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15's Club Volleyball - Round 3, first with Nikon D300
I've shot with Olympus digital cameras for over 10 years now and have always been happy. But starting to shoot sports, I decided it was time to move on to something that has better auto focus performance and does better in low-light.
So I got a new-to-me D300 off of eBay and thanks to MDalby for letting me borrow his 70-200mm for the day.
I loved the overall performance of the D300 - it just did everything I asked it too.
The venue we played at was pretty crappy from a lighting standpoint. Blue & Red courts, dark ceilings, not enough light, etc. I had to shoot at ISO 2500 just to get a decent shutter speed. Here is what I was dealing with:
Can't say I was blown away by the images, all seemed a little soft to me, even ones that in my opinion should be razor sharp. But then comparing them to my Olympus shots, I guess they were pretty comparable - I have to keep in mind that I probably wouldn't have been able to get these shots with the Olympus in this venue.
Anyway, I digress. Here are a few shots I was pretty happy with. Color correcting these were a pain and I'm still not quite satisfied. Ran through Noise Ninja before uploading to SmugMug.
1.
2.
3.
4. (yeah, I know, no ball in the shot, but it's my daughter...)
5.
6 - Example shot that I thought was way too soft for no reason...
So I got a new-to-me D300 off of eBay and thanks to MDalby for letting me borrow his 70-200mm for the day.
I loved the overall performance of the D300 - it just did everything I asked it too.
The venue we played at was pretty crappy from a lighting standpoint. Blue & Red courts, dark ceilings, not enough light, etc. I had to shoot at ISO 2500 just to get a decent shutter speed. Here is what I was dealing with:
Can't say I was blown away by the images, all seemed a little soft to me, even ones that in my opinion should be razor sharp. But then comparing them to my Olympus shots, I guess they were pretty comparable - I have to keep in mind that I probably wouldn't have been able to get these shots with the Olympus in this venue.
Anyway, I digress. Here are a few shots I was pretty happy with. Color correcting these were a pain and I'm still not quite satisfied. Ran through Noise Ninja before uploading to SmugMug.
1.
2.
3.
4. (yeah, I know, no ball in the shot, but it's my daughter...)
5.
6 - Example shot that I thought was way too soft for no reason...
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Comments
With all that said. I think these came out pretty good (way better than mine). As far as the softness, I know in my experience noise reduction does soften things up. Though, I have never used noise ninja, so I don't know the exact effects that program has.
A, P, Manual.................focus mode....................RAW or JPG.............
Steve
www.slipkid.com
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money". -- Margaret Thatcher
Shot earlier in the day in JPG mode with "low" NR setting, then switched to RAW for their last match. I believe the in-camera noise reduction had something to do with it, the RAW images looked sharper than the JPGs. VR was "on" - don't know if that might has something to do with it - might not be as useful
But I still found all the images a tad soft compared to what I was getting from my Olympus camera. Although, I'll be the first to admit that it could be user error - it was my first time using this camera & lens in this environment.
We have a three-day tournament coming up this weekend, so I'll get plenty of practice time in.
When shooting fast moving objects (sports) turn the VR off. I think that is you main problem with the soft images.
Steve
www.slipkid.com
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money". -- Margaret Thatcher
Thanks for the info. I'll try shooting with the VR off next time. I've got my eye on a VRII right now, deciding whether to pull the trigger or not. I've budgeted for the VR I, but not the VRII.