Indoor Gymnastics

RogersDA

I will have a 1D MII soon (I hope). I have the 70-200 f/2.8 IS and a 50mm f/1.4.

I tried shooting the 70-200 @ f/2.8 wide open with a 5D MII, but the ISO bump was up to 3200 and I still couldn't get a decent frozen shot.

So I am looking at the 85mm f/1.8. I would love to get a 200mm f/1.8 but that is probably a bit out of budget right now :rolleyes (that, and the fact that nobody is selling them on the used market that I can see).

Is the 85mm f/1.8 good? Anybody have experience with this shooting indoor sports? Should I consider an alternative?

Eclipsed

I know a lot of people that recommend that lens for indoor sports. It's a pretty fast lens with good autofocus. The people I know use it for basketball.

RogersDA

Eclipsed wrote: »

I know a lot of people that recommend that lens for indoor sports. It's a pretty fast lens with good autofocus. The people I know use it for basketball.

Thanks - that's what I have been seeing. I can only hope I can be close enough. I have never been to any of the locations. Not too worried - I am not an official shooter, but hopefully they will let me around the far sides...

cmkultradome

I love my 85mm 1.8 for gymnastics!! I'm not an official photographer but I shoot at all of my son's meets and the 85mm is my lens of choice for most events (boys and girls) provided I can get close enough. Otherwise I use my 70-200 for floor exercise and events that I can't get close enough. The two photos below were both shot with my 40D at ISO 3200 and the 85mm. The shot of my son was taken in a dungeon (a casino event center that was a huge ballroom with chandalier lighting). Congrats on the 1DMII, hopefully I'll be upgrading to a 7D early next year.

Stephanie

Matthew Saville

RogersDA wrote: »

I will have a 1D MII soon (I hope). I have the 70-200 f/2.8 IS and a 50mm f/1.4.

I tried shooting the 70-200 @ f/2.8 wide open with a 5D MII, but the ISO bump was up to 3200 and I still couldn't get a decent frozen shot.

So I am looking at the 85mm f/1.8. I would love to get a 200mm f/1.8 but that is probably a bit out of budget right now (that, and the fact that nobody is selling them on the used market that I can see).

Is the 85mm f/1.8 good? Anybody have experience with this shooting indoor sports? Should I consider an alternative?

If that kind of exposure power isn't cutting it, then maybe tell them to turn up the lights? That's so dark that I don't know how the gymnasts can see to do their stunts! Of course maybe you have shutter speed needs higher than I'm assuming. I usually end up stuck no higher than 1/125 or 1/250, because the gyms are often under fluorescent lighting which wreaks havoc on anything more than a stop or so higher than the frequency of the bulbs.

But if you're under better lighting and are looking to climb higher, then yeah go for it!

Either way the 85 1.8 is definitely a lens no gymnastics photographer should be without, and a 1.3x crop sensor is just about the best thing you could possibly buy for the subject matter as well. Personally I'd hold out for a 1D mk3, but the mk2N is definitely a good buy.

BTW here's the light issue I was talking about. Kelvin WB, manual exposure, so nothing *ought* to change in these images. :-P

RogersDA

I know in our gym the lights are metal halides (there's a good 2-5 minute warm-up until the light is stable), and they keep several of them off during practices.

I have no idea what the other gyms have since I have never been to any of them for the competitions.

I am going to have to find some test shots from our gym with 5D MII and the 70-200 lens. I'll post them up and see what other pointers you all can give.

WRT the the 1D MIII - while I would love that it is indeed a bit over the price that I have, even on the used market.

RogersDA

Matthew Saville wrote: »

BTW here's the light issue I was talking about. Kelvin WB, manual exposure, so nothing *ought* to change in these images. :-P

Something I never knew about. Thanks for that information.

