Blown away - Sigma 70-300 APO - Daughter's first soccer game

Gadget_Guy · Posted by Gadget_Guy, 05-30-2008, 09:22 PM

Being the proud dad I just HAD to bring my kit along with me tonight for my Daughter's first Soccer game (she is 4)... the little one is my other daughter (2y)

Here she is in all her glory...

I brought the whole kit but only the Sigma 70-300mm APO stayed on the camera the whole time.

Here is what is amazing. It was a dark, overcast sky, not a lot of light at all.. No flash gun.... and these are the shots:

All were taken in RAW mode with my K10D, brought into Lightroom, cropped, resized to post here and that is all.

Most were shot at full 300mm.

ZERO adjustments.

(The camera recently came back from Pentax after having been adjusted for FF and Exposure problems... I think they got it fixed)

Let me know what you think.... I love this lens!

D.

Matthew Roberts · 05-30-2008, 09:44 PM

Nice pics by a soccer... dad?

(My dad was one too once.

)

And immediately knew it was in Canada by the "Tim Hortons" advertising!

johnsey · 05-30-2008, 10:12 PM

Looks like it will be a fun lens for ya to do sports as she grows up

One question I have is the images seem a bit soft even at the sharpest point of focus. Shooting too slow for that length of lens maybe?
I dunno much about this lens since I don't buy 3rd party, so maybe its a bit soft wide open, which could be the case considering the lens length and lighting. Sorry to be a damper on the fun evening of shooting, but when the all exhibit it i figure its worth mentioning so you can problem solve.

*LaRee* · 05-30-2008, 10:46 PM

Too Cute! These will be shots that hold value for a long long time. Enjoy!

**roentarre** · 05-30-2008, 11:34 PM

Wow, the last one really works out well

JCSullivan · 05-31-2008, 05:11 AM

I would agree they're a little soft but I don't think it's the camera or the p'grapher. I have the same problem. I always blame it on the lense.

Those are great shots of the kids having fun - it IS what kids are supposed to do.

Ahhhhh the Tim Horton's advertising. How true BUT, if it wasn't for them a lot of kids would be missing out on both hockey and soccer and summer camp and...THEY do give back to the community. BTW they're in the States too and Kandihar

Gadget_Guy · 05-31-2008, 06:44 AM

Thanks for all the comments..... I really do appreciate them. (no damper... I would like my "soccer" shots to get better as the season goes one)

This was my very first time shooting sports and using this lens. I bought it specifically for my daughter's sports stuff this summer.... I have a lot to learn with both my camera and this lense. I can't afford anything else and this was a good value lense.

I have a feeling some of the softness has to do with settings not being quite right on the camera too.... (and perhaps the lense)

I am going to try faster shutter next time and perhaps shoot at a higher ISO. As I said, it was very overcast and dark... I am just blown away at how bright the shots are. I am also impressed with the colours. I do feel they are a little soft.

I may also change the Program Line to be speed.

I went back and looked really close at my RAW files and some of the softness MIGHT be the "save for web" JPG compressession from photoshop so that they weren't monster sized files. The RAW files look a little sharper.

Maybe I need to spend some time figuring out that part too.

D.

*reeftool* · 05-31-2008, 07:01 AM

Nice shots. It looks like you're going to have many years of sports ahead of you. I have the 70-300 non APO and it is a little soft at 300 but most shots are usable. I seem to have more of a problem with camera shake at 300, even with SR on but that is probably me. My daughter rows on a crew team and many shots are several hundred yards out on the water and I still need a 100% crop at 300.

*daacon* · 05-31-2008, 08:55 AM

Excellent series and those kids are too cute (I miss those days !!!!) - yep a little faster shutter speed. Any sport where the movement is unpredictable adds more compleixity for sure. I think you did well.

Gadget_Guy · 05-31-2008, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by daacon

Excellent series and those kids are too cute (I miss those days !!!!) - yep a little faster shutter speed. Any sport where the movement is unpredictable adds more compleixity for sure. I think you did well.

Thanks daacon, My kids are the absolute essense of my being....

Girl #3 is on the way too..... it is going to be a crazy house-hold... even our dog is female.... I am so out-numbered.

I was really nervous about pushing the ISO up. Most of these were shot at 800 ISO and 1000 ISO

Next time should I be at 1600 ISO?

I just don't want to end up with grainy photos.... or is it the lesser of the evils?

Grainy vs slow shutter speed for sharper shots?

Would I be better with something like the Bigma (I see you have one) for this stuff over the lens I have? at 300mm the best I can hope for is f5.6

Most of these are around 1/100th and 1/60th ISO1000 f7.1

D.

Sergei · 05-31-2008, 06:07 PM

you are justifiably to be proud!
Great series and good glass, I used to have Bigma in the F mount, great glass, but not fast enough for sport and fast moving kiddies IMO.

Gadget_Guy · 05-31-2008, 06:29 PM

Without spending a fortune... what is Fast Glass?

What should I be looking for?

D.

05-31-2008, 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by Gadget_Guy

Without spending a fortune... what is Fast Glass?

What should I be looking for?

D.

Great shots and certainly cute kids all of them. Having read some of your responses and questions, i thought I would chime in a bit. For starters, no you should not have to shoot outdoor soccer at ISO 800 and beyond. Even if you're at F5.6 I would think ISO 400 ought to do it on most every occasion. Now, if it happens to be seriously overcast or down right cloudy, perhaps you could got to ISO 500 or 640.

Secondly, fast glass means something with an aperature of F4 or lower. Generally speaking that does mean spending at least something of a fortune, though not always. At the top of your list, you might put the DA*200 which would run near 1K (see my thread further below entitled Why I don't regret dropping 1200 bucks on my FA*200). If you don't mind manual focus though, you could pick up a trust old M 200 F4 still in excellent condition for as low as 200 bucks or so. It's all up to you.

In any event, good luck and thanks for sharing!

Rob

*daacon* · 05-31-2008, 07:40 PM

What mode were you shooting in ? Outdoors you should be able to get 1/250+ shutter speed. And like Rob says ISO 400 should be max. Try Tav mode and force the shutter faster. In good light the Bigma offers more reach but the Bigma is slow on the wide end and it lives up to it's name BIGma

Blur (I think) shots some excellent Motor sports with his (drifting) but he has perfected the panning . With pratice you could get some great shots , but I think 300 given your accessibility to the sidelines and the age of the players (speed) is probably ok.

I think spot metering would help, pre-focus on areas where action will be and panning. I don't think you need expensive glass to capture better socccer shots at that level just more pratice.

That said if you are into manual focus there are a lot of options for some realtivelvy fast glass (f4 ish) - I don't have any becuase my eyes prefer AF , expseically if there is action ! Other members can help here or search the lens section for fast manual glass.

Three girls wow ! I have one who is 18 now and one boy at 16 we quit once we got one of each haha . Enjoy this time I so wish I had (D)SLR when they were younger

petenick · 05-31-2008, 08:11 PM

Great series of shots. According to the EXIF data on the pictures using my Firefox extension<which may not be accurate> , only one shot was at 300mm, the one with the child sitting on a cone. The rest were at 70, 85 or 170mm. Is there possibly a problem with the camera reporting focal length since it was recently fixed by Pentax? Hopefully when I send mine in for a dead sensor pixel it comes back with no issues!