Shooting marching band and winter guard presented a new challenge. The band plays a halftime show during home football games, and also goes to band competitions. Half time shows are usually at night, under stadium lighting. Band competitions can be during the day or evening, depending on the competition schedule.
The challenge, though, isn’t the lighting. I’ve gotten used to shooting in low light. I’ve got fast lenses, and I had a Nikon D300, which had exceptional high ISO performance for an APS sized sensor with a 1.5x crop factor. Band shows last about eight minutes; winter guard shows last four to six minutes. Imagine trying to swap lenses while the action is progressing, and you’ve got four minutes to capture, well, everything you can.
I normally shoot with two fast (for zooms) Nikkor lenses, the 24-70 f2.8 and the 70-200 f2.8VR. They’re excellent, sharp lenses, f2.8 throughout if you need the speed. The different lenses serve different purposes. The long zoom gives me the ability to catch action farther away, or really get close ups from medium distances. The 24-70 gives me the option to go somewhat wide, but also respond when the action gets close.
So the Nikon D300s body was a practical, if pricey, answer to my problem. During the 2009 winter guard season, I’d used Elizabeth’s D90 in conjunction with the D300. As good as the D90 is, it wasn’t sufficient. The 4fps shooting rate, the different user interface and the fewer AF sensor points didn’t work well for me. Swapping from the D300 body to the D90 body and back was jarring – it took me a few seconds to adjust each time I went from one body to the next.
Of course, with Elizabeth heading off to college, taking the D90 with her, using her camera body wasn’t an option. I kicked around the idea of picking up a used D300 body, but when Nikon announced the D300s, it was a pretty easy decision to preorder one.
I was slightly concerned that switching between the D300 and D300s would be the same cognitive dissonance as going from the D300 to the D90, since the control layout has changed a bit. But that didn’t prove to be the case. In fact, switching between the two bodies is very easy, since the weight and overall heft is familiar, and the basic controls are all the same.
Now that you understand the parameters by which I made my choice, let’s take a look at the D300s.
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4 comments
Tim Adams says:
September 14, 2009 at 4:29 pm (UTC -7 )
Hey loyd,
Been following you from ExtemeTech day’s was sad to see the that end,
especially enjoyed podcasts… you allowed me to embrace my midlife geekery.
Caught your guest appearance on Tech Report leading me here.
Anywaaay…My daughter just finishing high school sports last year and now is participating at college level. I have spent the last 4 years in dimly lit indoor arenas trying to get high quality results. Shooting fast action indoors sports is always a challenge, even for the pro’s. Shooting action indoors requires fast shudder speeds, fast glass and strobe if allowed.
Some of nikon’s older prime lenses 85mm 1.8 & 50mm 1.4, are fast & affordable, though these are “D” type lens’s and focus is pin driven from camera body, thus slower than “S” type, but they do offer 2-3 stops which as you know is huge. Depth of field does become a issue at these aperatures but with good technique & timing you can achieve some high quality results.
If allowed I prefer to use 2 to 4 sb800′s with justin clamps (clipped on to any available support). If line of sight is good ( meaning your commander or on camera flash can see your remote unit) you can use Nikon’s CLS system, but CLS is not really designed for sports action photography. I found Paul C. Bluff Cybercync’s are small & inexpensive & are rated to to work up to 800 ft. as a good solution reliably remotely trip my sb’s.
With the SB’s You wont be able to run 7-8 frames per second as you do shooting with a high iso but if you can balance your ambient light with strobes you can get 2-3 frames per second.
Both these options will yield better results keeping your iso down and reducing noise.
Strobes are a little more work, but hey what’s a photo geek to do?
All the best and continued success
Tim Adams
Loyd Case says:
September 14, 2009 at 5:17 pm (UTC -7 )
Hi, Tim:
I know of others who use primes, particularly the 85mm f1.4. But I like the flexibility of zooms, so stick with those.
When I was shooting volleyball, it was actually against the rules to use speedlights. So while they’re great for freezing action, I wasn’t able to actually make use of them. So fast lenses and high ISOs was the rule of the day. I use a pair of Nikon speedlights in my product shoots, coupled with reflective umbrellas (an SB-900 and an SB-800). Commander mode is terrific; I just could never use them for shooting volleyball.
Here’s a link to some of my volleyball shots:
California State Championships last year:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casehouse/sets/72157610820528929/
California Central Coast Section Championships:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casehouse/sets/72157609913998324/
Jon Lusty says:
September 18, 2009 at 6:37 pm (UTC -7 )
Loyd,
Thank you much for this write-up on the D300s. I’ve had a D50 since it first came out and its been an excellent cam for me these past 4 years or so. However, I’m wanting to move up from 6MP (to allow for larger prints) and D-Lighting has appeal as well. Your impressions come at just the right time for me, right when I was trying to decide D300s or D90. I’m going with the D300s for the extra flexibility.
Hope all is going well with you post-ET. Seems you’ve landed on your feet! I think you should guest on This Week in Photography sometime. You’d fit right in with that confab, me thinks.
Jon in Minnesota
Loyd Case says:
September 18, 2009 at 7:08 pm (UTC -7 )
The one thing you should know is that the D300 has none of automated settings that your D50 has. No “sports” or “portrait” modes, for example. There is a program mode, for quick shots. But you’ll need to set up individual groups of settings (called custom banks) for your favorite scenarios.
So the learning curve is steeper, but the rewards are greater.
One other note: it’s hard to quantify, but once you climb a little of that learning curve, the 51-point metering is much more usable than the 11-points in the D90. The more granular points, combined with center-weighted or spot metering, give you tremendous control over lighting (though matrix metering can be very useful, too.)