Sunday 16 March 2008

Last of the 07/08 Summer Crits - Wednesday 12th March 2008

The prep work



The last of the Canberra Cycling Club Summer Criteriums have been run and won and with the early-setting sun this late in the season they were fast and furious. Consequently the photography action was intense - just how I like it.

At recent events I've used what I consider a less than adequate, but just capable, lens - the Nikkor 24-85mm f/2.8-4 (thanks Ken) with neutral UV filter. It's an okay lens but auto-focus is pretty slow, even when coupled to the ground-breaking Nikon D3.


Shooting portraits is really what it's best at - but even then it's a bit average. I'm asking a lot of this little lens - to capture cyclists approaching at 45km/h within 2 metres of where I'm positioned. At that speed the riders are halving the distance in less than half a second so the mechanical focus is working pretty hard to stay with me.


Go the 70-200mm f/2.8


So, this week I committed the whole event to the 70-200mm f/2.8 and does it shine for this sort of work? The super fast Silent Wave Motor auto-focus is extraordinary, especially on the D3, so fast in fact that the pause at AF-ON is almost telepathic --- choose the comp, spot the focus sensor, feather the AF and bang! - right on the money.





But the 70-200mm has a gotcha, just a little thing to remember when working up-close like track cycling, and that is it will only close auto-focus to about 1.5 metres and I do like to get as close as I can safely manage so there's a few shots that exceed it's ability - not the lens' fault of course, just that it's not designed for what I'm trying to do.


The solution is of course to go no closer than say 2 metres or invest in the recently-released Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 and do some serious in-your-face work - now that'd fun.

The closing



These evening cycling events are exactly what Nikon was thinking when they began the D3 spec. - low light, fast action, close-in shooting - it simply excels. ISO above 800 is remarkably clean, but I try and avoid cranking the ISO too far - maybe 3200 at most - and instead rely on a high-contrast focus point to hold auto-focus, a shutter speed as low as 1/100s. and the 32 millisecond shutter response and a steady hand.


Flash is an option too and I nearly always have an SB-800 on hand for these events - but it's not really necessary for the shot, more for the artistic benefits like shutter zoom or when the sky lights up and getting a balanced background is what I'm looking for. I'm also looking for subtle feedback from riders to indicate that the flash is distracting in which case it goes back in the bag and the high-ISO abilities of the D3 get a run.


I've been trawling the web looking for D3 shooters who do cycling photography and they seem pretty quiet - though Moose Peterson has some great advice in his recent D3 post.

So in future posts I'll offer some insight and opinions on how I use the D3 with an emphasis on the auto-focus configuration that works for me. Of course our cycling chums may not care, but I'm chuffed to think that their reflected light is being captured by such an outstanding piece of technology.


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