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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
12-31-2014, 08:43 PM
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Happy New Year to all Pentaxians from Melbourne, Australia!
Looking forward to further Ricoh/Pentax surprises in 2015.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
10-16-2014, 03:27 AM
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Hi FWWidell, nice shot. I have been shooting teenager basketball with the K3 & 50-135 for about a year (and the K5 for several years before that). I think basketball is a challenging sport to shoot because of the speed of play and the usual poor lighting that you have to deal with in basketball courts. I have found the K3 is a big improvement on the K5 for focus and resolution (cropability) with similar noise capability.
If I might comment on camera setup - I see you made the shot at 1/1000s, F2.8 and iso 6400. My suggestion would be to pull back on the shutter speed to lower the iso leaving the aperture wide open. I think the IQ of your shots will be markedly better at ISO 1600 or lower, still can be ok at 3200 but pushing the limits at 6400. To get the lower ISO needs lower shutter speed without going too low and having a totally blurred player. I find that at 1/320 you can usually have the player sharp and occasionally feet/hands/ball maybe blurred from movement but sometimes this adds to the image (IMHO). At 1/500 you get sharp images and 1/1000 is overkill if u sacrifice ISO. This is assuming that you standing on the sidelines and shooting at around 75mm. (I have found the best place to stand is at the corner of the court and a yard or two towards the centre of the court on the side with the best light).
Other camera setup that you might consider is TAv (320 or 500/F2.8), AFC, back button focus, Sel 2 or 3 with centre point, 1st frame focus priority and no/low AF hold status, Hi continuous burst, RAW. I find the best technique is to have the lens focussed in the vicinity of where you anticipate the action to occur, hit & hold the focus button and hold the frame on the player and then hit the shutter at the point when they are about to release the ball or at the best point of the action and take 2-4 frames.
The 50-135 is well regarded for its IQ but gets frequent bad press on this forum for being one of the slowest focussing lenses and not a sports lens. I actually find it very capable if you are not trying to go from infinity to your toes - it seems to me to be very fast within a segment of the focus range and I have taken 100's of sharp action photos. Maybe the back focus button is the key to focus the lens before the action starts.
Hope this helps and/or encourage further basketball shooting tips.
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