Basketball and a Noctilux

[robsteve]

I took a few pictures at some basketball games last night using the M8 and DMR. These were shot with the M8 and Noctilux at f1.8 and 640iso.

[robsteve]

[jmr]

Robert,

as usual for you, all well timed and with a lovely luminous clarity.

[kidigital]

Excellent Robert. How dare you continue to press on against conventional wisdom and shoot sports with manual focus and, of all things, a rangefinder? Also, weren't you aware that the Noctilux is impractical for anything besides portraits because of its size and unpredictable bokeh?

Kurt

[stuny]

robert -

Fabulous action, framing, details, light and color. In #1 it looks as though the Tiger is being lifted by the Acadian.

[billh]

I have never see Noctilux photos like this. I think you would manage to get great shots no matter what equipment you were using.

[robsteve]

Thanks everybody. The action is a bit tough to get, but under the net is zone focusing.

The arena has better lighting at this net. The other one has some green/yellow in the lights as thye move away from the net.

Here are some from a game that I shot tonight. I was at f1.8 and 1/1000th and 640iso.

[abrewer]

Remarkable shots Rob.

I'm glad you mentioned the zone focusing...I was wondering how you got such great results on the fly with that lens.

The first set, the ones under the less well-lit goal are really special. They have that Leica magic going bigtime.

Thanks for sharing (as always)!

Allan

[andybarton]

Really nice work.

[robsteve]

Originally Posted by abrewer

Remarkable shots Rob.

I'm glad you mentioned the zone focusing...I was wondering how you got such great results on the fly with that lens.

The first set, the ones under the less well-lit goal are really special. They have that Leica magic going bigtime.

Thanks for sharing (as always)!

Allan

I did focus a lot. It was just the last two that were zone focused.

Here is a series were I follow focused using the 35mm Summicron. I found the throw too short on the Summicron compared to the Noctilux. The movements were just too fine. Nothing great, but just shows it can be done.

I am off for a few errands, but will post some Nocti follow focus later.

[robsteve]

[ddp]

You know you're not supposed to shoot sports with an M.....lol. Nicely done Rob. Basketball is not an easy sport to shoot for many reasons...and it's great to see you defying convention with this combo.

[robsteve]

Originally Posted by ddp

You know you're not supposed to shoot sports with an M.....lol. Nicely done Rob. Basketball is not an easy sport to shoot for many reasons...and it's great to see you defying convention with this combo.

The final game is tonight, St Marys (Maroon) versus Acadia (red). It should be a good game.

[Bill Wendlandt]

Robert,
What I have read about the Noctilux is that when you stop down, the images are not are not as great as when it is shot wide open as it was designed. Your shots certainly contradict that. If you are shooting at f8 that is stopped down a bunch. What were you trying to use for zone focusing at f8. On the 50 f1.4 its about 15 feet for a zone from 10 to 25 feet. I was just curious if it is the same on a Noc. I can still buy the Noc as my 30% discount lens for purchsing the M8 before the end of 2006. Great shots by the way. Were you using the IR filters?

[arthury]

Robert,

These are the best I've seen in terms of WB from the M8. A few of them are slightly tilted towards the blue side but they are atrractively bluish. Excellent!

Aren't you going to share what you did in your post-processing? I understand you have your IR-filter on.

Please share. THANKS!

[cam2000]

Hi Robert......

You are ready to cover the next Olympic games.......these are superb shots for colors, lights and of course the most important....... exciting actiion for the sport! Nice work!!!

[robsteve]

Originally Posted by Bill Wendlandt

Robert,
What I have read about the Noctilux is that when you stop down, the images are not are not as great as when it is shot wide open as it was designed. Your shots certainly contradict that. If you are shooting at f8 that is stopped down a bunch. What were you trying to use for zone focusing at f8. On the 50 f1.4 its about 15 feet for a zone from 10 to 25 feet. I was just curious if it is the same on a Noc. I can still buy the Noc as my 30% discount lens for purchsing the M8 before the end of 2006. Great shots by the way. Were you using the IR filters?

Bill:

I was shooting at f1.8. That is half a stop after f1.4, or the Nocti stoped down 1.5 stops.

[robsteve]

Originally Posted by arthury

Robert,

These are the best I've seen in terms of WB from the M8. A few of them are slightly tilted towards the blue side but they are atrractively bluish. Excellent!

Aren't you going to share what you did in your post-processing? I understand you have your IR-filter on.

Please share. THANKS!

Arthur:

I set a manual white balance with a grey card prior to the game and developed the RAWS in LightRoom. I have a slight calibration for the M8 and on some I increased exposure in lightroom from 1/3 to half a stop.



Some of the blue can be the blue reflection from the blue paint on the floor.

The color also shifts depending on where they are on the floor. If you look up at the stadium lights in the pictures, you will see some look white, others have a tint to them.


My Lightroom calibration for the M8 is red hue +8, red saturation +1, bleu hue -8.

[thpeters]

Robert,

Great pictures, love the color, sharpness and the actions from the game.

I know it, but I see now, how this Noctilux lens can perform, thanks for sharing.
Theo

[robsteve]

I used LightRoom to create a flash gallery of the shots from the second game last night. It is a pretty good program and will even upload the flash gallery to your web space.

These are mostly M8 shots, with a few DMR shots using the 180mm APO Summicron or a 19mm.

Gallery