Bill Hollinger Offline Upload & Sell: On
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I have used Canons since I switched from Nikon F5s to the 1Ds several years ago. One of the subjects I shoot the most is dog sports/training/playing, and in my experience they are far more difficult subjects for an AF servo system than motor sports (even my relatively slow focusing 1Ds worked well for this) or human sports because dogs are faster, their body motion and direction change instantly and unpredictably, and in the case of the guys I used for the tests, they are dark and do not present a lot of contrast for the camera to find and focus on. I tested the D300 with a 70-200 f2.0 VR (the “S” or faster focusing lens) and my old Nikon 80-200 f2.8 along with my 1D2 and 70-200 f2.8IS. The Canons (1D2 and 1Ds2) do OK as long as I use a single AF point, but keeping a single point on a moving dog’s face when you are looking through a 300 f2.8 or longer lens, or they are very close to the camera, is very difficult. The only other option with the Canons is to use all the focus points and let them choose the plane of focus. When I do this, almost always the plane of focus is behind the face (or worse), making the image unsuitable for publication.
The ONLY thing I was checking was AF servo performance. I would love to try the D3, but I could not find one. I asked Nikon if the AF systems on the D300 and D3 were the same, and their reply was,
“The systems are the same but with the difference in power supplies could
offer a slight difference in performance. If the D300 was to have the
MB-10 with an EN-EL4a that would make the power supply the same”
The D300 I used was far better than my Canons (and I have many 1 and 2TB RAID drives full of Canon images like this) at getting this kind of action in focus. When the later afternoon light (shade) arrives, focusing really becomes a challenge because low light, low contrast, and dark, fast moving dogs do not give the AF system much to focus on. A typical example I saw was a string of 30 plus 1D2 shots where perhaps three were in focus. The D300 (these were all at ISO3200, f2.8) missed four or five out of 17 plus. In good light there was rarely a missed focus from the D300. I used the Dynamic AF on the D300, and I think, for this subject, the 51 points work a little better than the 21 point setting. The D300 felt small to me, and of course the zoom lens rotates opposite to that of the Canon 70-200, but the Nikon is very intuitive and I quickly set it up without having to read the instruction manual. I did have problem with accidentally changing the aperture, which resulted in shutter speeds that were too slow to stop action, and on occasion I accidentally turned the camera off. I think the advantage the Nikon offers in this area is what they call Dynamic AF, which provides a much larger “sweet” spot (21 or 51 AF points) than one single red AF square of the Canons, making framing and successful AF far easier and more successful. I am as curious as others to see what Ron Galbraith will share with us about the 1D3, but unless it is significantly different than the 1D2/1Ds2, it looks like a dual system consisting of the 1Ds2/3 and the beautiful 50 and 85 f1.2 lenses, and the D3 (and perhaps the D300 - the 1.5x works really well with their 7-200 zoom) will provide the best of both worlds. I did shoot a few birds and dogs in a snow storm with the D300 and 1D2/1Ds2, but have not had a chance to go through those images yet.
This is with the D300 and my old (slower focusing) 80-200 f2.8 (imagine trying to keep a tiny red square on this guy’s eye). The Dynamic AF rarely missed shots like these.
http://homepage.mac.com/billh96007/.Pictures/D300/Cody,80-200,D300-0696.jpg
This is with the D300, ISO3200, f2.8. It does not look like a difficult shot for the AF, but I tried unsuccessfully for three weeks to get this with the Canons. I have to kick the ball accurately (meaning I pay attention to the ball, not where the dogs are), then pick up the camera, frame, focus and take the picture. While it didn’t seem like the Nikon focused any faster than the Canon, the Canon AF always choose the background as a point of focus. The Nikon was not always successful either, but it did get some of these in focus. I believe this was with the 51 point Dynamic AF,
http://homepage.mac.com/billh96007/.Pictures/D300/Baghera-D300,ISO3200,0888,nr.jpg
More representative images are here,
http://homepage.mac.com/billh96007/Trial-Web/PhotoAlbum261.html
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