The more I shoot with the z6, the more I'm liking the camera. The latest profile update for lightroom seems to have fixed the colour issues I was having. The files now feel much more malleable like the D850. I think the bad initial white balance settings of the old profiles screwed up the colours. -30 Celcius this morning again (-22 F). Caught a nice sunrise while I was out. It was a bit fleeting so I just run and gunned again without the tripod.
I may have missed it but what was your previous remote setup and the residual battery life after a similar job?
turbodude wrote:
So I hung a z6 as a remote cam yesterday, it worked great, except the battery died half way thru the 3rd period. So I ordered a case relay from Tethertools and dummy battery to remedy the situation. Other than that it worked flawlessly.
conrad2nr wrote:
I may have missed it but what was your previous remote setup and the residual battery life after a similar job?
I hung a d850 with a grip and d5 battery. That setup could be up for a week and still have juice. Shooting 1000 frames on that setup wouldn't even put a dent in the battery life. Literally, it wouldn't move the battery indicator LCD. However, the pros of hanging the z6 all lie within the live view and manual focus peaking, took me 10 sec to focus the camera and tape everything down with the z6, while with the d850 I'd be up there for about 5-10min getting exposure correct, zooming in, trying to get focus right and etc. When hanging the z6 for boxing or UFC, it's going to so much easier, so I'm trying to get the workflow down now with hockey.
@turbodude, can you tell us how you follow focus on hockey/basketball/...?
Do you use joystick vs main directional pad? Do you use back-button-focus or half-shutter and do you assign other buttons for AF-ON function?
How do you follow focus when a player moves across the viewfinder when on dynamic AF (9-point) or wide-S? Do you move focus points (say from left of viewfinder to right side) on-the-fly while keeping AF-on pressed and shutter firing? Or do you keep the focus points mainly centered and crop after?
mhkhung wrote:
@turbodude@, can you tell us how you follow focus on hockey/basketball/...?
Do you use joystick vs main directional pad? Do you use back-button-focus or half-shutter and do you assign other buttons for AF-ON function?
How do you follow focus when a player moves across the viewfinder when on dynamic AF (9-point) or wide-S? Do you move focus points (say from left of viewfinder to right side) on-the-fly while keeping AF-on pressed and shutter firing? Or do you keep the focus points mainly centered and crop after?
Thanks!
- M
Hello!
I use the joystick, Back button focus.
I manually "Track" the player.
My workflow is as follows.
I think about the play, then lock focus on my subject (normally center point if they are coming down ice), continuing holding back button, the fire the shots i need, normally only 1-2 shot bursts in Continuous H+. Rarely do i lay on the shutter button down ice, unless something magical is happening. Then when the player gets closer to the net, depending on what i want in focus (player or goalie), tracking a shooter, i lock on the player rushing on to the goal, hold back button, and then fire a sequence (still holding back button), keeping my other eye open to see the play. when im focused on the goalie, i lock focus on the goalie's chest, and then anticipate his movements all while holding the back button and firing, but if i see that theres a puck release or players rushing the net, i release the back button, because i know there's going to be a whole lot of stuff happening to confuse the AF system, so i continue to shoot the sequence, and then reacquire focus when necessary, kind of an adaptation of focus trapping when i know the players end up in the same place. same thing i do for baseball for 1st base and etc.
If i want to get something more dynamic i move the af point to where i want the image composed, like if theres a celebration in front of net where theres a dejected goalie, i tend to move the AF point with the joystick back and forth to get either sadness or celebration and etc
Thanks for such a detailed reply. If you don't mind a few more questions...
Do you have any issues with the EVF lag when shooting bursts? I've seen a few people saying it's difficult to follow action shooting at 12 FPS since you basically see the last image in it and not the action itself?
Do you feel the Z6 is holding you back (compared to let's say a D850) when shooting action or is it decisive and fast enough?
I'm guessing you use adapted lenses?
Luftwalk wrote:
Thanks for such a detailed reply. If you don't mind a few more questions...
Do you have any issues with the EVF lag when shooting bursts? I've seen a few people saying it's difficult to follow action shooting at 12 FPS since you basically see the last image in it and not the action itself?
Do you feel the Z6 is holding you back (compared to let's say a D850) when shooting action or is it decisive and fast enough?
I'm guessing you use adapted lenses?
Thanks again
no i dont feel like its holding me back at all. the EVF burst thing is a little weird, since you see the last image, its a split micro second from whats happening, its more apparent when someone is hurling towards you, since they are "growing" in the frame, however, im not a person that lays on the shutter, i was taught more of short bursts, that if you didnt get the frame you wanted within the first 3 images, you arent gonna get it. Its weird, i had to adjust my thinking a bit, because my mentors always said, if you saw it happen in the viewfinder (optical), you didnt get it due to mirror blackout. So now with the EVF, if i say it happen during the burst i know i got it.
However, i can see it being a problem with birders or something that have to track and fire off a bajillion rounds while in flight, but for me, its never been an issue in my shooting. Not once have i gone, oh darn, i missed this shot, because of the z6 instead of the d5 or d850. if i missed it was because of me, not the type of gear i was using. i dont know if thats more my mentality or if its the actual camera. but shooters much better than myself have been shooting better images for decades with lesser equipment, I still know pro shooters with 1dmk2n and d750s getting 95% keepers, so yeah, its not the camera in my eyes. If pro cant pick up a camera from the last 5 years and get usable frames with it, they are letting the gear be a crutch, and they should work on technique and worry less about the camera, IMHO.
Call me crazy but all I'm packing for 2 weeks in Colombia that's starting tomorrow is Z6+24-70+50 (and a tiny tripod, cir-pol and 10 stop ND). Looking forward to this 'limitation' of the gear.
. Love having some open water nearby to add a bit of drama.
