry about 3fps - know the sport and your camera and get your timing down. ALL cameras have limitations, working around them is the key for capturing your subject.
Instead of a new body, get better glass - yes, that means primes and restricted FOV, but sharper pix, more bokeh and faster settings.
In the mean time, don't be afraid of ISO. Stopping the action is more important than a little noise. Some blur is fine, and always achievable by slowing things down, but not as the expected norm if you're shooting high level gymnasts in convention centers or local gyms.
