Lens cover recommendation needed

GMonet71

I am brand new to photography so please bear with me if my terminology is off. I am in need of a recommendation for a lens cover - a strong one. I am primarily taking photos of paintball. It is not a matter of if but when my lens will get shot. Can you guys help with what type of lens or camera protection you are familiar with?



As an aside. Paintballs travel at about 300 feet per second. What camera settings would you recommend to capture the little guys (paintballs) in flight better? Most times my photos will be taken around mid day. I am currently using a D20 w/ a 70-200 2.8 IS lens for all my shots.







Example for those not familiar with paintball.

XO-Studios

GMonet71 wrote:

As an aside. Paintballs travel at about 300 feet per second. What camera settings would you recommend to capture the little guys (paintballs) in flight better?

OK some simple math, and this is pending the angle of the camera/lens angle as relating to the path of travel of the paint ball. Also the paintballl might leave the barrel at 300fps, but will rapidly slow down due to relative poor aerodynamics.

300 fps => 3600 inches/second

So on 1/1000th the paintball would travel 3.6 inches
on 1/10000th the paintball would travel .36 inches

Given this it doesn't seem like a 'frozen' painball is possible at the speeds you state. (Which when I googled them seem accurate [280 fps] do a google search for trajectory calculation paintball, also impressive compared to some firearms [9mm 1200 fps])

Now a way of cheating on this, is to be directly in front (OUCH) or behind the barrel so that the movement seemingly is less of a percentage of the whole picture.

Your question regarding what cover is safe, no cover will be able to take a direct impact, I would seriously consider and underwaterhousing, and even then the G load of impact would be in adviceable for a typical camera. Now knowing that, I also know there are ample paintball pictures around, and these people simply take the risk.

FWIW,

XO,

ian408

Hmm...regardless, I would choose something that was at least a rain cover
with a lens port--unfortunately, I don't know of one off hand. Like XO says,
a direct hit might break something :cry

In my opionion, you want a shutter speed as high as possible but not so high
that it freezes the ball. A little streaking is a good thing. So up the ISO and
open the aperture until you're shooting as fast as possible.

Good luck and let's see more of your results!

Ian

GMonet71

I usually do not use math to attack my problems but your calculations make perfect sense to me. Looks like I will not be able to freeze them totally without getting literally in the line of fire. So I guess a better question would be what would be the fastest shutter speed you guys would recommend for my current lens with good photo results. If memory serves this photo was 1/650 or 1/600 (dumb Photoshop takes off the EXIF info when I import). I love trial and error but if you guys could narrow it to a range for my lens that would be good enough for me.

As for protection I guess you are right on that too. Just going to have to take my chances. I will take a nice photo of a lens shot when it happens.

Thanks for your help :

XO-Studios

GMonet71 wrote:

I usually do not use math to attack my problems but your calculations make perfect sense to me. Looks like I will not be able to freeze them totally without getting literally in the line of fire. So I guess a better question would be what would be the fastest shutter speed you guys would recommend for my current lens with good photo results. If memory serves this photo was 1/650 or 1/600 (dumb Photoshop takes off the EXIF info when I import). I love trial and error but if you guys could narrow it to a range for my lens that would be good enough for me.

As for protection I guess you are right on that too. Just going to have to take my chances. I will take a nice photo of a lens shot when it happens.

Thanks for your help :

I have that same lens and camera or at least I have a D70 and a 80-200/2.8 AF-S

Lets go with sunny 16, on a sunny day, at f/16 speed is 1/ISO
Your D70 can go up to 1600 ISO so f/16 => 1/1600

The list of full F stops
f/1.0 1.4 2.0 2.8 4.0 5.6 8 11 16 22 32

2.8 and 16 are 5 stops apart, wich would lead to a theoretical 1/51,200 shutter speed which my D70 cannot do

Drop ISO 3 stops to 400
f/16 speed is 1/400
using a stop less than full open to get better DOF (more chances to get a fast moving object in releative focus.)
f/5.6 at ISO 400 in sunny day 1/3200 (which the D70 can do)

Looking back at the previous calculation at 1/3200 the paintball will move about 1" at full barrel velocity, less than that after leaving the barrel.

Google sunny 16, great stuff out there.

FWIW,

XO,

USAIR

How about you shoot thru a Plexiglas shield just something to hide behind
It should not be too hard to make (I am assuming you are shooting down low)

Thanks
Fred

GMonet71

XO

I tried you suggestions at ISO 400 and practiced on my water sprinkler. I was able to "freeze" the water and maintain a depth of field - the amount of yard in focus. I placed the camera in Tv mode to let the camera decide the aperture. I then bumped the shutter speed as fast as I could but tried to keep the f to between 4 to 5 - to keep a good depth of field. I experimented with ISO 800 and was able to push the envelope some more but at 1600 the image had too much noise. Can't wait till tomorrow for more practice but on players.

Thanks ponting me in a good direction


US Air



I would get good protection behind a barrier. However, unlike soccer where the focus is mainly on the ball and the surrounding players paintball is different. Since all the players are shooting and moving, the action is all over the field so you have to be very mobile sideline.

XO-Studios

GMonet71 wrote:

XO

I tried you suggestions at ISO 400 and practiced on my water sprinkler. I was able to "freeze" the water and maintain a depth of field - the amount of yard in focus. I placed the camera in Tv mode to let the camera decide the aperture. I then bumped the shutter speed as fast as I could but tried to keep the f to between 4 to 5 - to keep a good depth of field. I experimented with ISO 800 and was able to push the envelope some more but at 1600 the image had too much noise. Can't wait till tomorrow for more practice but on players.

Thanks ponting me in a good direction


US Air



I would get good protection behind a barrier. However, unlike soccer where the focus is mainly on the ball and the surrounding players paintball is different. Since all the players are shooting and moving, the action is all over the field so you have to be very mobile sideline.

While noise is always a by product, there are two things to consider:

1) If you get this kick-ass shot, nobody will worry about noise
2) There are programs like Nois Ninja or Neat Image (which I use) that do a very good job at removing noise.

XO,

GMonet71

Thanks again XO. I placed an order for Neat Image and am awaiting the ok to be able to download it. I am eager to shoot and now process today's practice photos.

Again, I am very appreciative for all your help