Canon 1D MKIII vs. Nikon D3 Sports Autofocus Showdown Concerns

[Cliff_Lawson]

Richard,
Sure - ISO is between 200-400, with Auto ISO OFF. With the motorsports, I am shooting between about 9:30AM to 3:00PM, in bright Colorado sun, so exposure and WB don't change much from start to finish. I do move to accommodate the sun angle.

But the big deal is AF and my AF settings are: Continuous AF with Focus Priority, 21 point Dynamic AF, and AF Point Selection 11.

All I know is that these work well for me. I also shot an indoor HS Color Guard/Dance event with ISO at 5000 in relatively decent lighting (to get 1/2500 shutter) and this setting worked very well also, but there were a few (very few) OOF images. I would chalk that up to less-than-daylight lighting and some costumes that were solid color giving little or no contrast in lower (but not horrible) light. Still, the overall keeper rate was better than I ever got with D100/D2H/D2X.

Cliff

[Cliff_Lawson]

As to Jonathan's remarks that NOBODY get zero OOF shots, I can assure you (and him) that in two events, that is indeed the case. When swimming season starts, I am sure this %age will climb, but i'd bet it will be better than with the D2X.

I have been shooting this stuff for years and am just as skeptical - but I see what I see.

[Daniel_Terpstra]

I found this test very interesting when I first saw it and felt like I was taking crazy pills. I am a huge fan of Canon but ultimately own all Nikon gear and found it a bit frustrating to find out my camera of choice was the moron on the block according to "science". I have, however, shot 3 Professional Arena Football games in the last month and a half with my D3 and found very different results.

I am not an experienced sports shooter but after just three games found myself with very good results. In fact, I know I'm shooting more then the PJ guys based on timing inexperience and the love affair with super fast shutter but my results were quite different then what was reported here.

Stats (game three):
Indoor under poor lighting conditions (except game that was ESPN televised with more lighting). ISO 3200, preset WB, manual exposure f2.8 @ 1/640 sec (center of field, 1/500 toward end zones), continuous AF with dynamic (middle) setting, 70-200 w/ VR off mostly and DX crop on for extended zoom and tighter 51 point AF coverage.

I would say that with the chaos of the game my dynamic AF followed the desired player 85% of the time. I am still a bit old fashion so I would release and re-focus somewhat ofen when the ball was coming downfield toward me but it caught these ultra fast runners coming at me in the end zone.

I do wonder if this is "real world" settings or best possible settings for the situations. I totally realize that shooting events with my partner using Canon how we sometimes get the same results from seemingly different settings.

My 2¢

[Richard_Coyle]

Cliff
Thanks for the settings. I'm surprised you're using "focus priority" setting and that it doesn't create lag in the bursts. I'll have to try it, as I've always used "release priority" for action on all my prior bodies and set my new ones up this way also. Must be the improved AF engine at work!

Daniel
Thanks for your feedback as well. Your experience is similar to what I'm hearing from others, and much more in line with the responses I've had from my favorite dealer who is a very large Nikon and Canon distributor. He's seeing Canon pros gravitate to the new D3 for sports in large numbers, as well as for other uses. Most of it is word of mouth business, and that comes from actual real life results being communicated one on one, as opposed to web reported test results. Glad to hear you're enjoying it as well!

[Noel_Carboni]

Just an observation... People tend to talk about sports focus prowess in extremes. Even the most unsophisticated autofocus system can work nicely in the hands of someone using it to its best.

I used to shoot youth field sports with my old, slow Canon EOS-D30, from 2000. I actually got a good majority of my shots in focus.

As with anything the camera is a tool. A person using an adequate tool adeptly can almost always run rings around someone bumbling around with the absolute latest and greatest gee-whiz model. In short, it's NOT all about the camera!!!

-Noel

[Ronald Garrett]

Yep, you're right Noel. However, do you ever wonder how your astro photography, with it's long exposures might be improved with a D3?

[Cliff_Lawson]

[quote=Richard_Coyle;460333]Cliff
Thanks for the settings. I'm surprised you're using "focus priority" setting and that it doesn't create lag in the bursts. I'll have to try it, as I've always used "release priority" for action on all my prior bodies and set my new ones up this way also. Must be the improved AF engine at work!

Richard,

I should also point out that I begin tracking the car (AF-C) as it approaches the spot in which I want to have the car for the shot. The focus has had 3-4 seconds to lock on prior to the actual shot. I have AF Lock-on OFF - I found that in this application it can actually delay getting good focus. Not always, but sometimes. I used to use normal or long thinking that the intermittent cone or pole that may intrude between the camera and the car would not cause a refocus. That is true, but it appears that it delays focus acquisition just a tad.

I alternate between using the shutter button and just the AF-On button. Both seem to work and for this application one does not seem to be appreciably better than the other. For me. I am not using VR (unless panning for motion blur) as shutter speeds are always at or over 1/1000.

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