First game of Spring

soccerphotos
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · First game of Spring

I was able to get out and shoot my first soccer game this spring with my new set-up. I was using a Canon R3 with a Canon EF 400MM F2.8L IS II USM. The R3 is so much faster than my R7 and the first game I shot with a full frame camera. It was also a night game and I was pleased with the R3 and how it did with the light compared to the R7. Here are a few shots - looking for some CC. I still haven't figured out the eye control focus (for autofocus) and I was having an issue with the tracking and eye features - so I shut them off.

Photo 1, Canon R3 w/400mm f/2.8L IS II @1/1600, 1000 ISO, F3.2, 400mm

Photo 2, Canon R3 w/400mm F/2.8L IS II @1/1250, 2000 ISO, F2.8, 400mm

Photo 3, Canon R3 w/400MM F/2.8L IS II @1/1600, 1250 ISO, F2.8, 400mm

Photo 4, Canon R3 w/400mm f/2.8L IS II @1/1600, 2000 ISO, F/2.8, 400mm

Apr 11, 2023 at 10:00 AM

JRobertson
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · First game of Spring

R3 doing work!

Apr 11, 2023 at 10:10 AM

schlotz
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · First game of Spring

Tracking combined with Eye AF is a tall task for soccer to begin with, add in lower lighting and it will fail regularly IMO. While I shoot a different brand, I've found tracking by itself has limited use in soccer. It's best for a one-on-one series. I've set a separate button to activate it for those occasions. Interesting this was a night match and the ISO used was only 2000. The backgrounds suggest the field lighting wasn't that good. Were these bumped in PP? If so, still some good work but personally I'd suggest increasing ISO.

#1 & 2 are the best of the set

#3 not peak action, ball position suggests either frame was too early, or too late.
#4 ok for an isolated sportrait. Appears to be under exposed, see right hand. Also could use a bit of leveling, see brown/orange vertical on the right.

Apr 12, 2023 at 06:33 AM

Cnyphotoguy
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · First game of Spring

How are you finding the switch to FF? I've got a bit of a itch to move from an R7 to R6II (combined with EF 70-200III, 100-400II, 300II). I don't have a lot of time with the R7, but the sensor readout is the primary thing in the back of mind.

Apr 15, 2023 at 03:29 PM

LeeHarris
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · First game of Spring

Great thanks for sharing the images.

Apr 21, 2023 at 05:06 AM

bpalermini
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · First game of Spring

Well you have a nice stadium if you can get those shutter speeds at those ISOs.

Good work! I have a rule that the ball and hopefully the player should to be in the air, sometimes broken, and most of you photos have that so that's a plus for me. Also, for the most part you need players for both teams in the photo but that second one is an exception to that rule.

As for the focusing, on my R6II I have two buttons setup One has simple, single focus point setup. That gets used a lot. The other has eye focus which I use when I can. It is pretty easy to move between the two modes once you get used to it.

Apr 21, 2023 at 09:56 PM

cocodrillo
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · First game of Spring

I'd echo Schlotz's ratings of the images. The first two are really nice, but the third is definitely a 'nuts... that's the only photo of her I have' shot. But... nice work... faces in all images... usually if there is no face there is no photo.

I use an R3 on a 600 f4 and 200 f2. On the eye tracking autofocus -- do you mean the function on the R3 that picks the focus point based on where your eye is looking? If so, I've found that to be nearly useless. Perhaps Canon is going to perfect it as it moves to the R1, but right now it isn't doing the trick particularly reliably.

If you mean the player eye tracking, that's a bit of a weird one. I've found that the exposure really has to be spot on for it to be fully effective. It is also is REALLY bad at tracking the eyes of individuals of African descent, particularly if they are of quite dark complexion and/or poorly lit. The other aspect to it is that you need to find the right focus zones for how you shoot. For soccer and other team sports I'll usually select the big square or the expanded centre point and then use the back button AF/thumb controller to put the spot on the player I want as I'm tracking the game (I'm from the old manual focus days so this doesn't seem so bad to me). Then there's the question of which of the four modes to use. I shoot a lot of track and so normally use case 1. But, if I'm shooting shot put, high jump, or lj/tj landings I'll use the instantly focus mode. Soccer I'd probably stick with case 1 -- I'll use that for football later today.

With respect to the ISO -- you can push it to 6400 on the R3 and it is still outstanding, particularly with a little bit of RAW processing magic. Heck, pushed up to 10,000 it is still fine with some careful exposure and post processing. Honestly, I find myself nervous now when the ISO drops to 100 to 200, not when it goes high. So different than the film days!

Jun 15, 2023 at 07:10 AM


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