[Westoz]

I have been playing a lot with photographing my dogs at speed in the 200mm plus telephoto range.

My old boy Dozer isn't a problem for The DA*300 f4 or Sigma EX 70-200 f2.8 but Millie my Kelpie is another story altogether.

My F135 2.8 was the only thing that would keep up but it's range was to short I am toying with the idea of a DA or FA 200. It's the focus speed that's the problem none of the auto focus lenses will keep up with her running straight at me I have to get her going on at leased a 45 deg angle and still only get marginal shots.

Am I expecting to much?

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[Na Horuk]

The shutter speed seems to be high enough. Try manual focusing using zone focusing techniques or Catch-in-focus (aka focus trapping)? And burst mode. You can even lower the shutter speed a little and stop down more to increase DoF (and your chances of getting the dog in acceptable focus). Its a hard target, though, especially looking at the last photo. I'd be afraid the dog wouldn't stop and would just crash into me

[panoguy]

The last shot reminds me of running my old greyhound at the beach (though much less fluffy). No current AF would be fast enough for continuous tracking of that!

My guess is that you should use the tips mentioned above, or ask motorsports photographers how they do it.

[stevebrot]

ask motorsports photographers how they do it.

The pro's for motorsports and "birds in flight" pre-focus.

The issues with shooting action and getting sharp results with longer lenses can be summarized:

• Camera motion
• Limited DOF
• Subject moving out of range of focus after AF locks (applies even for CF and catch-in-focus)
• Subject motion

The remedies:

• High ISO allowing moderate apertures and high shutter speeds
• Use a camera with superb predictive AF (Nikon?) or master the art of predictive manual focus combined with "spray and pray" (high frames per second)

Steve

P.S. FWIW, Your example photos don't look that bad

P.P.S. Another footnote regarding birds in flight. Manual exposure based on pre-metered settings (e.g. gray card) is also pretty much the norm.

[hcc]

+1
The solution is MF + continuous shooting.

You pre-focus the lens at a distance between your dog and you, and then use the Tv mode with a high shutter speed (1/8,000s is great, but even 1/500s should do it).

You start shooting (continuous shooting) when your dog start running towards you and you stop once she passed the focus distance. For each sequence, you may get 1-5 good shots with superb focus.

I have a K-7 and I tend to choose a fast prime for this type of shots. That is, a VL58mm f1.4 and CZ85mm f1.4 in my case. More generally any MF fast prime should work nicely IMO, and you only need to ascertain that the focus distance ring is properly calibrated.

PS: I personally do not use anymore CIF for fast moving objects. I found that the above method gives me a better 'keeper rate'.

Hope that the comment will help.

[Westoz]

Thank you very much for your reply's and suggestions I will look at each one and see what I can apply to my situation.

As it stands I also have to throw the ball with a ball Thrower turn around and then find her in the camera view finder and shoot. Even with fast shutter speeds I only get off 2 - 4 shots before she is past and that's with a 100 meter laying down start.