RogersDA

cmkultradome wrote: »

I love my 85mm 1.8 for gymnastics!! I'm not an official photographer but I shoot at all of my son's meets and the 85mm is my lens of choice for most events (boys and girls) provided I can get close enough. Otherwise I use my 70-200 for floor exercise and events that I can't get close enough. The two photos below were both shot with my 40D at ISO 3200 and the 85mm. The shot of my son was taken in a dungeon (a casino event center that was a huge ballroom with chandalier lighting). Congrats on the 1DMII, hopefully I'll be upgrading to a 7D early next year.

Stephanie

Thanks for the information and the image sharing!

MileHighAko

Check out this thread in the sports forum for some great resource and information regarding shooting gymnastics:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=130105

I'd love to shoot with an 85mm f/1.8, but in most scenarios in the gyms around here (Denver) I simply can't get close enough to get the shots I want. Gymnastics are unique since the lights are SO BAD, there is chalk dust in the air, and in many cases the apparatus are so far away. Since flash or light of any kind is not allowed, it can be a nightmare. I mostly use a 70-200 f/2.8, and sometimes switch to a 50mm f/1.8 if I'm close enough to a particular event. I am always shooting at ISO 3200, and I try to stick to a shutter speed of 1/500.

I've run into the lighting problem that Matt describes above. Just this last week it caused me hours in LR3 messing with saturation trying to clean up some otherwise good shots. Good luck, and definitely check out that link above.

RogersDA

Thanks again for the information. I will be reading and practicing a lot.

Zerodog

After getting one of these I consider it an essential tool for indoor photography. Perfect WB in any conditions and gives you a really good starting point for Manual exposures. The expo disc is a little pricey, but it is worth every penny.

RogersDA

Got one already...:D

awoo

Zerodog wrote: »

After getting one of these I consider it an essential tool for indoor photography. Perfect WB in any conditions and gives you a really good starting point for Manual exposures. The expo disc is a little pricey, but it is worth every penny.

Ooooh! Can you post up pics used with and without the use of the ExpoDisk?!

kdog

Zerodog wrote: »

After getting one of these I consider it an essential tool for indoor photography. Perfect WB in any conditions and gives you a really good starting point for Manual exposures. The expo disc is a little pricey, but it is worth every penny.

Unless you intend to adjust your white balance 60 times a second, that's not going to help with the problem that Matthew Saville was talking about.

Zerodog

Gottcha! Now I am paying attention. He is talking light flicker. I would say that that sucks and would be very hard to deal with. I have no really good ideas for that issue. It would just take lots of shots and PP to get your keepers.

Matthew Saville

Zerodog wrote: »

Gottcha! Now I am paying attention. He is talking light flicker. I would say that that sucks and would be very hard to deal with. I have no really good ideas for that issue. It would just take lots of shots and PP to get your keepers.

The trick for me has been to keep my shutter speed down within the HZ frequency of the bulbs. I can usually get away with 1/125 sec or 1/180, which is enough to "stop action" at the peak of motion, though not during the fastest parts.

For most gymnastics, what I've done is pre-focus on where the peak action will be, (above the bar, towards the corner of the floor, etc.) ...and just wait for the action to come to me.

Fortunately, the BETTER venues do have much better lighting, and you can crank your shutter speed as high as you please. Or at least to 1/1000th sec. It's just the ghetto venues that REALLY suffer from this issue. And usually when I'm shooting at the lesser venues, it's not for money, just for fun. :-)

=Matt=

BTW, I got an Expo Disc years ago and haven't used it in at least 2-3. Not since I started using live view on my D300 to set WB! (shhh! top secret trick!)

RogersDA

Matthew Saville wrote: »

BTW, I got an Expo Disc years ago and haven't used it in at least 2-3. Not since I started using live view on my D300 to set WB! (shhh! top secret trick!)

I have do that with the 5DMII. Unfortunately not every camera has that live view thing (and certainly not the used body I am looking at).

JimKarczewski

Some halides still "flicker" at high shutter speeds (if you can get them.) I shot basketball tonight under Halides and from frame to frame you could see a difference in the ceiling of the gym. However, nothing even remotely close to how bad fluorescents can be..