is it my camera,new lens or me??

dbaker1221

just picked up a 1.8 85mm sigma & shot volleyball for the first time today.

I'n trying to figurew out if the D50 just is not very good in lower light or what.

I'll post 1 shot ..have not gone through many yet but I need to deciede if I'm returning the lens for now untill I purchase a d300.. I just don't know??:scratch


I think my crop was off on the bottom.

ziggy53

I hope you don't mind, I took a look at the original sized image, 1686 x 2529 Pixels, and the EXIF is extremely abbreviated, leading me to think the image has been processed.

The athletes' shoes that are closest to each other are very sharp, and I see individual strands of hair. I'm not sure what you expected, but the DOF is extremely shallow in this shot, leading me to believe it is either wide open or almost wide open.

Do you mind posting a link to the original, full-res image, ideally with full EXIF?

Thanks,

dbaker1221

ziggy53 wrote:

I hope you don't mind, I took a look at the original sized image, 1686 x 2529 Pixels, and the EXIF is extremely abbreviated, leading me to think the image has been processed.

The athletes' shoes that are closest to each other are very sharp, and I see individual strands of hair. I'm not sure what you expected, but the DOF is extremely shallow in this shot, leading me to believe it is either wide open or almost wide open.

Do you mind posting a link to the original, full-res image, ideally with full EXIF?

Thanks,

http://snapshotz.smugmug.com/gallery/3513077/1/198277575

It is processed, & over sharpend some. I shot in raw, opened it up in ps6 (which doesn't really do anything to raw) cropped it, saved as jpeg(max)
opened it in noise ninja, did some of that, & saved it again (max)
The one thing I did notice is that the resolution is being saved at 72 from noise ninja not it's original resolution I don't see why though.

how I shot it.
iso 1600
matrex meter
1.8 f
1/500 sec
85mm

anything else?

If I can get this shooting better I know I can sell a few shots to parents. 4x6 or 5x7 only. that's why I wondered if it's me or the camera or my expectations of a 1.8. perhaps the DOF is throwing me off?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the d50 sensor is just not very good in low light

ziggy53

For 4x6 and 5x7, I think you are getting enough detail for the average parent. I suggest trying f2 and f2.8 if possible to get a little better DOF.

The Nikon D50 is possibly a little slow to focus and certainly not an ideal sports camera. Shoot tons of images to get a reasonable number of "keepers". Concentrate of your timing and prefocus as possible. Yes I think the Nikon D300 is going to be a much more competent camera in many regards.

I admit I am completely unaware of the Sigma 85mm, f1.8 lens and I can't find any information about it. Does it have HSM?

dbaker1221

oops...sory zig...it's the nikon 85mm 1.8.

ziggy53

dbaker1221 wrote:

oops...sory zig...it's the nikon 85mm 1.8.

Great! That is probably your best choice overall. A tremendous value. Quick to focus and a very nice color and contrast.

Your best strategy is to watch for recordable events and shoot, shoot, shoot. You won't get every shot in perfect focus, but if you constantly pre-focus before the action you will get an appreciable number of keepers.

Like I said before, try f2 for individuals and f2.8 for a 2 shot.

You would certainly appreciate the more responsive D2Hs or even the D200 (or D300 when it comes out.) Of couse the very best will probably be the D3 when it comes out. The responsiveness is what you are after for sports:

Faster and more accurate autofocus.
Higher frame rate.
Deeper buffer.
Faster buffer flush.
Better high ISO performance. (D3 should blow all the other Nikon bodies away, at a $ cost of course.)

The lens factors in, but the NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8D AF is up to the task.