SL2 and small fast moving objects

[dem331]

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I haven’t used a non-rangefinder camera for a number of years but now I have the SL2, my first EVF camera. 

 

I am extremely satisfied with it for portraits, landscape and travel, both with M lenses, with the 24-90mm zoom and with C/Y lenses. 

 

But yesterday I took it out for a walk with my Springer Spaniel, Whisky,  and a 180 mm MF lens and decided to practice a bit of sports /action photography. 

 

Whisky loves chasing, finding and retrieving balls or pine cones. He has an incredible supply of old tennis balls, since every time we go to the park he manages to find one.  Anyway, the exercise consisted of prefocusing the lens on a reference point, setting a fast shutter speed, throwing the tennis ball and taking pictures with continuous drive as he neared the reference point running towards me. Whisky is a pretty fast mover and will not always keep a straight line. He was also not particularly interested in always passing near my reference point.  

 

Results were not good.  I had done this exercise some years ago with my M240 without EVF, albeit with a 135mm lens, and got some pretty decent shots. 

 

I think part of it is down to shutter lag, partly down to the focal length- it is very difficult to frame accurately a fast moving object that is coming head-on and not in a perfectly predictable line with a long lens, and probably mostly down to my deficient technique. Also holding a long lens by the barrel one risks nudging the focus.

 

I was expecting instant gratification with  this type of photography from my SL2 which I did not achieve.  However looking through the forum, I have not really seen examples of action photography with the SL/ SL2, except for birds, and this tends to be different because of the distances involved.

 

I will continue to try. Any comments welcome. 

[frame-it]

Manual focus with a fast approaching object usually = Zone focusing

But if you're looking for this kind of AF speed+locking  with the 24-90....

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by frame-it

[Luca]

Nice video above all music and models 🙂

to me not very different from Robin Sinha recent video on  face/body detection for SL2.

Though personally I prefer to rely for these situations on spot AF .

 

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, dem331 said:

I haven’t used a non-rangefinder camera for a number of years but now I have the SL2, my first EVF camera. 

 

I am extremely satisfied with it for portraits, landscape and travel, both with M lenses, with the 24-90mm zoom and with C/Y lenses. 

 

But yesterday I took it out for a walk with my Springer Spaniel, Whisky,  and a 180 mm MF lens and decided to practice a bit of sports /action photography. 

 

Whisky loves chasing, finding and retrieving balls or pine cones. He has an incredible supply of old tennis balls, since every time we go to the park he manages to find one.  Anyway, the exercise consisted of prefocusing the lens on a reference point, setting a fast shutter speed, throwing the tennis ball and taking pictures with continuous drive as he neared the reference point running towards me. Whisky is a pretty fast mover and will not always keep a straight line. He was also not particularly interested in always passing near my reference point.  

 

Results were not good.  I had done this exercise some years ago with my M240 without EVF, albeit with a 135mm lens, and got some pretty decent shots. 

 

I think part of it is down to shutter lag, partly down to the focal length- it is very difficult to frame accurately a fast moving object that is coming head-on and not in a perfectly predictable line with a long lens, and probably mostly down to my deficient technique. Also holding a long lens by the barrel one risks nudging the focus.

 

I was expecting instant gratification with  this type of photography from my SL2 which I did not achieve.  However looking through the forum, I have not really seen examples of action photography with the SL/ SL2, except for birds, and this tends to be different because of the distances involved.

 

I will continue to try. Any comments welcome. 

Technique: prefocus on the spot where you want to take the image and learn your shutter lag. 90% of that lag will be between your brain and your finger.

[LocalHero1953]

I can't answer for the SL2 but for other mirrorless cameras I've had, it's not so much shutter lag as EVF lag (though I agree that brain-finger lag also counts). If you can practice looking through both eyes at the same time you can often see a perceptible lag from the real world (right eye in the EVF, left eye direct at the subject). It was not good with the M240 and TL2 with their slow external finders, but the CL is not too bad, nor the SL, and I'd expect the SL2 to be better.

[dem331]

56 minutes ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I can't answer for the SL2 but for other mirrorless cameras I've had, it's not so much shutter lag as EVF lag (though I agree that brain-finger lag also counts). If you can practice looking through both eyes at the same time you can often see a perceptible lag from the real world (right eye in the EVF, left eye direct at the subject). It was not good with the M240 and TL2 with their slow external finders, but the CL is not too bad, nor the SL, and I'd expect the SL2 to be better.

I think you are right, it is EVF lag, apart from the technique.  We are talking about a split second here.  
 

[SrMi]

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What is your EVF Frame rate, 60 or 120 fps?

[dem331]

16 minutes ago, SrMi said:

What is your EVF Frame rate, 60 or 120 fps?

Good question. Should I know the answer? 

[bags27]

3 minutes ago, dem331 said:

Good question. Should I know the answer? 

I think it's in the manual, pp. 72ff.

[dem331]

Thanks

Edited January 7, 2020 by dem331

[SrMi]

Just now, dem331 said:

Good question. Should I know the answer? 

Yes, you should :). It is in the Display Settings.

[SrMi]

1 minute ago, dem331 said:

Good question. Should I know the answer? 

Yes, you should :). It is in the Display Settings.

[dem331]

38 minutes ago, SrMi said:

What is your EVF Frame rate, 60 or 120 fps?

Just checked, I have it on 60, presumably I should try 120

[dem331]

I guess the only reason for the lower refresh rate is to save battery power. 

Just read that Sony is introducing 240 fps refresh rate EVF. 

