IS is for taking shots between 1/100 to 1/15. it stabilises the movements of the lenses and the movements of the photographer, and it permise to take pictures with poor light without using a tripod. it is not usefull for sport photography, becasue if you shoot badminton lower than 1/500, you will have a lot of blur, not because of your movements, but because of movements of the player/racket/shuttle. by the way, you need a lens with aperture f2.8 or lower to have enough shutter speed to take badminton pictures.
let's make it simple. IS was designed to help photographers for getting a steady shot out of a stationary object. (with a relatively slow shutter speed.) it isn't useful if u wanna to take a steady shot from a moving object or vice versa.
That IS is useless at 1/500 is the mantra repeated by Nikon in response to Canon IS lenses until Nikon started releasing their VR lenses 70-200 f/2.8 and 300 f/2.8 and 200 f/2. Coincidentally these are 3 lenses commonly used by sports photographers. i'm waiting for canon to release 200 f/1.8 IS... I'm just sharing what I have learnt from actual shooting and I've posted some photographs in badminton central, feel free to look at them under the Singapore Open 2005 and 2006 folders . My tip may be useful to some, not useful to others.
this are lenses commonly used by sport photographers because this are luminous lenses f/2.8, f/2, f/1.8, and so they can shoot at a very high speed, ans with very short DOP... IS is unusefull for photography with high shutter speed. It is not just about marketing, it's about thinking: If you shoot sport at 1/500, no ned to tripod, no need to IS By the way, all this lenses you're talking about are beautifull lenses, and do great pictures, but not because of IS/VR
can u provide the links to those folders? my comments on IS/VR. I have to admit that i'm a very novice in photography and had been waiting for IS/VR technology to become mainstream before i commit on a dslr. Feedback from experienced posters here are very helpful. I agree that is/vr benefits diminish at higher speed but it's a 'nice to have around' technology. IS/VR allow user to shoot higher zoomed images and/or while using higher ISO. I think IS/VR technology will be in all mid to highend camera, be it in the lens or in the body. It's about making more money by camera makers
cooler, i'm just referring to the BC forums subfolders/subforums on SG open. Canon released its IS lens in 1994 if i recall, so its pretty well established. As for video-cameras, image stabilisation or 'steady shot' etc, is also pretty much a standard feature except for the low end.
Unfortunately, my computer hasn't been able to log on to BC/BF until today. It's very strange because other people in other countries can access the site with no problems. I wonder if it is my ISP that has a problem. Didn't get to Macau Open till quite late. Used a 70-200/2.8L most of the time. Hardly used the 17-55 even though I could get pretty close to court. It took me a little while to warm up. Remember, I only just got the new camera so it was a case of new equipment, new environment and thinking of how to position myself. Initially there were metering problems. I had spot metering set initially. Bad move - went to centreweighted pretty quickly. Then I accidently set the exposure compensation to -2/3. Aargh. All these things with new equipment. My timing needed to change as the shutterlag time of 30D is faster than 350D. The AF is so much better. I can really feel the difference. Finally, I think 5fps isn't fast enough. Wonder what 8.5fps can do look up pics in Macau Open forum.
whoops, having some problems with batch processing. Not really familiar with the software. Be patient!!
The AF system has a tighter tolerance compared to 350D. That could be another reason as well as faster AF.
Why didn't they let you use this lens but let you use the 200/1.8 at SG Open? I used a 70-200/2.8L (non IS) for Macau Open. Like many of you, I didn't need IS for fast shutterspeeds like in badminton photos. Macau Open venue was very well lit. Strangely enough, I didn't need to adjust white balance. Very pleased how the colours and the number of in focus shots turned out. Maybe the venue is better lit than in HK? Just a question to ask you guys - Actually, I set the camera to AV at f3.2. Thought that this would help the number of in focus shots by increasing depth of field ever so slightly. Was it worth it? 30D has the ability to set 1/3 increments of ISO. I took all my shots at ISO1600. Is it worth reducing by a third of a stop to reduce noise? I didn't play with all these settings since I only had a few hours to take shots. Again, it's all about tradeoffs but do those questions make differences in real life conditions?
Cheung, you are shooting at 1/640s, ISO1600, f/2.8, and the pics comes out well exposed and sharp. if you use f/3.2, in fact you may be a bit better off as the pics will be slight sharper, and you may get dropped down to 1/500, but that's still plenty. the DOF will improve slightly, but probably not enough to be of any significance. i assume you haven't done much post-processing to increase the exposure, right?
Nope, not much postprocessing. It was the first time I'd ever done any batch processing. Took me a few runs before I could get the right file sizes to post on BCBF. I think most shots are 1/500th f3.2 ISO 1600 (centreweighted metering). I found that with my 350D, I have it permanently set at +1/3. Some of the shots look dark because I accidently set -1/3 and then -2/3 at one point I tried to compensate postprocessing but I don;t think it actually worked!!
iso 1600! that's what i guessed from the first fews pics of lcw. they were sharp but the color seemed tobe a bit pale. that's the common canon problem of using high iso setting. whenever it is possible. we should use iso 800 or even a lower iso setting. images would generally be better in details and richer in color. for me, i am not gonna use higher iso setting if i can get a shot with 1/500 f2.8 @ iso 800. form your pictures cheung. it looked like the lighting situation was far more better that the hk qe stadium! darn!!!
you are pretty much at a nice sweet spot, the lighting is very good. last time i shoot in the local gym, it was ISO1600, 1/320, f/1.6, and then in postprocessing, i have to push another 1.5 to 2 stops. ie. the local gym was 4 stops darker than the Macau gym. DOF is a two edged sword though. at one end, you want to maximize it so that more of your subject is focused. at the other end, you want to minimize it so the background is appropriately blurred...
just wanna clarify my point. i am not gonna trade one f stop with one stop higher iso setting. eventhough we all know the quality of an image and the depth of field will be better if we step down the aperture. for indoor sports photography with telephoto lenses. the advantage will be less significant.
