Canon 1Ds Sports Action

[sergio]

I had a shoot a month ago that involved kids running towards the camera. I set focusing to AIS and it worked perfectly. Over 95% of the shots were in focus and those that weren´t was because I reframed the shot while they were running and it fooled the autofocus. It was unthinkable to do this shoot in a MF system.

[ronf932]

Those are some impressive shots. I'm almost ready to make the switch.
Look at http://www.morganfaulkner.com . There is a three shot sequence on the front page with Canon 1VHS, Velvia 50.
I used a 600mm lens. Most shots on that site were taken using same set up.

[ronf932]

Does any one have experience using the Canon 1Ds for hi action photography?

Can you comment?

[billh]

I find for people playing sports, and for cars racing, it works fine. I have problems relatively often with dog sports where the dog is running fast toward me. Then the autofocus seems to usually pick a spot behind the face. I switched form the EOS 1n to the Nikon F5 because the Nikon was better in this area. It looks like that may still hold true, but the 1Ds image quality is so good I’d be hard pressed to go back to film.

The shutter lag is pretty minimal in the 1Ds, so I have not really missed the fast motor drive. I usually end up with one exposure instead of a blast of them from which I must choose. There several shots here of action with the 1Ds:

http://homepage.mac.com/billh96007/PhotoAlbum1.html

http://homepage.mac.com/billh96007/PhotoAlbum6.html

[victoraberdeen]

The surfer shots look a little soft, I'll assume your originals are sharp and it's just the copies on this web site.

I have always founf MF to be better in real action, because it allow you to compose where you want and not by the focus points.