But these are just numbers to me, I understand the concept but have no intuitive understanding of the practical effect. 

[SrMi]

Just now, dem331 said:

I guess the only reason for the lower refresh rate is to save battery power. 

Just read that Sony is introducing 240 fps refresh rate EVF. 

But these are just numbers to me, I understand the concept but have no intuitive understanding of the practical effect. 

I use 60fps to save battery.  With 120 fps the movements in the EVF looks smoother, I think. This may help with fast moving objects.

[sillbeers15]

8 hours ago, dem331 said:

I haven’t used a non-rangefinder camera for a number of years but now I have the SL2, my first EVF camera. 

 

I am extremely satisfied with it for portraits, landscape and travel, both with M lenses, with the 24-90mm zoom and with C/Y lenses. 

 

But yesterday I took it out for a walk with my Springer Spaniel, Whisky,  and a 180 mm MF lens and decided to practice a bit of sports /action photography. 

 

Whisky loves chasing, finding and retrieving balls or pine cones. He has an incredible supply of old tennis balls, since every time we go to the park he manages to find one.  Anyway, the exercise consisted of prefocusing the lens on a reference point, setting a fast shutter speed, throwing the tennis ball and taking pictures with continuous drive as he neared the reference point running towards me. Whisky is a pretty fast mover and will not always keep a straight line. He was also not particularly interested in always passing near my reference point.  

 

Results were not good.  I had done this exercise some years ago with my M240 without EVF, albeit with a 135mm lens, and got some pretty decent shots. 

 

I think part of it is down to shutter lag, partly down to the focal length- it is very difficult to frame accurately a fast moving object that is coming head-on and not in a perfectly predictable line with a long lens, and probably mostly down to my deficient technique. Also holding a long lens by the barrel one risks nudging the focus.

 

I was expecting instant gratification with  this type of photography from my SL2 which I did not achieve.  However looking through the forum, I have not really seen examples of action photography with the SL/ SL2, except for birds, and this tends to be different because of the distances involved.

 

I will continue to try. Any comments welcome. 

There is more hit and miss from rangefinder than EVF on manual focus judgement. I never use the rangefinder patch on my M10. I use the live view 100%.

Your SL2 is perfect. User imperfection. You need more practice. 

[dem331]

I understand what you are saying, that is one of the main reasons I bought the SL2 to complement my  M240 which I’m not very successful at focusing when DOF is very shallow. 
 

But I have no difficulty in prefocusing on a point / zone  and calculating approximate area of focus with either camera, so I think it’s down to brain lag (technique) and EVF lag, which I hope to improve by changing the menu option to 120 fps and by anticipating the action (if needed). 

[jaapv]

6 hours ago, sillbeers15 said:

There is more hit and miss from rangefinder than EVF on manual focus judgement. I never use the rangefinder patch on my M10. I use the live view 100%.

Your SL2 is perfect. User imperfection. You need more practice. 

Why did you buy a rangefinder camera then? 🥴 Seems a bit wasteful, and there are far better Live View/ EVF cameras than the M10.

[sillbeers15]

54 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Why did you buy a rangefinder camera then? 🥴 Seems a bit wasteful, and there are far better Live View/ EVF cameras than the M10.

Specifications wise the Latest digital M has limited application although it has a great sensor designed for M lenses. With the rangefinder OVF, setting an accurate focus with lenses such as 0.95M50 and M90Cron is a real challenge for my eye. Only way is to rely on focus peaking in LV.

Unfortunately the M camera represent the core basics of Photography in which I grew up with. It is a camera to meet my desire and passion for photography. My actual workhorse is the SL2 and L mount Leica lenses. But I still fall back on my M to fulfill my desire than needs.

A week ago, I received an offer that is too good to pass on, so I sold my M10 and am waiting for the M11 to appear this year. The M10 monochrome will be out soon but too bad that it is not my cup of tea.

[Boojay]

17 hours ago, dem331 said:

I haven’t used a non-rangefinder camera for a number of years but now I have the SL2, my first EVF camera. 

 

I am extremely satisfied with it for portraits, landscape and travel, both with M lenses, with the 24-90mm zoom and with C/Y lenses. 

 

But yesterday I took it out for a walk with my Springer Spaniel, Whisky,  and a 180 mm MF lens and decided to practice a bit of sports /action photography. 

 

Whisky loves chasing, finding and retrieving balls or pine cones. He has an incredible supply of old tennis balls, since every time we go to the park he manages to find one.  Anyway, the exercise consisted of prefocusing the lens on a reference point, setting a fast shutter speed, throwing the tennis ball and taking pictures with continuous drive as he neared the reference point running towards me. Whisky is a pretty fast mover and will not always keep a straight line. He was also not particularly interested in always passing near my reference point.  

 

Results were not good.  I had done this exercise some years ago with my M240 without EVF, albeit with a 135mm lens, and got some pretty decent shots. 

 

I think part of it is down to shutter lag, partly down to the focal length- it is very difficult to frame accurately a fast moving object that is coming head-on and not in a perfectly predictable line with a long lens, and probably mostly down to my deficient technique. Also holding a long lens by the barrel one risks nudging the focus.

 

I was expecting instant gratification with  this type of photography from my SL2 which I did not achieve.  However looking through the forum, I have not really seen examples of action photography with the SL/ SL2, except for birds, and this tends to be different because of the distances involved.

 

I will continue to try. Any comments welcome. 

Biggest help for you would be someone else to throw the balls... 

Edited January 8, 2020 by Boojay

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Hallo,

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