Action Pictures

[rich_h]

Hello, after a little advice please.

I have had my Canon 400d for a year now and have taken some good(ish) pictures with it - including lots of actions shots.

Over the last few weeks I have been using it again for action shots with a 80-200 lense, they normally work well together. However the quality has been very poor, with about 95% of the shots being no good. They are very blurred. They have been taken in the afternoon using the "Sports" mode.

I can only assume that the light quality is too poor? What do you think? Also, what sort of setting would capture a better images? Not really sure what sort of ISO setting I need etc etc

Any pointers would be great.

Many thanks

[gmacleod]

Which 80-200? There's an old f2.8L which was discontinued in favour of the newer 70-200 f2.8L... and there's a current F4.5-5.6. Is it one of those?

The former (old f2.8) should be perfect for the sorts of pictures you want to take, assuming you increase the ISO as needed. The latter is going to be too slow for action pictures - unless you're very lucky and the light is excellent.

As a minimum, you might get decent action pictures (of a dog) with a speed of about 1/500 sec. But faster is better (e.g. 1/2000 sec). Hard to say how far you'd need to increase the ISO to achieve that (depends on the light), but with a slow lens, it might be quite a long way. In the UK, you probably have no choice but to take a fast lens (or take different photos).

[rich_h]

Thanks for the reply.

It is an old lense, it says: Canon Zoon Lens EF 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6 II

Not sure if that helps or not?!

[gmacleod]

It is an f4.5-5.6 - which is very slow. "Slow" meaning that it does not let in a great deal of light, hence results in slow shutter speeds. Not necessarily slow in autofocus, as some people assume - but slow in shutter speed.

A "fast" lens, on the other hand, is one in the f1.2-2.8 range. These are usually big, heavy and expensive. But that's what is needed if you want fast shutter speeds in anything less than excellent light conditions. And since you're in the UK, you'll know that excellent light conditions aren't exactly the norm here

If you want to take action photos, you need a fast shutter speed. Without it, you'll have blurry photos whatever camera you're using. The better the light, the faster your shutter speed will be. Considering that great light in the UK isn't that common, you should probably consider a faster lens to take those sorts of photos. They're not all incredibly expensive.

In the meantime though, you would improve the photos by increasing the ISO as far as it takes to keep your shutter speed up over 1/500 sec (I'd suggest closer to 1/1000). That may often mean ISO800 and above. It will increase the noise, but at least the photos shouldn't be blurred.

[rich_h]

That makes sense, thank you. Looks like a new lens it is then, I shall have a look around and see what I can find.

Thanks again.